Who is the biggest global icon?

[OOO]

I'll be honest. I didn't know who the hell Messi was before this thread. Don't care for him either. My vote goes to Bean.

[Jimmy Recard]

So much fail in this thread. People actually think Kobe is more well known around the world than Messi, Ronaldo, Tiger, Bolt and Federer? Clueless posters

[truth serum]

Shumpert

[Brovva Blaqq]

Messi AINEC!

Self centered americans make that vote a joke. Sry guise, but thats the truth.

[Mamba Venom]

Asia's population (4,100,000,000) is larger than Europes (739,000,000) and Asia is going with Kobe. Kobe also gets it for North America.

Kobe in a landslide.

[Chocobanana]

Asia's population (4,100,000,000) is larger than Europes (739,000,000) and Asia is going with Kobe. Kobe also gets it for North America.

Kobe in a landslide.

I'm pretty sure basketball is only kind of popular in China and really popular in the Philippines, so saying that Asia is going with Kobe is wrong. I'm think soccer is more popular than basketball in Asia.

[Andre3822]

Messi... 3x world best player in a ROW
He also turned 25 a couple of months ago and has a long career ahead of him barring any injury.
He is on pace to break loads of records, winning more CL's, becoming top scorer of CL etc.

The only thing he really needs to cement his 1# overall of all time without any doubts whatsoever, is to win the World Cup.
But good luck doing that in Argentina.

[Mr Grant Hill]

Asia's population (4,100,000,000) is larger than Europes (739,000,000) and Asia is going with Kobe. Kobe also gets it for North America.

Kobe in a landslide.

I'm pretty sure basketball is only kind of popular in China and really popular in the Philippines, so saying that Asia is going with Kobe is wrong. I'm pretty sure that soccer is more popular than basketball in Asia.

And who tells us that Kobe is bigger in China than Messi? Funny that people on here act as if they were masterminds of global marketing.
This is basically a thread about patriotism, vanity and cluelessness.
People even admit that they don't know who Messi is.

[twomangame]

So much fail in this thread. People actually think Kobe is more well known around the world than Messi, Ronaldo, Tiger, Bolt and Federer? Clueless posters

lol so true. Probably close to half of the world are fans of association football.
And arguably, the World Cup is a bigger sporting event than the Olympics.

Messi or Ronaldo should be owning this poll. And I prefer basketball 100x more than football.

[Captain_Obvious]

Messi... 3x world best player in a ROW
He also turned 25 a couple of months ago and has a long career ahead of him barring any injury.
He is on pace to break loads of records, winning more CL's, becoming top scorer of CL etc.

The only thing he really needs to cement his 1# overall of all time without any doubts whatsoever, is to win the World Cup.
But good luck doing that in Argentina.

Lets not get too far here. This player of the year crap started not too long ago. Argentina is a loaded team. He is not even the greatest player of all time in his country.

[EArl]

Messi Ronaldo and then Kobe!

[Elj4y]

Being from China, Kobe is certainly a big icon, but that's really only with the younger generation (males in particular), as well as in urban centers. The vast majority of Chinese don't live in media-recognizable cities like Shanghai/Beijing/Taiwan/etc., so people here shouldn't be so ignorant as to equate some YouTube clips with the reality of the country. Most of China is still in smaller cities, rural areas, and the like.

I'd still argue that guys like Messi would be more renowned than Kobe (but it's not like an order of magnitude difference or anything).

[Brovva Blaqq]

Messi Ronaldo and then Kobe!

All you Kobe homers should gtfo. Kobe isnt even in the top 5... dayum.

[MartyConlonJr]

Your wife doesn't know who Messi is so it can't be him?

Pretty much. She represents the typical woman who has no interest in sports whatsoever. I know a lot of women who have a similar level of interest in sports and would have no idea who he is. When you are talking global icons, you need to satisfy the large portion of people that don't watch or watch very little sport.

I could guarantee everyone I know could pick Tiger Woods out, and still will in 10 years. Messi, failed 2/2 just in my household.

[Brovva Blaqq]

Pretty obvious why women would know who Tiger Woods is.

[Foye]

Tiger Woods might be known but certainly not the most popular icon. Seriously, who cares about golf?

Kobe Bryant certainly isn't it. Basketball is not popular enough.

Most popular is Lionel Messi and it's not even close. Most known is probably Usain Bolt.

That Mayweather and Pacquiao are on this list is a complete joke, too.
I could ask 100 people here in Germany and maybe 2 or 3 would know them.
In fact, other than Dirk Nowitzki most people hardly know any NBA player. I bet 80% of the women here don't know Kobe Bryant.

[MartyConlonJr]

I figure if you polled a bunch of people and asked them to name the greatest:

basketball player
boxer
golfer
soccer player
runner
tennis player
baseballer

For basketball and boxing, almost everyone would say Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali. These guys transcended sports

For Golf you'd probably get Jack Nicklaus from older people who knew the sport a bit, and Tiger Woods from everyone else.

For running you'd probably get most people picking Usain Bolt or Michael Johnson, some older people Carl Lewis.

For soccer you'd get Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Beckham (unfairly, but so what) and I guess Messi (who I'd never heard of)

For Tennis you'd get Agassi, Federer, McEnroe, Sampras, Nadal

For baseball you'd get Babe Ruth in the US, but most other countries, from the general population you'd get a blank stare.

From the list given, Tiger Woods is not only the most universally known, but he stands out more as a guy that will still be remembered in the future

[MartyConlonJr]

Tiger Woods might be known but certainly not the most popular icon. Seriously, who cares about golf?

Here are the top 50 earners last year. Tiger Woods came in 3rd behind the two boxers that just had so much in earnings that they shattered it. Tiger Woods is there because Nike pays him $55 million in endorsements (more than anyone on the list). Of the Top 50, only one guy (#31) had less in salary/earnings. That is how much of a global icon he is. Messi is sitting behind Ronaldo and Beckham in the soccer ranks.

http://www.therichest.org/sports/forbes ... -athletes/

Keep in mind this is the disgraced and embarrassed Tiger Woods who has had sponsors drop him after his incidents. And he is STILL the highest endorsed athlete in the world. That is how much of an icon he is/was

losing out Tiger Woods who has been hailed by Forbes as the highest earning athlete from 2001-2011.

[WhateverBro]

It's obviously Messi. Although I'm guessing Ronaldo isn't far behind, aside from being wildly popular right now, many people might actually recognize his name from the original Ronaldo and confuse the two.

But yeah, Messi is pretty much a world-wide phenomenon.

[sunskerr]

It's definitely Messi. Everywhere you go, maybe they don't know Lebron or Kobe...but they know Messi.

Then there is Federer, Woods, Bolt etc.