Who is the biggest global icon?

[pross]

Hey bud, only dailymail.co.uk is reporting that, and they're pretty much a British tabloid paper. They don't even say how they got that ridiculous number.

The opening ceremony only had an estimated viewership of 900 million people. Lmfao at 2 billion people.

Most reports have it over the billion which is more than any other sporting event could even dream of.

I'm from Australia and was sailing around Croatia and managed to watch it in a small restaurant and everyone stopped eating just to see him run. The locals were going crazy for him, it was like nothing I've ever seen. Now let's switch this for a game 7 NBA finals match, I can guarantee A. No one would care if it was on and B. less than 10% of those people would know who the eff Kobe Bryant is.

This is not just Croatia by the way. I was in a sports bar in Spain for the gold medal game between USA and Spain and most people were watching English Premier League compared to bball.

Why are you comparing it to NBA viewership? I've never even tried to make the claim that any basketball game would have more viewers than an Olympic event.

I am however saying that the World Cup final match regularly gets over a billion viewers. Also, did you ever take into consideration that the fact that Bolt was competing at the Olympics could have contributed to the viewership? Bolt also races at the IAAF World Championship and his races there don't receive global audiences in the billions. How many of you have actually watched Bolt race at a non-Olympic event?

El Clasico, a match played between Barcelona (Messi's team) and Real Madrid (Ronaldo's team) regularly reaches global audiences that near a billion viewers. In fact one of the matches went over a billion viewers last season. This wasn't a Champions League final, simply a game in the middle of the Spanish league season.

I'm not trying to belittle Usain Bolt, but Messi is clearly the biggest sports icon in the world.

Why would viewship not contribute to how well a person is known in the world? The more a person is seen, the more recognizable he'd be. What does a non-olympic event have to do with anything? Nothing. He's been seen at the Olympics in the most watched event in the last 2 Olympics running and has been has won both times.

After travelling the world whilst the Olympics were on and being in a random small Croatian town at the time of the race where EVERYONE was cheering for Bolt I can honestly say that he has to be the most recognizable face.

To be honest, I think sporting events like the Olympics gets more "regular" people who aren't as interested in sports watching so the cross over his higher. So not only do pretty much all sports fans know who Bolt is, but more regular people like my mum and sisters do whilst they don't know who Messi is. They may watch the final of the World Cup, but that's a team event and may not even feature Messi in it (hasn't so far).

In saying all that, I think Messi is top 3

[Dragic13]

Here is my opinion on Bolt and Messi viewership...

Messi you watch year round. And hes always in the news. He is always playing soccer and people tune in.

Bolt you dont tune in to watch him run year round....You never hear of Bolt.... He is a ghost until the olympics come.

You watch Bolt run in the olympics and he is popular for like 3 months....and then everyone forgets and no1 cares about running. Four years later we may peak interest again....

I bet in the 4 years Messi plays soccer (every year) he has 100x the amount of viewership as bolt does during his short time in the olympics every 4 years.

[maxpower88]

Most reports have it over the billion which is more than any other sporting event could even dream of.

I'm from Australia and was sailing around Croatia and managed to watch it in a small restaurant and everyone stopped eating just to see him run. The locals were going crazy for him, it was like nothing I've ever seen. Now let's switch this for a game 7 NBA finals match, I can guarantee A. No one would care if it was on and B. less than 10% of those people would know who the eff Kobe Bryant is.

This is not just Croatia by the way. I was in a sports bar in Spain for the gold medal game between USA and Spain and most people were watching English Premier League compared to bball.

Why are you comparing it to NBA viewership? I've never even tried to make the claim that any basketball game would have more viewers than an Olympic event.

I am however saying that the World Cup final match regularly gets over a billion viewers. Also, did you ever take into consideration that the fact that Bolt was competing at the Olympics could have contributed to the viewership? Bolt also races at the IAAF World Championship and his races there don't receive global audiences in the billions. How many of you have actually watched Bolt race at a non-Olympic event?

El Clasico, a match played between Barcelona (Messi's team) and Real Madrid (Ronaldo's team) regularly reaches global audiences that near a billion viewers. In fact one of the matches went over a billion viewers last season. This wasn't a Champions League final, simply a game in the middle of the Spanish league season.

I'm not trying to belittle Usain Bolt, but Messi is clearly the biggest sports icon in the world.

Why would viewship not contribute to how well a person is known in the world? The more a person is seen, the more recognizable he'd be. What does a non-olympic event have to do with anything? Nothing. He's been seen at the Olympics in the most watched event in the last 2 Olympics running and has been has won both times.

After travelling the world whilst the Olympics were on and being in a random small Croatian town at the time of the race where EVERYONE was cheering for Bolt I can honestly say that he has to be the most recognizable face.

To be honest, I think sporting events like the Olympics gets more "regular" people who aren't as interested in sports watching so the cross over his higher. So not only do pretty much all sports fans know who Bolt is, but more regular people like my mum and sisters do whilst they don't know who Messi is. They may watch the final of the World Cup, but that's a team event and may not even feature Messi in it (hasn't so far).

In saying all that, I think Messi is top 3

My whole point is that most people who watch Bolt watch him once every four years whereas with Messi it's year round every single year.

Like I said before, how many of you have watched Bolt's non-Olympic races?

[Ditchweed]

I really hate to keep this thread going but I just wanted to let posters in on the following:

There was a 10 year old girl at the school where my wife works who was waiting with my wife until her ride for home showed up. The girl is from Europe and has been here about one to two years. I tried an experiment.

I asked her:

Me: "Do you know who Lionel Messi is?"
Her: "Yes, he plays for FC Barcelona"
Me: "Is it FC or Real Madrid?"
Her: "No, it is FC Barcelona." (correct)
Me: "Have you ever heard of Kobe Bryant?"
Her" "No, never heard of him."

[kamelion4291]

I really hate to keep this thread going but I just wanted to let posters in on the following:

There was a 10 year old girl at the school where my wife works who was waiting with my wife until her ride for home showed up. The girl is from Europe and has been here about one to two years. I tried an experiment.

I asked her:

Me: "Do you know who Lionel Messi is?"
Her: "Yes, he plays for FC Barcelona"
Me: "Is it FC or Real Madrid?"
Her: "No, it is FC Barcelona." (correct)
Me: "Have you ever heard of Kobe Bryant?"
Her" "No, never heard of him."

And that little girl would know who David Beckham was too, as well as millions of other people who have no idea who Messi is.

[HurricaneKid]

Anyone that thinks its Kobe needs to travel farther than the corner store. The NBA Finals gets anywhere from 5-10M households domestically. Thats pretty close to what the WORLD CUP came up with here. In fact, the WC Final gets upwards of 1B people if Fifa is to believed. It is AT LEAST > than the US has PEOPLE though.

And even normal T&F events in Europe are more popular than NBA.

I cannot believe some of you actually think this way.

[HurricaneKid]

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafac ... v_2658.pdf

26BILLION+ views of combined World Cup games in 2010.

If you took the viewership of every NBA game ever played and added it up it would not be close to this number.

We are talking about orders of magnitude difference.

[Ditchweed]

I really hate to keep this thread going but I just wanted to let posters in on the following:

There was a 10 year old girl at the school where my wife works who was waiting with my wife until her ride for home showed up. The girl is from Europe and has been here about one to two years. I tried an experiment.

I asked her:

Me: "Do you know who Lionel Messi is?"
Her: "Yes, he plays for FC Barcelona"
Me: "Is it FC or Real Madrid?"
Her: "No, it is FC Barcelona." (correct)
Me: "Have you ever heard of Kobe Bryant?"
Her" "No, never heard of him."

And that little girl would know who David Beckham was too, as well as millions of other people who have no idea who Messi is.

That is merely speculation on your part and I am not going to subject her to more questions.

You have to understand and accept the simplicity of her answers. She said what she said and that is all what she said. Do not try and extrapolate it into something that you may want to twist into something that you want to believe.

[Cleveland Cavs]

I really hate to keep this thread going but I just wanted to let posters in on the following:

There was a 10 year old girl at the school where my wife works who was waiting with my wife until her ride for home showed up. The girl is from Europe and has been here about one to two years. I tried an experiment.

I asked her:

Me: "Do you know who Lionel Messi is?"
Her: "Yes, he plays for FC Barcelona"
Me: "Is it FC or Real Madrid?"
Her: "No, it is FC Barcelona." (correct)
Me: "Have you ever heard of Kobe Bryant?"
Her" "No, never heard of him."

And that little girl would know who David Beckham was too, as well as millions of other people who have no idea who Messi is.

That is merely speculation on your part and I am not going to subject her to more questions.

You have to understand and accept the simplicity of her answers. She said what she said and that is all what she said. Do not try and extrapolate it into something that you may want to twist into something that you want to believe.

David Beckham never was close to being the best player ever, Messi might be the GOAT when he retires.

[Alex_De_Large]

In Asia everyone knows atleast 3 soccer player names.

[Cleveland Cavs]

In Asia everyone knows atleast 3 soccer player names.

Simply because Football is the most spectated sport in Asia.
Football is bigger then Basketball in China

[Ettorefm]

Just say Ronaldo in any country in the world and they'll say they know him. And I mean the real Ronaldo, not Cristiano Ronaldo
.
Football is just on another level. I'm a brazilian and I like basketball more than football, but it's absurd to even compare.

[Alex_De_Large]

Yes, same here, i'm from Spain and i hate what is happening with European soccer (extreme capitalism) but soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

[bballcool34]

I think Tiger Woods is the most balanced choice, he's at least known in most parts of the world. Messi isn't even on celebrity level here in North America.

I think Tiger is clearly the greatest sports icon in the US since Jordan, but golf is about the least accessible major sport in the world. Poor kids in 3rd world countries are not dreaming of being Tiger, but they are dreaming of being Messi, or Pacquiao, or Kobe for that matter.

Pacquiao doesn't touch Messi-- not in most third world countries, certainly not in India, definitely not in Europe or South America either, that's not debatable.

[624]

In the US more people know Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/Beckham than Messi.

[KDgoat]

In the US more people know Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/Beckham than Messi.

That's because in the US, they know jack **** about football. Americans are anything but representative when it comes to gauging the popularity of global football stars.

There's only one country where football isn't at least a top 3 sport, and it's the US. Why? Because you guys have an attention span that reaches just about to the next commercial break, as opposed to 45 minutes without one. Not meant to be an insult, television and advertising gurus have conditioned you to be like this.

[Stills12]

There's only one country where football isn't at least a top 3 sport, and it's the US.

Australia:
1. Aussie Rules
2. Rugby League
3. Cricket
4. Rugby Union...

Btw Beckham, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo are also more known than Messi in the sub continent. And the population of that region is close to 2 Billion...

[kamelion4291]

In the US more people know Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/Beckham than Messi.

That's because in the US, they know jack **** about football. Americans are anything but representative when it comes to gauging the popularity of global football stars.

There's only one country where football isn't at least a top 3 sport, and it's the US. Why? Because you guys have an attention span that reaches just about to the next commercial break, as opposed to 45 minutes without one. Not meant to be an insult, television and advertising gurus have conditioned you to be like this.

Or we just have higher standards for entertainment. Shrug. If you enjoy watching a game where literally nothing happens for most of 60 minutes, that's on you. You can talk about how great the game is, but when something ends in a 0-0 tie, you can't honestly sit there and talk about how great it is without me rolling my eyes.

[624]

In the US more people know Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/Beckham than Messi.

That's because in the US, they know jack **** about football. Americans are anything but representative when it comes to gauging the popularity of global football stars.

There's only one country where football isn't at least a top 3 sport, and it's the US. Why? Because you guys have an attention span that reaches just about to the next commercial break, as opposed to 45 minutes without one. Not meant to be an insult, television and advertising gurus have conditioned you to be like this.

It's not the general population's fault, it's the way soccer is marketed towards us. When ESPN spends hours and hours a day on NFL coverage and then shows a 2 minute segment on soccer highlights, what do you expect?

I am a fan of soccer (and basketball and football, not baseball or hockey) and live in the US, but most people aren't. Nothing wrong with that, just a different opinion.


If other countries had NFL, who knows what other countries' general opinions would be.

[624]

In the US more people know Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/Beckham than Messi.

That's because in the US, they know jack **** about football. Americans are anything but representative when it comes to gauging the popularity of global football stars.

There's only one country where football isn't at least a top 3 sport, and it's the US. Why? Because you guys have an attention span that reaches just about to the next commercial break, as opposed to 45 minutes without one. Not meant to be an insult, television and advertising gurus have conditioned you to be like this.

Or we just have higher standards for entertainment. Shrug. If you enjoy watching a game where literally nothing happens for most of 60 minutes, that's on you. You can talk about how great the game is, but when something ends in a 0-0 tie, you can't honestly sit there and talk about how great it is without me rolling my eyes.

It's comments like this that give the US a bad name.

Nothing hapens for 60 minutes? ...lol, you've obviously never played soccer