This year’s ESPN World Fame 100 list, an annual list of the most famous athletes on the planet comprises of Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo who topped the list, followed by former Basketball player Lebron James and FC Barcelona captain Lionel Messi.
As far as Indian sports stars are concerned, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni were amongst the eight Indian cricketers who found a place in the list.
Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, stands on the seventh position and is the only Indian in the top 10 list, whereas Dhoni is placed on the 13th position.
Interestingly, all Indian men mentioned in this list are from the cricketing fraternity, including Yuvraj Singh (18), Suresh Raina (22), Ravichandran Ashwin (42), Rohit Sharma (46), Harbhajan Singh (74) and Shikhar Dhawan (94).
This list was prepared after looking at three aspects, namely- Search Score, Endorsements and Social Following.
No athlete was able to sway the top three contenders, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lebron James and Lionel Messi, as their rank has not changed from the previous year’s rankings.
However, this time Kohli has made to the top 10 jumping from last year’s 11th position to a 7th position finish.
There are only three women in the list- Serena Williams (17), Maria Sharapova (37) and Sania Mirza (93); making Sania Mirza the only Indian woman athlete to feature in the list.
The list of top 10 athletes comprises of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lebron James, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Conor McGregor, Roger Federer, Virat Kohli, Rafael Nadal, Stephen Curry, Tiger Woods.
Source: Zee News