Who Is The World's Most Popular Athlete ?

TMF

Talk Tennis Guru
According to Google Trend data, Federer is the second most popular athlete in the world.

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Average Interest Over Time: averages the total number of searches performed via Google over a given time period of time.





While Cristiano has the highest average number of searches via Google, keep in mind that soccer is the world's most popular sport and has an estimated 3.5 billions fans which is 2.5 billions more than tennis. Despite tennis being less visible than soccer globally, it's remarkable that Federer is only slightly behind Cristiano.

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For top list of the of most popular athletes in each of the 10 sports, visit here.
 
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Bobby Jr

G.O.A.T.
The stats on sport popularity need to be taken with a grain of salt. Field hockey for example is a very minor sport in the vast majority of the world - it just happens to be big in a country with a massive population so the result are massively skewed.
 

The_Mental_Giant

Hall of Fame
Completly useless list.. Tiger woods is not more popular than lionel messi, not even close...

Messi is for sure top 2 and above federe by a wide margin..

It seems like an study made by americans LOL

GO anywhere else outside the western world and they are far more likely to know messi than federer. Even in little indian village everybody know messi and wear shirts of Barca, tennis is non-existant in comparison, no matter its federer or nadal.
 
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jg153040

G.O.A.T.
Completly useless list.. Tiger woods is not more popular than lionel messi, not even close...

Messi is for sure top 2 and above federe by a wide margin..

It seems like an study made by americans LOL

GO anywhere else outside the western world and they are far more likely to know messi than federer. Even in little indian village everybody know messi and wear shirts of Barca, tennis is non-existant in comparison, no matter its federer or nadal.

But Europe is very small. Majority of population is Chinese and Indian.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
Those sports fan numbers are so off it's laughable. Almost half of the humans on the planet are soccer fans :lol:
 

encylopedia

Professional
I agree with everyone else - the numbers are completely implausible. In addition, these kinds of very simple stats are often not very valid - the extrapolation to "popularity" is extremely tenuous and the possible flaws are...innumerable.

As an example,stars in an individual sport like tennis will always skew higher of course....people are more likely to search for the name of an individual player than fans of team sports - many of their searches will be for the team/city. In addition, tennis fans are more likely to search for Federer/Nadal, whether they are fans or not, because they are top players who often play important matches - so people searching for tennis news, or results will often search for them.

In addition, the multitude of events in the tennis calender - some might say an essentially unending season, would lend itself to more searches.

Federer's age would also tend to favor him - he's been around...a LONG time....people know him, and therefore might search for him more when looking for results - but that doesn't mean they particularly like him.

That's just a few of many flaws inherent in this premise - I could go on and on....I"m sure most of you could.

It's good to see tennis doing well in searches, but one would be a fool to take this as a valid measure.
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
Half of the earth's population is NOT into soccer. You didn't get my phrasing.

Yes they are:

Approximated number of Soccer fans: 3.5 billion

Regional popularity: Europe, Africa, Asia, America

If you don't agree with this study, propose a better study. So, what study do you have that refutes this?
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
Yes they are:

Approximated number of Soccer fans: 3.5 billion

Regional popularity: Europe, Africa, Asia, America

If you don't agree with this study, propose a better study. So, what study do you have that refutes this?

Hey Mr. arguing for the sake of an argument..... One out of every two people on the planet isn't a soccer fan, no study is needed to come to that conclusion.
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
I agree with everyone else - the numbers are completely implausible. In addition, these kinds of very simple stats are often not very valid - the extrapolation to "popularity" is extremely tenuous and the possible flaws are...innumerable.

As an example,stars in an individual sport like tennis will always skew higher of course....people are more likely to search for the name of an individual player than fans of team sports - many of their searches will be for the team/city. In addition, tennis fans are more likely to search for Federer/Nadal, whether they are fans or not, because they are top players who often play important matches - so people searching for tennis news, or results will often search for them.

In addition, the multitude of events in the tennis calender - some might say an essentially unending season, would lend itself to more searches.

Federer's age would also tend to favor him - he's been around...a LONG time....people know him, and therefore might search for him more when looking for results - but that doesn't mean they particularly like him.

That's just a few of many flaws inherent in this premise - I could go on and on....I"m sure most of you could.

It's good to see tennis doing well in searches, but one would be a fool to take this as a valid measure.

But Soccer didn't come on top based only on this study. Several independent studies confirmed this and they weren't all based on google.

But, I challenge you to give me a study that refutes soccer is nr.1. You can't just dismiss the evidence without showing better evidence.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
But Soccer didn't come on top based only on this study. Several independent studies confirmed this and they weren't all based on google.

But, I challenge you to give me a study that refutes soccer is nr.1. You can't just dismiss the evidence without showing better evidence.

Soccer is the most popular sport on the earth, no one is disputing that. But half of the world's population doesn't even watch TV, much less is one out of every 2 people on the planet (including babies, etc) soccer fans :lol: there's only 7 billion people on the planet, crazy.
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
Hey Mr. arguing for the sake of an argument..... One out of every two people on the planet isn't a soccer fan, no study is needed to come to that conclusion.

I don't argue for the sake of the argument. What is the evidence that I argue for the sake of the argument?
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
Soccer is the most popular sport on the earth, no one is disputing that. But half of the world's population doesn't even watch TV, much less is one out of every 2 people on the planet (including babies, etc) soccer fans :lol: there's only 7 billion people on the planet, crazy.

How many babies are there in the world? And when does a child start to watch TV?
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
How many babies are there in the world? And when does a child start to watch TV?

You're so wrong it's not even worth it :lol: if you think that literally half of the humans on this earth live in civilized nations, have electricity, watch tv AND consider themselves a soccer fan, I'll make more popcorn.
 

octobrina10

Talk Tennis Guru
According to Google Trend data, Federer is the second most popular athlete in the world...

According to me, I use Google when I have to reply to the crap written here.
It doesn't show that Fed is popular, it shows the amount of crap.
 

Bartelby

Bionic Poster
Nadal attracts a lot of undesirables as fans: very adolescent crowd prone to engage in nasty cyberbullying.

.
 
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octobrina10

Talk Tennis Guru
Cristiano Ronaldo is the World's most popular athlete, according to Facebook and Twitter (= fans):

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Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the World's most popular athlete, watched Rafa's match in Madrid on Thursday:
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Bartelby

Bionic Poster
Ronaldo - Spanish

Nadal - Spanish

Madrid - Spanish

One of the world's most spoken languages - Spanish
 

Poisoned Slice

Bionic Poster
Ronaldo being better looking than Messi = more clicks, more fans. Their skills on the pitch might be similar, but Messi can't compete in the looks department.
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
You're so wrong it's not even worth it :lol: if you think that literally half of the humans on this earth live in civilized nations, have electricity, watch tv AND consider themselves a soccer fan, I'll make more popcorn.

Yes, half of humans have electricity. Also, you don't have to have it at your home to be a soccer fan. That logic isn't sound.

One village can own just one TV and everyone watches it there. This was usually when TV wasn't big. 1 school had TV and people watched it there.

Also, you are just making stuff up, only quarter of populations lives without access to electricity.

So, it is quite reasonable to assume half of population are interested in soccer.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
Yes, half of humans have electricity. Also, you don't have to have it at your home to be a soccer fan. That logic isn't sound.

One village can own just one TV and everyone watches it there. This was usually when TV wasn't big. 1 school had TV and people watched it there.

Also, you are just making stuff up, only quarter of populations lives without access to electricity.

So, it is quite reasonable to assume half of population are interested in soccer.

The male to female ratio on earth is close to 50/50. You're basically saying the equivalent of "every male on the planet is a soccer fan". If you believe that then carry on.

morgan-freeman-o.gif
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
The male to female ratio on earth is close to 50/50. You're basically saying the equivalent of "every male on the planet is a soccer fan". If you believe that then carry on.

morgan-freeman-o.gif

Well, soccer is big in the world. If we assume everyone lives in civilized areas and are grown ups, that number would be probably 100%.

But, we take away quarter of population not having electricity, then babies, then some women, then you are left with half.

Are you saying half of population doesn't know who Obama is?

Ok, then what is your estimation and point me to studies that agree with you!

But, yeah, I annoy everybody with wanting to see evidence and good reasoning :). People hate it that I'm not naive just adopting some beliefs.
 
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encylopedia

Professional
But Soccer didn't come on top based only on this study. Several independent studies confirmed this and they weren't all based on google.

But, I challenge you to give me a study that refutes soccer is nr.1. You can't just dismiss the evidence without showing better evidence.

.....WHAT...THE.....

I did not say a word about soccer in my post, nor do I dispute that soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

What's wrong with you?

PS. I shouldn't be suprised at your irrational behavior - your advocacy that HALF the worlds population are soccer fans indicates your questionable mentality.
 

jg153040

G.O.A.T.
.....WHAT...THE.....

I did not say a word about soccer in my post, nor do I dispute that soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

What's wrong with you?

PS. I shouldn't be suprised at your irrational behavior - your advocacy that HALF the worlds population are soccer fans indicates your questionable mentality.

Ok, I'm ready to listen. Point me to studies that say a lot less than half of the world are soccer fans.

Give me some evidence, not just guessing with your reasoning.

Sorry by not accepting faith = evidence. Yeah, this evidence and proof thing is annoying, isn't it?
 
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encylopedia

Professional
Ok, I'm ready to listen. Point me to studies that say a lot less than half of the world are soccer fans.

Give me some evidence, not just guessing with your reasoning.

You really are a flaming dolt aren't you? I said NOTHING about soccer, then you reply with a post entirely about soccer (nice apology - or at least admission you made a nonsensical reply - you either have severe comprehension problems or you simply made a mistake replying to the wrong post), and now you expect me to argue with you about it?

For the record: I know of no properly vetted academic literature which shows any estimation of worldwide soccer fans - no support for any number. If you had half a brain, you'd recognize that your belief is just as unsupported by that standard as MichaelNadal's (your primary opponent) stance. You're the guy who just claimed that eliminating babies, some women, and those without electricity that 100% of the remainder are soccer fans! LOL I can only hope you are just playing idiot to troll people.

However, I know you won't understand a word of this post. I really do not have time ...nor any interest in....either soccer or arguing with the mentally challenged.

Have fun! If you're not trolling, you will fail in life! LOL
 
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