Cristiano Ronaldo Named The Most Famous Athlete Of 2019

At the start of 2019, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first person on the planet to reach 150 million followers on Instagram, beating both Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande to the 'world's most followed account' landmark.

Instagram is thought to have around one billion users, which means that around 15% of users follow the five times Champions League winner. Crazy when you think about it, huh?

So, it comes as no surprise that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has been named the most famous athlete of 2019, ahead of the likes of LeBron James and Conor McGregor, among other notable names.

ESPN have ranked the top 100 most famous and to find these athletes, they started with 600 of the biggest names in sports, drawn from 68 countries.

ESPN's Sports Analytics Group then ranked them based on a proprietary formula that took into account three fame factors, according to their official website.

Search Score measures how often a name is searched on Google, using Cristiano Ronaldo's score of 100 as a baseline, then endorsement dollars and social media followers are also calculated thoroughly.

So who makes the top 20 based on all of the above factors?

20. Novak Djokovic
Endorsements: $22million
Search score: 21
Social media following: 8.5million

19. Mesut Ozil
Endorsements: $6.5million
Search score: 15
Social media following: 30.9million

18. Yuvraj Singh
Endorsements: $31million
Search score: 1
Social media following: 14.5million

17. Serena Williams
Endorsements: $18.11million
Search score: 37
Social media following: 10.8million

16. Antoine Griezmann
Endorsements: $23million
Search score: 20
Social media following: 22.6million

15. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Endorsements: $3.9million
Search score: 100
Social media following: 13.4million

14. Kylian Mbappe
Endorsements: $18.87million
Search score: 32
Social media following: 23.5million

13. MS Dhoni
Endorsements: $28million
Search score: 5
Social media following: 20.5million

12. Paul Pogba
Endorsements: $32million
Search score: 15
Social media following: 30.7million

11. Kevin Durant
Endorsements: $32million
Search score: 9
Social media following: 17.4million

10. Tiger Woods
Endorsements: $42million
Search score: 20
Social media following: 6.4million

9. Stephen Curry
Endorsements: $42million
Search score: 12
Social media following: 23million

8. Rafael Nadal
Endorsements: $29.3million
Search score: 40
Social media following: 15.6million

7. Virat Kohli
Endorsements: $20million
Search score: 25
Social media following: 37.1million

6. Roger Federer
Endorsements: $41.5million
Search score: 23
Social media following: 14.5million

5. Conor McGregor
Endorsements: $15million
Search score: 100
Social media following: 29.7million

4. Neymar
Endorsements: $19million
Search score: 55
Social media following: 107.2million

3. Lionel Messi
Endorsements: $28million
Search score: 54
Social media following: 103.1million

2. LeBron James
Endorsements: $52million
Search score: 47
Social media following: 45.3million

1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Endorsements: $37million
Search score: 100
Social media following: 148million

If you want to check out the Top 100 nominees, check it out here.

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Topics: Football News, Basketball, ESPN, Football, Messi, Ronaldo, NBA, Sports

Jack Kenmare

Jack Kenmare is a writer at SPORTbible. He's interviewed some of the biggest names in sport, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pele, Carles Puyol and Tim Henman. He dabbles in all things sport but football is his biggest passion. He was once hit in the head by a wayward strike from Nicky Butt and lived to tell the tale.

@jackkenmare_