Football
Cristiano heads ESPN list of top 100 most famous athletes of 2019
Juventus' Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo is the most famous sportsperson on the planet, according to the ranking announced by ESPN.
Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is the most famous sportsman on the planet, according to the ranking announced on Friday by the ESPN network.
Ronaldo tops the list ahead of NBA and LA Lakers player LeBron James (2nd) and Barcelona's Argentine striker Lionel Messi (3rd).
ESPN devised their own formula to rank athletes, taking into account three factors: their search score, endorsement figure and social media following with search score being measured on how often their name was searched in Google.
Paris Saint-Germain striker Neymar is fourth, just ahead of Swiss tennis veteran Roger Federer.
Only three women feature in the ranking: tennis players, Serena Williams (17th), Maria Sharapova (37th) and Sania Mirza (93rd).
Football clearly dominates the "World Fame 100" listing with eleven cricketers from the Indian subcontinent featured and even one star from the world of E-Sport, Ninja (41).
American football player Colin Kaepernick, who has not played in the NFL since 2017, is 57th with the former 49ers player coming to fame after his "taking the kneel" protest in 2016.