top 10 athletes of all time
Bob Beamon. 1 player in the world in the final. Irving, 25, has written, directed and starred in a number of Pepsi's longer "Uncle Drew" commercials, and there are plans for him to play the character in a full-length movie. Manning is part of the first family of NFL quarterbacking, the aww-shucks son of Archie and little brother to Peyton. He looks directly at you, says, 'Thank you,' stops to talk, makes you feel that it's no chore for him." 1. He has told reporters he found his first golf club in a garbage heap and that his family had to heat water in a kettle for showers because there was no working hot water tank. So when the Super Kings were suspended in 2016 and the Lions tabbed Raina to lead them, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, signing a $2 million deal. -- Dotun Akintoye, "Every time he touches the ball, the ball smiles." Bo Jackson - American football and baseball 15). -- Mickelson, after finishing second at The Open last year at age 46. I've never seen anything like it." While these kinds of lists can often provoke . -- Ian Chadband, "You'll only truly appreciate Rooney when he's retired. (You can find the 2016 World Fame 100 here.) At age 21 in 2010, he became the youngest American to compete in the Ryder Cup. -- Drogba, on choosing to help Phoenix Rising secure an expansion spot in the top U.S. league. And seemingly shrugging off the pressure, the do-it-all point guard became the NBA Rookie of the Year, the Bulls' first All-Star since Michael Jordan and league MVP -- all in his first three seasons. They suck." He played for Duke, was the No. I was talking to some basketball people the other night, and I said, 'I don't think any of these guards can beat him in a one-on-one game.' -- Elaine Teng, "Muscles don't grow on me. If you can't count on your physical attributes, you have to switch on your brain and make certain runs to avoid getting tackled." In the era of Tiger Woods and with 11 runner-up finishes in majors, that tends to be both overlooked and underrated. That technique has worked out pretty well, with Scott going on to become the first Australian to win a Masters -- after a thrilling playoff duel against Angel Cabrera in 2013 -- and the second Aussie to reach No. The epitome of an unsung hero, it's easy to see this gifted Swiss-born Croat as being some glorified water carrier in a Barcelona side gleaming with stars such as Messi, Suarez, Neymar and Iniesta. There is no declaration of love in Italy like having a pizza named after you, which is exactly what happened to Salah when he played in Florence. -- Ian Chadband, "You will retire me one day, but this kid will retire us both." In 2008, he was perhaps the first footballer to be given his own one-hour TV special. When you can come off the bench and achieve the frankly unreal feat of scoring five goals in nine minutes as Lewandowski did for Bayern Munich in a Bundesliga match against Wolfsburg, you know you're talking of somebody who's just a bit special. These athletes have strengthened the stature of sports among the all-around public. We're used to it, but it is a delight and a privilege to have the best player in the world in your team." Griffin soared to fame as a founding member of the Lob City dunking fraternity, with Clippers point guard Chris Paul throwing passes aloft and Griffin and teammate DeAndre Jordan slamming them home. Day has been a fixture in the top 10 since 2014, finishing the 2016 season as the world's top-ranked player. If Messi and Ronaldo are the best in the world -- in whatever order -- is it perhaps time to put Hazard, the breathtakingly quicksilver, slaloming Chelsea star, in the argument for the third man? After spending his first 13 NBA seasons in Miami, Wade signed a two-year contract last year with his hometown Bulls worth $47 million. 10-1 Football Teams SEC Alabama Arkansas Auburn Georgia Florida Tennessee Texas A&M ACC Clemson UNC Big Ten Iowa Michigan Michigan St.. He captured his first major championship at the 2016 U.S. Open, winning by three strokes despite a controversial one-stroke penalty. On a different kind of floor, Raisman appeared on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2013 and finished fourth. ", Zetao has many sponsorship deals, from Adidas and Skullcandy to FitBit China and De Beers China. The quarterback outsmarted astronaut Mark Kelly and "Shark Tank" regular Kevin O'Leary to earn a $50,000 donation to the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund. Michael Chang, who advises Nishikori, won a French Open but is an American of Chinese descent. When not golfing, he enjoys pursuing his other athletic passion -- surfing. The analysis includes five categories: endorsement money, Twitter followers, Instagram followers, Facebook followers and Google Trends score. -- Colleen Taylor, one of Federer's many devoted followers, on how he treats his fans, More: Federer is having too much fun to quit now. A student-athlete had to carry at least a . -- Ian Chadband, "He is the best young player in European football at the moment. Jackie Joyner Kersee. I'm just Bubba. -- Ian Chadband, "The kid is lightning; he can run through puddles and not make a splash." Total earnings adjusted for inflation (in millions): $555. -- Elaine Teng, "I think they [Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei] are irreplaceable, now or in future. -- Olivier van Lindonk, Nishikori's agent. He's out of this world. Top 20 Most Iconic Athletes In the History of sports 20). He got fame all over the world with his double sprint victory in the Beijing Olympics in the year 2008. In 2014, Wozniacki announced on Twitter that she and Rory McIlroy were engaged, but the pro golfer later broke off the relationship after wedding invitations had been mailed. -- Jorge Valdano, Argentinian World Cup winner and soccer sage. Jim Brown 2. -- Ian Chadband, "Like Andrea Pirlo, if Cesc doesn't run 100 meters in 10 seconds, I can allow him this, because he's a genius with the ball. Wozniacki is the only tennis player from Denmark, woman or man, to be ranked No. You could always count on him." I don't just want to be, 'He dresses cool' or 'He dresses crazy.' In December, fans voted Junior as NASCAR's most-popular driver for an incredible 14th straight year even though he was shelved for much of the 2016 season because of concussion symptoms. Melo has benefited from the publicity of playing in America's largest media market for the past six years, but he also has weathered years of the dysfunction that now epitomizes the Knicks franchise. -- Aishwarya Kumar, "Virat Kohli is a rare talent. -- John Obi Mikel, a former teammate. Nishikori has never won a Grand Slam, but he is the first native Asian to reach the men's singles final of one (the 2014 US Open) and the highest-ranked Japanese men's player in history, peaking at No. Zinedine Zidane (football) 42. I can never just be 'Hope Solo, the longtime goalkeeper for the national team.'" Scott is only a few years younger than Tiger Woods but has long been a fan of his swing, and he aimed to emulate that perfect motion. 43 of 50. They are good role models we young players should learn from." He came in at No. For example, players in a league with a salary cap would be at an unfair disadvantage when measured against players in uncapped leagues. Still only 28, McIlroy already has won four majors -- he's a Masters shy of a career Grand Slam -- and spent 95 weeks as the world's top-ranked golfer, the fourth most in history. One of hundreds that festoon him honors his late grandfather Pedro, who always found the money to help fund his dream of playing when growing up in poverty in Rio. He's doing everything right. -- Lillard. Zelezny is a former Czech athlete who competed in the javelin throw. -- Johnson. Born in Australia to American parents, Irving was considered for the 2012 Aussie Olympic team (he has dual citizenship) but decided to stick with the U.S. program. What I wanted to do was be myself." Not bad for a player in his career twilight. He and his wife, Lisa, spend much of their free time at the stables, where she rides horses and he breeds them. He set the bar high in that Sunday night game against the Cowboys, reeling in a 43-yard touchdown catch behind his head with one hand while fully extended, leaning backward and tip-toeing along the sideline. The greatest athlete of all time, according to Americans When Luiz tearfully apologized to "all the Brazilian people" for a 7-1 humiliation against Germany in the World Cup semifinal, the nation was touched. He often has looked like an accident waiting to happen, and sometimes it really does. From the USA. Discus thrower. In 2007, Switzerland issued a postage stamp bearing Federer's image, making him the country's first living person to be so honored. He is the only Japanese player to win an Olympic medal since tennis returned to the games in 1988, taking bronze in 2016. -- Jim Caple, "What makes it so special is that he doesn't just take something from you and just keep on going. Lewis Hamilton - Formula One 14). Who's the GOAT? The 10 greatest athletes of all-time - Waco Tribune-Herald -- Thorgan Hazard, Borussia Monchengladbach player and Eden's brother. Jesse Owens. -- Brady, More: NFL lags on international playing field. With Paul running the offense, the Clips have earned six consecutive postseason berths. You're going to have lovers and haters." Although his greatest heroics might be behind him -- he led the Orlando Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals in his fifth season -- Howard ranks among the top big men of his era, a broad-shouldered, shot-blocking, rebounding machine. Six Olympic medals (including three golds), two World Gymnastics Championship golds and three U.S. championship golds ain't too shabby. The attention she gained in the past year or so, however, has been the negative kind, but it hasn't affected her level of fame. Though the Arsenal winger has enjoyed a determined and worthy -- if injury-scarred -- career, still the feeling nags away that he has underachieved, or at least only intermittently achieved, for club and country. 1. -- Jose Mourinho, Manchester United manager, More: Why Pogba is heir apparent to Ronaldo, Messi. He had long been one of the world's most popular golfers, but his failure to win a major championship despite 22 top-10 finishes helped define his career. -- Ben Arledge, "I believe I can help them reach MLS. -- Thomas Neumann, "When I was coming into the league, people were talking about Sammy Watkins and a lot of the other guys in my draft class, and I thought, 'I want to be talked about like that. He has participated in 15 seasons of the NBA, and has won six championships with the Chicago Bulls. He wound up lasting until Week 8 of the season before he was eliminated. Although he received attention earlier in his career for wearing sleeveless shirts and capri pants on the court, he's updated to a more conventional look (yet his odd habit of picking at his shorts continues). And he'd won only 10 of his Grand Slams at the time. RANKED: The 20 highest earning athletes of all-time - Insider The most talented, skillful, imperious central defender of his era -- and with all due respect to the likes of Ramos, Pique and Bonuccci, it's not even close. The Greatest Athletes The World Has Ever Seen. Ronaldo, Tyson, Bolt, Pele, Messi, Mayweather: The top 50 greatest athletes of all time By Kobe Tong Published Feb 1, 2022 Brady will retire from American football as one of the. The film of him robbing and outpacing Leo Messi to score a wondrous goal in a 2006 international against Argentina reminds us why Real Madrid once broke the world record transfer fee to buy him. Manager Antonio Conte did not have much use for Fbregas at the start of his reign, but when the former Arsenal and Barcelona playmaker got the chance, he made enough telling interventions to be indispensable. But it turned out he wasn't exactly an innocent victim and he admittedly had "overexaggerated" the incident, which dominated headlines for much of the games. -- Martin Lasarte, the former Real Sociedad coach who gave Griezmann his debut in Spain. 1 in the world, a spot she held for 67 weeks over two stints from 2010 to 2012. I just wanted to race." If you want gaudy statistics, Brady has those, too, ranking among the NFL's top five in career passes attempted, passes completed, passing yards and touchdown passes. These athletes were so good at what they did, and it was like they were born to be athletes. Therefore, popular stars such as Tony Romo (No. 1 spot. He tore knee ligaments at the . An NBA legend, Iverson certainly has the . From names like Michael Phelps, Serena Williams to Tom Brady, sports fans are divided about the names that should be included on their list. -- Wright Thompson in his 2016 piece in ESPN The Magazine. At 19 years of age you don't see anyone better." -- Jim Caple, "There's a lot of spotlight that comes along with being the best in the world." He won the 2015 PGA Championship, shooting a major-record 20-under. 70 in 2016) and Floyd Mayweather (No. -- Benzema. Despite winning the 2008 finale at Interlagos, he painstakingly lost the season title to Lewis Hamilton by a single point. I think Paul deserves respect." -- Mller. Watson is a putting paradox -- extremely popular with fans but something of a pariah to many of his peers on the PGA Tour. . That is not what I need, especially this week." -- Melissa Isaacson, "It's not like I have decades left of opportunities to win majors, so each one of these means a lot to me." He's the UFC's biggest pay-per-view draw and a colorful talker and boaster, which has prompted comparisons to Muhammad Ali. "The perfect way to play football." Yet first and foremost, Hernndez is the obsession of a country, not a club. He trails only Paolo Maldini's haul of major European trophies (Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup), having claimed nine to the Italian icon's 10. That goes for more than just scoring the ball. He's one of the most protected individuals in Colombia every time he gets back home. "Glory, glory, hallelujah, he's Gabriel Jesus," they'd sing. His September 2016 bout against Liam Smith was attended by 51,240 fight fans at AT&T Stadium, breaking the Dallas arena's previous attendance record for a boxing match set in Manny Pacquiao's defeat of Joshua Clottey in 2010. He explained with a grin that it was just his matchday superstition. -- Thomas Neumann, "I live for stuff like that, getting the ball in the last seconds. -- Ian Chadband, "He's the only thing Mexicans believe in right now. When it comes to Chinese athletes, this badminton star is revolutionary. -- Aishwarya Kumar, "Australia's a proud sporting nation and this was one notch on the belt that we'd never got." -- Luis Enrique, Barcelona manager. I would absolutely urge all those youngsters in the squad to watch and learn off him; they are extremely lucky to be on the same training pitch as him." In Paris, he promised he would stay on at Paris Saint-Germain only "if they replace the Eiffel Tower with a statue of myself," while his latest boast is that he should be the next James Bond. Finishing fifth versus finishing 10th doesn't mean much to me." But Gabriel Jesus is different. -- Harry Redknapp, who managed Walcott at Southampton, with the famous comment that helped build the hype around a teenage phenom. If you asked the 35-year-old Swede himself, he'd doubtless tell you he should be No. Twelve years ago, Brady was bizarrely pictured snuggling a goat in a GQ photo spread. -- Dotun Akintoye, "He's the best player I've seen come through the ranks in Brazil since I returned from Germany in 2006. The World Cup winner never lost the thirst to play outfield, and instead incorporated his skill with the ball into his goalkeeping. -- Jim Caple, "I don't want to be just known for the way I dress. Of course, Harden is much more than just a glorious beard. -- Richard Jefferson, Cleveland teammate, He remains the greatest current exponent of global soccer, a player of such otherworldly skill that the one remaining question to be answered in his career is whether he can be considered the best in the game's history. -- Steve Clifford, Charlotte Hornets coach, on Griffin. But that's about to change. Snchez's gift as a striker is immense, but it's his big heart that equally endears him to Chile. Since the Super Bowl, there has been a continuous debate on social media about who the greatest athlete of all time is. Topics Covered # Top 10 Tallest Athletes Of All Time: 10) Margo Dydek: 9) Giant Silva: 8) Hasheem Thabeet: 7) Yao Ming: 6) Manute Bol: 5) Gheorghe Muresan: 4) Sun Mingming: 3) Gogea Mitu: 2) Suleiman Ali Nashnush: As if being a green jacket holder wasn't cool enough, Scott was named the sexiest golfer on tour based on a survey by Golfmates.com, a dating website for single golfers. How dull that all anyone wants to talk about now are his goals, goals, goals as the Golden Shoe winner in 2015-16 as Europe's leading marksman. "I come here to watch if everything's fine," he told CNN in 2015. He is a four-time runner-up at other majors. Paul, along with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, made a powerful statement about race relations and gun violence at The ESPYS last year and encouraged fellow athletes to speak out about social issues. -- Raina. Our Second Annual Ranking of theBiggest Names in Sports, Who are the most famous athletes on the planet? When Qatar Sports Investments bought Paris Saint-Germain in 2011, the new ownership group made Silva one of its first targets in its bid for European prominence. Will there be a fourth-generation pea? Tony Hawk (skateboarding) 43. And when you have as much firepower as we have, a turnover takes away that opportunity." I want to be known for how I play, how I treat people and how I am as a role model. And he continued to bolster his fame this year when he won the 2017 Australian Open, becoming at age 35 the oldest man to win the event since Ken Rosewall in 1972. His eight-year deal with the shoe company is worth more than 100 crore rupees (approximately $15 million US), the largest ever for an Indian athlete. Eli isn't quite as prolific in the endorsement world as Peyton (is anyone? Simone Biles 8. He credits his tennis success to going gluten-free, which he wrote about in an enlightening book, "Serve to Win: The 14-Day Gluten-Free Plan for Physical and Mental Excellence." Top 10 highest-rated California HS football players of all time This is about a team coming together." 9. Schweini is supposedly soccer-loving German chancellor Angela Merkel's favorite player, and German newspaper Die Zeit ran a series of fictional love letters between the two, one of which read. You know how much your country loves you when you have millions of heartbroken fans crying, begging you to not step down as the one-day international captain. Indeed, Brees has come a long way since being benched in favor of 41-year-old Doug Flutie back in 2003. Watt is one of the most feared players in the NFL, a sack-happy defensive end whose size, strength and quickness create matchup problems for even the most adept offenses. He famously dated actress Olivia Munn for three years before their recent split. See how ChatGPT ranked the top-10 athletes of all time from Hampton Roads Inside the ring, the man called Canelo is a proponent of suffocating and sophisticated aggression (just watch the jab feint and overhand right that finished Amir Khan last May). (Oh, and she was selected to carry the U.S. flag at the closing ceremonies.) -- Wawrinka. Bruce Jenner. His truest self is shy, awkward and basically well-intentioned, as unsuited for life in public as he is suited for hitting a ball." She has won 24 WTA singles titles and more than $23 million in her career. (Note: Where categories in the profiles are marked as NA, the athlete either doesn't have an official account for that social media site or an accurate endorsement figure could not be confirmed.). Sponsored by Nike, "The Cesc Fbregas Show" aired on Sky Sports and featured various distinguished talking heads from sport, stage and screen all raving about him. Now, after winning his fifth Super Bowl championship, there is little doubt that Brady is the GOAT. Or at least it was in the incidents I was involved in." Hernndez is the third generation of his family to play in a World Cup, his grandfather having played in 1954 and his dad in 1986. Raisman captained both the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic teams and joined Gabby Douglas as the only Americans with back-to-back team gold medals. Benzema, who has Algerian roots, claimed his exclusion from France's Euro 2016 squad was racially influenced, which raised poisonous responses from far-right politicians. James received rave reviews for his appearance in the 2015 Amy Schumer film "Trainwreck" and is slated to star in the forthcoming "Space Jam 2." I love him as a person. Most importantly, Jordan is the first person to come to our mind when we speak of Basketball. I enjoy how hard it is. The 42-year-old Brazilian also has seen his share of controversy, failing multiple drug tests in 2015 and being slapped with a one-year suspension. In China, at least, something tells us drinks are on the house. In a country where most athletes are government employees expected to toe the line, Lin is a bad-boy sex symbol whose notoriety only adds to his celebrity. Sadaharu Oh 1 of 50 49. Posted below are the top 50 athletes of all time, according to fans. Even if I lost the championship by one point, I managed to achieve many dreams. Controversial. Like many athletes before him, Lillard has ventured into the music world. -- Melissa Isaacson, "Not even thinking money. After Howard departed the Lakers for the Rockets as a free agent in 2013, former teammate Kobe Bryant created headlines by unfollowing him on Twitter. Despite the sport being overwhelmingly popular with the United States, Michael Jordan is a household name in countries the world over, having been named the greatest athlete of the 20th century by sports network ESPN in 1999. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL-gQ2AvJY -- Thomas Neumann, "This opportunity is a dream come true and a blessing for me and my family. Schumacher won seven Formula 1 championships, which Hamilton equaled in 2020. I know he's always able to decide a match." Ever since turning pro at 19, Anthony has been one of the most consistent and exciting scorers in the NBA, averaging more than 20 points per game in each of his 14 pro seasons. Usain Bolt has won 8 gold medals in Olympics. Barry Sanders (American football) 41. Although he failed to reach the finals in his two individual events at the 2016 Rio Games, the 50 and 100 freestyle, he garnered fawning internet headlines, such as "People Can't Stop Talking About This Hot Olympic Swimmer.