IMO, the top 5 most popular and greatest(recognized worldwide) sportsperson are:
1.Pele(the god of the truly Global sport in the world)
2.Maradona(I dont know 1 person(a normal person) who doesnt know who this man is)
3.Roger Federer(even though most people dont play tennis,tennis is imo,the second most popular sport in the world in popularity and Every person from Ethiopia to Mongolia have heard of Roger Federer)
4.Muhammad Ali(known world over)
5.Sachin Tendulkar(one of the best ever cricketer.Certainly not as popular as the above personalities Worldwide,but he is extremely well known in cricket world and he is India's Cricketing Maradona.)
I have not included the minor sports such as Golf, rugby,baseball,etc as people worldover dont recognize the players associated with these sport(Tendulkar is there because this is a cricket forum).Although Tigerwood ,the name is highly popular but not the player himself.
I regard the top 4 as the truly Global figures.But due to Cricket being an elite sport and popular in only handful of nations,I cant say so for Cricketing Idols.
But I hope Cricket will be also truly global sport in our li.fetime(doubt it though,with current ICC).
The Best ever Sportsman,according to you?
posted on 13/3/12
Puskas was a brilliant finisher, but people always talked about Di Stefano being the greatest player of that time (or so I've heard).
Maradona is the greatest footballer ever for me, but if Messi can perform in International football the way he does in club football, we could end up having a debate on our hands.
posted on 13/3/12
Also, if people want to mention goals per game, didn't Gerd Muller score 68 times in 62 Internationals, won the World Cup and European Championship.
posted on 13/3/12
Gerd Mullar definitely has the most impressive Goals to games ratio.
posted on 13/3/12
Top 5 most famous
1. David Beckham- everybody in India and China knows him since his gillette days.. Pinboy
2. Mike Tyson
3. Michael Schumacher
4. Ali
5. Maradona
top 5 greatest ever, different sports
1. Maradona
2. Michael Jordan
3. Ali
4. Federer
5. Major Dhyan Singh (hockey) I know you don't know him but it's worth googling him. What he achieved in his sport is unparalleled in any sport history
posted on 13/3/12
Duncan...(It's the goals per game in every season for the English top league. It has come down from just over 3 a game to just under 2.5 per game in the modern era, it's harder to score now than it was in the 50s/60s.)
It's hard to make comparrison on different era's, besides the fact of the English premier league has 45% foriegn players today compared to 5% back in the 50-60's so of course the nature of the game is going to change...
posted on 13/3/12
Duncan stop Messi with my head
posted on 13/3/12
5 greatest in different sports:
The Don
Ali
Nicklaus
Jordan
Gretsky
posted on 13/3/12
All legends in their own right GG but even young cricket lovers wouldn't know of the Don besides people from outside cricketing nations........I think we all agree with Ali as no one going by the votes...
posted on 14/3/12
So we are all in agreement that David Beckham is the greatest sportsman of all time? -
posted on 14/3/12
David Beckham... bah!!! bah!!!....Beckham my arise, wouldn't even be the greatest in his family