You can always feel free to disagree with these types of studies, but the fact is these schools invest a lot of time, energy, money, etc. into these things to make them as thoroughly accurate as possible.
The world’s most marketable athlete can be measured in many ways, of course, but the London School of Marketing managed to dwindle it down to a few extremely key features.
The school’s research committee weighed each individual player’s sponsorship value, earning income, brand marketability, and social media influence.
Fair enough.
All things considered, American’s should dominate the top 10, right? Wrong.
American athletes did, however, manage to garner the top 4 out of 5. That list is as follows:
1)Roger Federer
2)Tiger Woods
3) Phil Mickelson
4)LeBron James
5)Kevin Durant
Obviously KD being in the top 5 over guys like Ronaldo, or even Kobe, is extremely surprising; leading one to believe that Durant’s social media influence pushed him up the leader board.
What do you guys think? Is this list respectable? Check out the rest of the list below and then let us know on twitter.
Oh yea, sorry wrestling fans – the Rock (pictured above) is what we call a fakeout. Messi and Ronaldo are obviously on there, though.
1 | Roger Federer | Tennis |
2 | Tiger Woods | Golf |
3 | Phil Mickelson | Golf |
4 | LeBron James | Basketball |
5 | Kevin Durant | Basketball |
6 | Rory McIlroy | Golf |
7 | Novak Djokovic | Tennis |
8 | Rafael Nadal | Tennis |
9 | Mahendra Singh Dhoni | Cricket |
10 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Soccer |
11 | Kobe Bryant | Basketball |
12 | Maria Sharapova | Tennis |
13 | Lionel Messi | Soccer |
14 | Usain Bolt | Track |
15 | Neymar | Soccer |
16 | Andy Murray | Tennis |
17 | Kei Nishikori | Tennis |
18 | Derrick Rose | Basketball |
19 | Floyd Mayweather | Boxing |
20 | Serena Williams | Tennis |
H/T theScore