They also favor athletes from specific markets. For one, what does salary (a measure of how valuable an athlete is on the field, but an imperfect one that’s affected by everything from the year they become a free agent to the market at that time to their sport’s salary cap and CBA terms) have to do with fame? Endorsements are better, but they’re highly dependent on measures such as likeability, which don’t really have much to do with fame (if fame is taken as “t he state of being widely known, recognized, or of great popular interest,” which doesn’t imply a good or bad value judgement). The names might be familiar, but where the planet’s biggest stars land on the list could surprise you.Īs with some other ESPN-created stats and their usage, there are big problems with this one. It started off with a simple question: Who’s the most famous athlete in the world? Ben Alamar, ESPN’s director of sports analytics, devised a formula that combines salary and endorsements with social media following and Google search popularity to create the ESPN World Fame 100 rankings.
ESPN has come up with something called the “ Fame 100,” otherwise known as a pointless list with dubious methodology to stir up some debate amongst sports fans about which athletes are more or less “famous.” From their blurb:
