US gymnast Simone Biles leads the way as the world’s most marketable athlete for a second time.
Since its inception in 2010, SportsPro’s list of Top 50 Most Marketable Athletes has tracked the popularity of sportspersons across many categories. The index has listed 320 individual athletes since its first edition 12 years ago.
As a testament to its standing as the world’s most popular sport, football is the best-represented sport on this list, with 65 players having made the honour roll in the publication’s history.
Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton, with 14 appearances on the list, has been featured among the top 50 more than any other athlete. The sole occasion Hamilton’s name was not on the list was in 2019.
This year’s No. #1 is Simone Biles, the only athlete to top the list twice. In 2021, she claimed pole position ahead of tennis player Naomi Osaka and former American footballer Ashlyn Harris.
The trio of LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lewis Hamilton, at 39, are the oldest in the top 50. Lamine Yamal, the 17-year-old football prodigy of Spanish football, is the youngest entry on the list.
Most marketable athletes of 2024
16. Paige Bueckers
Paige Bueckers plays basketball for the University of Connecticut as part of their team, the UConn Huskies. In 2021, she was made the 2021 ESPN Player and Freshman of the Year.
More recently, in 2024, she was awarded the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete of the Year title. Her name appears in the UConn record books, tying with Maya Moore as the fastest Huskies to the 1000th career point from her 55th career game.
15. Sunisa Lee
Sunisa Lee is an artistic gymnast with a rich haul of six medals at the Olympics across just two editions. At the 2020 Tokyo Games, Lee made history as the first woman of Asia-America origin to win a gold medal. She also picked up a silver and a bronze the same year.
During the Paris 2024 Olympics, Lee helped the United States win a gold medal in the team event. She earned a bronze medal each in the individual all-around and in the uneven bars, taking her tally to three in Paris.
Lee’s breakout performance came at the 2019 US National Championships, where she won herself three medals. In 2021, the highly decorated gymnast was named Sports Illustrated’s Female Athlete of the Year.
14. Noah Lyles
Noah Lyles is an American track and field star and on the conclusion of the 2024 Paris Olympics, a gold medallist in the men’s 100m event. At the 100m dash final, Lyle ran a personal best of 9.79 seconds to clinch his first Olympic title.
Lyles also added a bronze in the 200m event. It was a repeat performance at the 200m event, having won bronze in Tokyo 2020 at the same event. He is also a four-time Diamond League champion and a three-time World Championships gold medalist.
13. Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff went from a relative unknown to one of the most followed tennis players in 2023, when she won the 2023 US Open single titles as a 19-year-old. With that win, she became the youngest female winner in New York. The title at Flushing Meadows was her fourth that season after Auckland, Washington and Sydney.
Gauff already has a stacked résumé that is the envy of many budding tennis players. Beginning with the 2019 Linz Open and up to the 2014 China Open, Gauff has nine WTA-level singles titles. The American also won the 2024 French Open doubles title with Katerina Siniakova.
Also Read: Coco Gauff surpasses Novak Djokovic as most marketable tennis player in 2024
12. Travis Kelce
Travis Kelce is in his 12th season with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs picked Kelce in the 2013 NFL Draft in the first of two third round picks. Kelce is the tight end for Chiefs and has caught a pass in 158 games in succession making it the longest streak in franchise history.
He is a mere three consecutive games away from DeAndre Hopkins (161) to take the lead as active streak holder. Kelce has 11,328 receiving yards to his name, the most by a Chiefs player. He is also the player in franchise history after Dante Hall (12,356) to record more than 11,000 combined yards.
Travis Kelce and the Chiefs have won three Superbowls, in 2020 vs San Francisco, in 2023 vs Philadelphia and their third in 2024 against San Francisco. Their latest win against the 49ers was their third Superbowl in five years.
11. Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is a British racer who is linked with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Over his 18-year career, he has made 351 starts with 105 wins. Hamilton has been in pole position 104 times and stepped onto the podium on 201 occasions.
Hamilton has won the Driver’s Championships seven times. He first became World Champion in 2008, the youngest to do so at 23 years and 300 days. Lewis Hamilton went on to win the title in 2014 and 2015 and four more times between 2017 and 2020.
10. Katie Ledecky
Katie Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer whose tryst with fame began in the London Olympics in 2012. As a 15-year-old, Ledecky won the 800m freestyle gold in London. The American went on to become Olympic champion, covering all distances from 200m to 1500m.
Ledecky has pocketed 13 medals across four Olympics – London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris. After the Paris Games, her medal tally includes nine gold, three silver, and one bronze. In the 2024 Summer Games, she added two gold, one silver, and one bronze to her medal haul.
9. Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo plays as a forward and is one of the most prolific scorers in football. Along with individual accolades, the Portuguese has also won the Champions League five times. Four of those wins came with Real Madrid and one with Manchester United.
Ronaldo became the first man to win the UEFA Champions League on five occasions and is Real Madrid’s all-time leading goal scorer with 451 goals. In the 2014-15 season, Ronaldo’s 61 goals were the most scored by a Real Madrid player in a single season.
Also Read: Top 10 highest goalscorers in the history of football
8. Ilona Maher
Ilona Maher is a professional rugby sevens player hailing from Burlington, Vermont. She began playing rugby at age 17. Maher is a two-time Olympian and the winner of the Bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
Team USA won their first medal with the third-place finish in the Rugby 7s in a century. They defeated the more fancied Australian team 14-12. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Team USA finished sixth. Maher was a recipient of the 2017 MA Sorensen Award for National Player of the Year.
7. Kylian Mbappe
Kylian Mbappe began his professional career with AS Monaco in 2013 as a 16-year-old before moving to PSG and most recently Real Madrid. Mbappe won the Ligue 1 title on six occasions with Monaco in 2017 and five more times after his move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023.
Mbappe also won the French National Cup with Paris Saint Germain thrice – 2018, 2020 and 2021. The highlight of his career was winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup as part of the French national team when he was just 19.
6. Rebeca Andrade
Rebeca Andrade’s journey in the world of Artistic Gymnastics included overcoming three severe ligament injuries. It was a long recovery for Andrade, and the path to that recovery required three reconstructive surgeries.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Andrade secured a place in the history books by winning the gold medal in the vault event and following it up with a silver in the individual all-around competition. She became the first Brazilian female gymnast to win a medal at the Olympics. In Paris, she added one gold, two silver and a bronze to her tally.
Rebeca Andrade has three gold, four silver, and two bronze medals at the world championships.
5. Lionel Messi
Argentina and Inter Miami footballer Lionel Messi’s career took off in the 2000-01 season when he joined La Liga side FC Barcelona as part of their under-14 squad. He stayed with them until 2021 after transitioning to the senior side in 2004. Over the course of the 17 seasons with FC Barcelona, he gave them 10 La Liga titles, scored 672 goals for Barcelona and a record 474 goals in La Liga.
Messi’s other milestones include 7 Copa del Rey titles, 8 Ballon d’Or awards, 4 Champions League titles, 2 Copa América titles, and an Olympic gold medal (2008 Beijing). The pinnacle of football glory for him came when he led Argentina to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It was Argentina’s first World Cup in 36 years.
Also Read: Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi: All-time goals & stats comparison
4. Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark hails from Des Moines, Iowa. She plays women’s college basketball for the University of Iowa. As a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes, Clark shattered dozens of NCAA records throughout her four-year career at Iowa.
Among her accomplishments is the most points scored (3,951) by any college player, man or woman, in NCAA history. Clark, with 1,144 career assists and 990 rebounds, is the first person to accumulate at least 3800 points, 1000 assists and 950 rebounds in college basketball.
Clark currently plays for the WNBA side Indiana Fever. It is her first season in the WNBA, and she was picked in the first round of drafts. The Indiana Fever guard was named the 2024 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year in the first week of October 2024.
Among the starting line-up in all 40 of Indiana’s regular-season games, Clark set a single-season record of 337 assists. She also set single-season rookie records of 769 points and 122 three-pointers in the WNBA.
3. Lebron James
LeBron James is the all-time leading scorer in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers forward and California resident is among the most successful basketball players in the sport’s history. James has earned more than a handful of accolades since his NBA debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003.
After stints at Miami Heat and a reunion with the Cavaliers, he signed up with LA Lakers in 2018 and has been with them since. The 39-year-old is now in his 21st season and is a four-time NBA Champion (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020). Lebron James is also a four-time NBA Finals MVP (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020).
2. Vinicius Junior
Brazilian forward Vinicius Junior plays for Real Madrid, a team he signed up for in 2018. He inherited the iconic No. #7 jersey ahead of the 2023-24 season, building on Cristiano Ronaldo’s legacy. The Brazilian began his career at Flamengo before arriving at Real Madrid at the age of 18.
The Real Madrid star helped the Spanish giants win the La Liga title and the UEFA Champions League in the 2023-24 season. Vinicius Junior, also the Player of the Season in 2023/24, has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or this year.
Also Read: Virat Kohli, Smriti Mandhana only Indians in SportsPro’s most marketable athletes in 2024
1. Simone Biles
Simone Biles, an 11-time Olympic medallist for Team USA, is an icon in her chosen field of artistic gymnastics. Among her 11 Olympic medals are seven gold, two silver and two bronze across three Olympics – Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Biles officially surpassed Shannon Miller to become the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history. Miller won seven medals between Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996.
Biles has also amassed 30 World Championship medals in her stellar career – 23 gold, four silver and three bronze.
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