Famous Athletes: Ranked by Popularity (Page 11 of 31) | Who Shares My BirthdayThe most famous athletes in history, ranked by historical popularity: sports stars with their birthdays, nationality and greatest achievements.An athlete becomes notable by doing something in sport that people keep talking about: breaking records, winning the biggest titles, or changing how a game is played. The most famous go further and become symbols of their country or their era, known well beyond the fans of their own sport.This list covers the footballers, boxers, tennis players, racing drivers, Olympians and other sportspeople in our database. We rank them by historical popularity rather than by trophies or statistics, so a sport's greatest player and its most famous player are not always the same person.Who is included: everyone in our database whose primary occupation matches this list. Each person must have an English Wikipedia article and a full date of birth recorded on Wikidata. A growing share of people also have an original profile, written to our editorial rules and marked with a Last reviewed date.Most famous athlete: Muhammad Ali. Highest historical popularity score (HPI 90.7).Most common birth month: August. 146 of 1,524 were born in August.Living vs deceased: 1,367 / 157. 90% are still living.Most common nationality: Japanese. 233 people, 15% of the list.Editor-written profiles: 87. 6% have a full original profile so far.501. Marco Pantani (1970–2004), Italian: Climber who won both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in 1998.502. Max Verstappen (1997), Belgian: Dutch driver who won four straight Formula One world titles with Red Bull.503. Henrikh Mkhitaryan (1989), Armenian: Armenia's record goalscorer who won the Europa League with Manchester United in 2017 and later played for Inter.504. Javier Mascherano (1984), Argentine: Argentine holding midfielder who won Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008 and played in the 2014 World Cup final.505. Olivier Giroud (1986), French: Striker who won the 2018 World Cup with France and later became their record goalscorer.506. Hideo Sakai (1909–1996), Japanese: Early Japanese footballer who won selection for the Japan national team in the sport's formative decades.507. Jorginho (1964), Brazilian: Right-back in Brazil's 1994 World Cup-winning side who later moved into management.508. Javier Aguirre (1958), Mexican: Mexican coach who led his country at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups and later managed Osasuna.509. Marc-André ter Stegen (1992), German: Goalkeeper known for his long spell at Barcelona, where he won the 2014–15 Champions League.510. Mario Mandžukić (1986), Croatian: Croatian striker who scored for Juventus and Bayern Munich and netted in the 2018 World Cup final against France.511. Dimitar Berbatov (1981), Bulgarian: Elegant Bulgarian striker who shared the 2010–11 Premier League Golden Boot while playing for Manchester United.512. Giannis Antetokounmpo (1994), Greek: Forward who led the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA title and won two Most Valuable Player awards.513. Yaya Touré (1983), Ivoirian: Powerful midfielder who won the African Footballer of the Year award four years running while at Manchester City.514. Mauricio Pochettino (1972), Argentine: Manager who took Tottenham Hotspur to the 2019 Champions League final.515. Mario Gómez (1985), German: Prolific German striker who won the Bundesliga with Stuttgart and Bayern Munich and scored for Germany at several major tournaments.516. Triple H (1969), American: Wrestler who won the WWE Championship multiple times and later shaped the company's creative output as its head of content.517. Gonzalo Higuaín (1987), French: Striker whose 36 Serie A goals for Napoli in 2015-16 set a single-season league record.518. Ivan Perišić (1989), Croatian: Versatile winger who helped Croatia reach the 2018 World Cup final, scoring in the match against France.519. Nico Hülkenberg (1987), German: Veteran Formula One driver who triumphed at Le Mans for Porsche in 2015.520. Mikel John Obi (1987), Nigerian: Won the 2012 Champions League with Chelsea and the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria.521. Txiki Begiristain (1964), Spanish: Winger who helped Barcelona win four La Liga titles and the 1992 European Cup, later becoming Manchester City's director of football.522. Antonio Rüdiger (1993), German: Powerful centre-back who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021 and again with Real Madrid.523. Paulo Dybala (1993), Argentine: Creative forward who won several Serie A titles with Juventus and was part of Argentina's 2022 World Cup triumph.524. Aritatsu Ogi (1942), Japanese: Member of the Japan side that won the bronze medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.525. Pedro (1987), Spanish: Winger who won the 2010 World Cup with Spain and the Champions League with Barcelona and Chelsea.526. Dejan Stanković (1978), Serbian: Midfielder who won the 2010 Champions League and a treble with Inter Milan under José Mourinho.527. Felipe Massa (1981), Brazilian: Brazilian driver who lost the 2008 Formula One title to Lewis Hamilton by a single point.528. Keylor Navas (1986), Costa Rican: Goalkeeper who won three successive Champions League titles with Real Madrid and captained Costa Rica.529. Dirk Kuyt (1980), Dutch: Tireless forward turned winger who played for Liverpool and reached the 2010 World Cup final with the Netherlands.530. Guido Buchwald (1961), German: Defender who won the 1990 World Cup with West Germany, famously marking Diego Maradona in the final.531. Anna Kournikova (1981), Russian: Reached the 1997 Wimbledon semi-finals and won two Grand Slam doubles titles alongside Martina Hingis.532. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (1983), Dutch: Dutch striker nicknamed the Hunter, who scored freely for Ajax and Schalke 04 and played at World Cups.533. Willian (1988), Brazilian: Brazilian winger who spent seven years at Chelsea, winning two Premier League titles and the 2019 Europa League.534. Ricardo Carvalho (1978), Portuguese: Centre-back who won the 2004 Champions League with Porto before reuniting with José Mourinho at Chelsea.535. Vincenzo Montella (1974), Italian: Nicknamed L'Aeroplanino, he scored for Roma in their 2000-01 Serie A title win and later managed Turkey.536. Romelu Lukaku (1993), Belgian: Powerful striker who became Belgium's record international goalscorer after spells at Everton, Chelsea, Manchester United and Inter Milan.537. Goran Ivanišević (1971), Croatian: Left-handed serve-and-volleyer who won the Wimbledon singles title in 2001 after entering as a wildcard.538. Lionel Scaloni (1978), Argentine: Manager who led Argentina to victory at the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup.539. James Rodríguez (1991), Colombian: Colombian playmaker who won the Golden Boot at the 2014 World Cup, then joined Real Madrid.540. Lamine Yamal (2007), Spanish: Teenage winger who helped Spain win Euro 2024 and was named the tournament's best young player.541. Stan Wawrinka (1985), Swiss: Won the Australian Open, French Open and US Open titles between 2014 and 2016.542. Wayne Rooney (1985), British: Forward who became Manchester United's record goalscorer and won the Champions League with the club in 2008.543. Marco Reus (1989), German: Attacker who captained Borussia Dortmund for years and won the DFB-Pokal in 2017 and 2021.544. Arturo Vidal (1987), Chilean: Midfielder who won the 2015 and 2016 Copa América with Chile, and multiple Serie A titles with Juventus.545. Nemanja Vidić (1981), Serbian: Centre-back who captained Manchester United and won five Premier League titles at Old Trafford.546. Carlos Sainz Jr. (1994), Spanish: Spanish Formula One driver who has won races for Ferrari, son of rally champion Carlos Sainz.547. Javier Saviola (1981), Argentine: Forward who emerged at River Plate and went on to play for Barcelona and Real Madrid.548. Viktor Gyökeres (1998), Swedish: Striker whose prolific scoring at Sporting CP brought two Portuguese league titles before a move to Arsenal.549. Oleg Salenko (1969), Russian: Russian striker who scored five goals in one match against Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup.550. Achraf Hakimi (1998), Spanish: Attacking right-back who helped Morocco reach the 2022 World Cup semi-finals and won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain.How we rank and selectRanking: people are ordered by their Historical Popularity Index (HPI) from Pantheon. HPI combines how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about a person, how many page views those articles get, how evenly the views are spread across languages and how long ago the person lived. People Pantheon does not yet cover are listed after them, ordered by our own popularity score (the number of Wikipedia language editions with an article about them).Membership: each person appears in one occupation list only, based on their primary occupation as classified by Pantheon (for example, a queen who wrote poetry is listed as royalty, not as a writer). Kings, queens, emperors, sultans and royal consorts are not listed as politicians or writers: anyone who held a monarch's office on Wikidata, and never served as a president or head of government, counts as royalty. For the few people Pantheon does not cover, we use the primary field recorded in our database.One-line summaries: each summary is an original line written for this site with AI assistance under our editorial rules, then checked against the Wikipedia introduction so no wording is copied.Statistics: every figure on this page is calculated live from our database each time the page loads, so it changes as we add people.Last reviewed: October 2026Sources: Pantheon: Historical Popularity Index (HPI) rankings, Wikidata: birth dates, death dates and occupations, Wikipedia: biographies behind our summaries and popularity scores. Who Shares My Birthday.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Javier Mascherano

Marc-André ter Stegen

Mario Mandžukić

Dimitar Berbatov

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Mauricio Pochettino

Gonzalo Higuaín

Nico Hülkenberg

Txiki Begiristain

Antonio Rüdiger

Dejan Stanković

Anna Kournikova

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

Ricardo Carvalho

Vincenzo Montella

Goran Ivanišević

James Rodríguez

Carlos Sainz Jr.

Viktor Gyökeres

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Famous Athletes

The best-known sportspeople in our archive, ranked by historical popularity.

1,524 athletes in our database, ranked by historical popularity. Page 11 of 31.

Most famous athlete

Highest historical popularity score (HPI 90.7)

Most common birth month

August

146 of 1,524 were born in August

Living vs deceased

1,367 / 157

90% are still living

Most common nationality

Japanese

233 people, 15% of the list

Editor-written profiles

87

6% have a full original profile so far

The ranked list (from #501)

How we rank and select

Ranking: people are ordered by their Historical Popularity Index (HPI) from Pantheon. HPI combines how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about a person, how many page views those articles get, how evenly the views are spread across languages and how long ago the person lived. People Pantheon does not yet cover are listed after them, ordered by our own popularity score (the number of Wikipedia language editions with an article about them).
Membership: each person appears in one occupation list only, based on their primary occupation as classified by Pantheon (for example, a queen who wrote poetry is listed as royalty, not as a writer). Kings, queens, emperors, sultans and royal consorts are not listed as politicians or writers: anyone who held a monarch's office on Wikidata, and never served as a president or head of government, counts as royalty. For the few people Pantheon does not cover, we use the primary field recorded in our database.
One-line summaries: each summary is an original line written for this site with AI assistance under our editorial rules, then checked against the Wikipedia introduction so no wording is copied.
Statistics: every figure on this page is calculated live from our database each time the page loads, so it changes as we add people.

Further reading

Reviewed by the Who Shares My Birthday editorial team.

Last reviewed: October 2026

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