Famous Athletes: Ranked by Popularity (Page 15 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.701. Ciro Immobile (1990), Italian: Striker who scored 36 Serie A goals for Lazio in 2019-20, winning the European Golden Shoe.702. Fábio Coentrão (1988), Portuguese: Left-back who won La Liga and the Champions League with Real Madrid after joining from Benfica in 2011.703. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (2001), Georgian: Winger whose goals helped Napoli win their first Serie A title since 1990, in 2022–23.704. The Great Khali (1972), Indian: Seven-foot Indian wrestler who won WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2007.705. Amélie Mauresmo (1979), French: Tennis player who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 and later coached Andy Murray.706. Keisuke Honda (1986), Japanese: Midfielder who scored at three World Cups for Japan and played for CSKA Moscow and AC Milan.707. Phil Jones (1992), British: Versatile defender who won the Premier League and the Europa League with Manchester United and played for England.708. Andy Robertson (1994), British: Scotland captain who won the Premier League and the Champions League as an attacking left-back at Liverpool.709. Gilberto Silva (1976), Brazilian: Defensive midfielder who played in Arsenal's unbeaten Premier League season of 2003–04 and won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil.710. Jim Thorpe (1888–1953), American: Won the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, with the medals later being reinstated.711. Nick Heidfeld (1977), German: German driver who scored many Formula One podiums without ever winning a race.712. Roque Santa Cruz (1981), Paraguayan: Paraguayan striker who made his name at Bayern Munich and later played in the Premier League for Blackburn Rovers.713. Marco Verratti (1992), Spanish: Midfielder who won many Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain and Euro 2020 with Italy.714. Naomi Osaka (1997), Japanese: Tennis player who won the US Open and Australian Open twice each and reached world number one.715. Gianluigi Donnarumma (1999), Italian: Goalkeeper named player of the tournament as Italy won Euro 2020, later joining Manchester City.716. Éric Maxim Choupo-Moting (1989), German: Cameroon forward who won the 2020 Champions League with Bayern Munich after spells at Mainz, Stoke City and Paris Saint-Germain.717. Massimo Ambrosini (1977), Italian: Defensive midfielder who captained AC Milan and won the Champions League with them in 2007.718. Hans-Jörg Butt (1974), German: Goalkeeper famed for taking penalties, including one scored for Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League final.719. Raúl Albiol (1985), Spanish: Central defender who won the 2010 World Cup with Spain and the 2020–21 Europa League with Villarreal.720. Brahim Díaz (1999), Spanish: Attacking midfielder who developed at Manchester City, played for AC Milan and Real Madrid, and represents Morocco internationally.721. Petra Kvitová (1990), Czech: Left-handed player who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, among 31 tour-level singles titles.722. Antonio Cassano (1982), Italian: Gifted Italian forward who played for Roma, Real Madrid and Milan, and reached the Euro 2012 final.723. Paulinho (1988), Brazilian: Midfielder who won the 2013 Confederations Cup with Brazil and later played for Barcelona and Guangzhou Evergrande.724. Kasper Schmeichel (1986), Danish: Goalkeeper who won the 2015–16 Premier League title with Leicester City.725. Kyle Walker (1990), British: Right-back who won six Premier League titles with Manchester City and represented England at major tournaments.726. Bruno Alves (1981), Portuguese: Central defender who won nine trophies at Porto and represented Portugal at several major tournaments.727. Lautaro Martínez (1997), Argentine: Striker who captains Inter Milan and was part of Argentina's 2022 World Cup-winning squad.728. Rodrygo (2001), Brazilian: Winger whose two stoppage-time goals against Manchester City in 2022 sent Real Madrid to the Champions League final.729. Aryna Sabalenka (1998), Belarusian: Won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024, and the 2024 US Open, rising to world number one.730. Koke (1992), Spanish: Atlético Madrid's long-serving captain, who won La Liga in 2013–14 and the Europa League in 2018.731. Kevin-Prince Boateng (1987), Ghanaian: Ghana midfielder who won Serie A with AC Milan in 2011 and played at two World Cups.732. John Terry (1980), British: Chelsea captain who won five Premier League titles and the 2012 Champions League with the club.733. Robbie Keane (1980), Irish: Republic of Ireland's all-time leading goalscorer, with 68 international goals, and a long-serving Tottenham Hotspur striker.734. Hajime Moriyasu (1968), Japanese: Manager who guided Japan to wins over Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup.735. Ezequiel Lavezzi (1985), Argentine: Forward who won the Coppa Italia with Napoli and then Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain.736. Massimo Oddo (1976), Italian: Right-back in Italy's World Cup-winning squad of 2006, later a manager with Milan's reserve side.737. Robert Kovač (1974), Croatian: Croatian centre-back who played for Bayern Munich and Juventus before moving into coaching with Borussia Dortmund.738. Carlos Alcaraz (2003), Spanish: Won the 2022 US Open, becoming the youngest man to be ranked world number one.739. Santi Cazorla (1984), Spanish: Playmaker who won Euro 2008 and Euro 2012 with Spain and starred for Arsenal.740. Jan Oblak (1993), Slovene: Goalkeeper who won La Liga with Atlético Madrid in 2021 and collected several Zamora Trophies for fewest goals conceded.741. Jennifer Capriati (1976), American: Former child prodigy who won the 2001 Australian and French Opens and Olympic singles gold in 1992.742. Wynton Rufer (1962), New Zealand: Striker who won the 1992 Cup Winners' Cup with Werder Bremen and was named Oceania Footballer of the Century.743. Victor Osimhen (1998), Nigerian: Striker whose goals drove Napoli to the 2022-23 Serie A title, their first in thirty-three years.744. Juan Cuadrado (1988), Colombian: Colombian wide player who won several Serie A titles with Juventus and played at the 2014 World Cup.745. Ruy Ramos (1957), Japanese: Brazilian-born midfielder who became a Japan international and a leading figure at Verdy Kawasaki in the early J.League.746. Diogo Jota (1996–2025), Portuguese: Forward who won the Premier League with Liverpool in 2024–25 and earned international honours with Portugal.747. Leroy Sané (1996), German: Winger who won the PFA Young Player of the Year award during his time at Manchester City.748. Saburo Kawabuchi (1936), Japanese: Administrator who served as the first chairman of the J.League, which launched in 1993.749. Marko Arnautović (1989), Austrian: Austrian striker who scored at Euro 2020 and played in the Premier League for Stoke City and West Ham United.750. Richard Witschge (1969), Dutch: Passing midfielder who played for both Ajax and Barcelona during his career.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.

Fábio Coentrão

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia

The Great Khali

Amélie Mauresmo

Roque Santa Cruz

Gianluigi Donnarumma

Éric Maxim Choupo-Moting

Massimo Ambrosini

Hans-Jörg Butt

Antonio Cassano

Kasper Schmeichel

Lautaro Martínez

Aryna Sabalenka

Kevin-Prince Boateng

Hajime Moriyasu

Ezequiel Lavezzi

Jennifer Capriati

Saburo Kawabuchi

Marko Arnautović

Richard Witschge

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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 15 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 #701)

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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