Famous Athletes: Ranked by Popularity (Page 29 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.1401. Michelle Kwan (1980), American: Figure skater who won five world titles, plus Olympic silver in 1998 and bronze in 2002.1402. Warren Zaïre-Emery (2006), French: Midfielder who broke into Paris Saint-Zermain's first team as a teenager and won Ligue 1 titles with the club.1403. Djibril Sidibé (1992), French: Right-back who helped Monaco win the 2016–17 Ligue 1 title and later played in the Premier League with Everton.1404. Naoki Sakai (1975), Japanese: Former footballer who earned a place in Japan's national team.1405. Sania Mirza (1986), Indian: Tennis player who reached world number one in doubles and won Wimbledon in 2015 alongside Martina Hingis.1406. Igor Denisov (1984), Russian: Midfielder who captained Zenit St Petersburg and won the Russian Premier League with the club in 2010.1407. Léon Marchand (2002), French: Swimmer who won four individual gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.1408. Ross Barkley (1993), British: Midfielder who came through the ranks at Everton and went on to play for England, Chelsea and Aston Villa.1409. Tomoaki Makino (1987), Japanese: Centre-back who won back-to-back J.League titles with Sanfrecce Hiroshima and later joined Urawa Reds.1410. Takashi Usami (1992), Japanese: Forward who helped Gamba Osaka win a domestic treble in 2014 before spells in Germany.1411. Shiro Kikuhara (1969), Japanese: Former footballer who won international caps for Japan.1412. Yoshinobu Minowa (1976), Japanese: Former J.League footballer who earned caps for the Japan national team during his playing career.1413. Viktor Claesson (1992), Swedish: Swedish winger valued for his passing and dead-ball delivery, who played for Elfsborg and Krasnodar.1414. Gaku Shibasaki (1992), Japanese: Midfielder who scored twice against Real Madrid in the 2016 Club World Cup final for Kashima Antlers.1415. Hou Yifan (1994), Chinese: Chess grandmaster who won four Women's World Championship titles and later became a professor at Peking University.1416. Ao Tanaka (1998), Japanese: Scored the winning goal against Spain for Japan at the 2022 World Cup.1417. Phil Jagielka (1982), British: Dependable centre-back who captained Everton after helping Sheffield United win promotion to the Premier League in 2006.1418. Yasuyuki Konno (1983), Japanese: Defensive midfielder and centre-back who was part of Japan's squad at the 2010 World Cup.1419. Akira Kaji (1980), Japanese: Japan defender who won the 2005 J.League title with Gamba Osaka and earned several national team caps.1420. Shusaku Nishikawa (1986), Japanese: Goalkeeper who helped Urawa Red Diamonds win the 2017 AFC Champions League.1421. Wayne Bridge (1980), British: Left back who won the Premier League with Chelsea and played for England at the 2006 World Cup.1422. Anders Lindegaard (1984), Danish: Goalkeeper who joined Manchester United from Norwegian club Aalesund and won caps for Denmark.1423. Irfan Bachdim (1988), Dutch: Winger who became a prominent face of Indonesia's national team after joining it in 2010 and playing at the AFF Cup.1424. Zlatan Ljubijankič (1983), Slovene: Striker who won caps for Slovenia and played professionally in several European leagues.1425. Tsukasa Shiotani (1988), Japanese: Centre-back who was named in the J.League Team of the Year three years running with Sanfrecce Hiroshima.1426. Folarin Balogun (2001), American: Striker who came through Arsenal's academy and chose to represent the United States at international level.1427. Fabian Schär (1991), Swiss: Swiss centre-back who won league titles with Basel before joining Newcastle United in 2018.1428. Ritsu Dōan (1998), Japanese: Winger who scored against both Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup for Japan.1429. Laura Dahlmeier (1993–2025), German: Biathlete who won two gold medals, in the sprint and pursuit, at the 2018 Winter Olympics.1430. Yu Kobayashi (1987), Japanese: Forward named J1 League top scorer and MVP in 2017 as Kawasaki Frontale won their first title.1431. Mitsuru Nagata (1983), Japanese: Japanese footballer who earned a place in the national team during his professional career.1432. Seiichiro Maki (1980), Japanese: Forward who played for Japan at the 2006 World Cup and spent much of his club career at JEF United.1433. Ryo Miyaichi (1992), Japanese: Fast Japanese winger who joined Arsenal as a teenager and had loan spells at Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic.1434. Yasuhiro Hato (1976), Japanese: Defender who won caps for Japan during a long career in the J.League.1435. Kazumichi Takagi (1980), Japanese: Japanese professional footballer who built a career in the domestic leagues before retiring from playing.1436. Daisuke Sakata (1983), Japanese: Forward who rose to prominence at Yokohama F. Marinos and went on to win caps for Japan.1437. Hisato Sato (1982), Japanese: Prolific striker who scored freely for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, helping them win the J.League title in 2012.1438. Hiroshi Kiyotake (1989), Japanese: Attacking midfielder who played for Cerezo Osaka, Nürnberg and Sevilla, and represented Japan at the 2012 Olympics.1439. Kota Yoshihara (1978), Japanese: Forward who won caps for Japan's national team and played in the J.League for Consadole Sapporo.1440. Satoru Yamagishi (1983), Japanese: Former footballer who won international caps for the Japan national team during his playing career.1441. Gōtoku Sakai (1991), Japanese: Japan left-back who played in the Bundesliga for Stuttgart and Hamburg before joining Vissel Kobe.1442. Yoshiteru Yamashita (1977), Japanese: Footballer who won caps for the Japan national team during his career in Japanese football.1443. Yoichiro Kakitani (1990), Japanese: Forward named in Japan's 2014 World Cup squad after a prolific 2013 season with Cerezo Osaka.1444. Mark Milligan (1985), Australian: Australian midfielder who captained the Socceroos and played at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups before moving into coaching.1445. Hideo Hashimoto (1979), Japanese: Midfielder who won the J.League and the AFC Champions League with Gamba Osaka.1446. Shūichi Gonda (1989), Japanese: Goalkeeper who went to two World Cups with Japan and later starred for Vissel Kobe.1447. Eljif Elmas (1999), Macedonian: Midfielder who played in North Macedonia's first major tournament, Euro 2020, and won Serie A with Napoli.1448. Masashi Motoyama (1979), Japanese: Attacking midfielder who helped Kashima Antlers win the 2000 domestic treble and played at the Sydney Olympics.1449. Hajime Hosogai (1986), Japanese: Versatile midfielder who won the 2011 Asian Cup with Japan and played in the Bundesliga.1450. Kalvin Phillips (1995), British: Midfielder who helped Leeds United return to the Premier League and reached the Euro 2020 final with England.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.

Warren Zaïre-Emery

Djibril Sidibé

Yoshinobu Minowa

Viktor Claesson

Shusaku Nishikawa

Anders Lindegaard

Zlatan Ljubijankič

Tsukasa Shiotani

Folarin Balogun

Laura Dahlmeier

Kazumichi Takagi

Hiroshi Kiyotake

Satoru Yamagishi

Yoshiteru Yamashita

Yoichiro Kakitani

Hideo Hashimoto

Masashi Motoyama

Kalvin Phillips

Who Shares My Birthday.

Browse by occupation

Famous Athletes

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

1,524 athletes in our database, ranked by historical popularity. Page 29 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 #1401)

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

More occupations