Famous Athletes: Ranked by Popularity (Page 8 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.351. Marcel Desailly (1968), Ghanaian: Defender who won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with France.352. Alessandro Costacurta (1966), Italian: Defender who won seven Serie A titles and five European Cup or Champions League trophies with AC Milan.353. Toshio Iwatani (1925–1970), Japanese: Japan international of the 1950s who played in the national side after the country returned to international football.354. Shigeyoshi Suzuki (1902–1971), Japanese: Coached Japan's national side at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where it beat Sweden.355. Miguel Induráin (1964), Spanish: Cyclist who won five consecutive Tours de France and Olympic time trial gold in 1996.356. Fabien Barthez (1971), French: Goalkeeper who won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with France, and Premier League titles with Manchester United.357. Ruud van Nistelrooy (1976), Dutch: Prolific striker who scored freely for Manchester United over five seasons before joining Real Madrid.358. Susan Polgar (1969), Hungarian: Chess grandmaster who won the Women's World Championship in 1996 and belongs to the famous Polgár sisters.359. Jens Lehmann (1969), German: Goalkeeper who played every league game of Arsenal's unbeaten 2003-04 Premier League title-winning campaign.360. Toni Kroos (1990), German: Won the 2014 World Cup with Germany and five Champions League titles with Real Madrid.361. Gerardo Martino (1962), Argentine: Coach who won the 2018 MLS Cup with Atlanta United and later managed Barcelona and Argentina.362. Ricardo Quaresma (1983), Portuguese: Winger famed for his trivela outside-of-the-foot crosses, who won Euro 2016 with Portugal.363. Alessandro Nesta (1976), Italian: Centre-back who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy and two Champions League titles at AC Milan.364. Tadao Kobayashi (1930), Japanese: Former footballer who earned international caps representing Japan in the national team.365. Freddie Ljungberg (1977), Swedish: Swedish winger who helped Arsenal win the Premier League as part of the unbeaten 2003-04 side.366. Peter Bosz (1963), Dutch: Dutch coach who led Ajax to the 2017 Europa League final and later took charge of PSV Eindhoven.367. Daigoro Kondo (1907–1991), Japanese: Japan international footballer from the sport's pioneering era in the country.368. Erik ten Hag (1970), Dutch: Dutch manager who won Eredivisie titles with Ajax, then the League Cup and FA Cup with Manchester United.369. Wesley Sneijder (1984), Dutch: Playmaker who won the 2010 treble with Inter Milan, then reached the World Cup final with the Netherlands.370. Thiago Silva (1984), Brazilian: Brazilian centre-back who captained Paris Saint-Germain to multiple Ligue 1 titles and lifted the 2021 Champions League with Chelsea.371. Roy Hodgson (1947), British: Well-travelled manager who led England at Euro 2016 and took Fulham to the 2010 Europa League final.372. Wladimir Klitschko (1976), Ukraine: Heavyweight boxer who held the unified IBF, WBO and WBA titles for years before losing to Tyson Fury in 2015.373. Deco (1977), Brazilian: Playmaker who won the Champions League with both Porto and Barcelona.374. Marco Materazzi (1973), Italian: Defender who scored in the 2006 World Cup final and was famously headbutted by Zinedine Zidane.375. Roman Reigns (1985), American: WWE wrestler and former member of The Shield, who held the Universal Championship for more than 1,300 days.376. Unai Emery (1971), Spanish: Manager who won the Europa League four times, three with Sevilla and once with Villarreal, before taking charge at Aston Villa.377. Venus Williams (1980), American: Won five Wimbledon singles titles and Olympic singles gold in 2000, reaching world number one.378. Felix Baumgartner (1969–2025), Austrian: Skydiver who broke the speed of sound in free fall during the 2012 Red Bull Stratos jump.379. Dennis Rodman (1961), American: Rebounding specialist who won five NBA titles with the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls.380. Dražen Petrović (1964–1993), Croatian: Shooting guard who starred for the New Jersey Nets and won Olympic silver with both Yugoslavia and Croatia.381. Daniele Massaro (1961), Italian: Forward who scored twice in AC Milan's 4-0 win over Barcelona in the 1994 Champions League final.382. Carlos Tevez (1984), Argentine: Forward who won the Premier League with both Manchester United and Manchester City.383. Frank de Boer (1970), Dutch: Defender who won the 1995 Champions League with Ajax, then managed the club to four consecutive Eredivisie titles.384. Matti Nykänen (1963–2019), Finn: Ski jumper who won three Olympic gold medals in 1984 and 1988 and four world championship titles.385. Thomas Tuchel (1973), German: Led Chelsea to the 2021 Champions League title and now manages the England national team.386. Pepe Reina (1982), Spanish: Goalkeeper who won three consecutive Premier League Golden Gloves with Liverpool in the mid-2000s.387. Petr Čech (1982), Czech: Goalkeeper who won the 2012 Champions League with Chelsea and set a Premier League record for clean sheets.388. Gabriela Sabatini (1970), Argentine: Won the 1990 US Open women's singles title and reached a career-high ranking of world number three.389. Erling Haaland (2000), Norwegian: Striker who set the Premier League record of 36 goals in a 38-game season for Manchester City.390. Leonardo Araújo (1969), Brazilian: Brazilian who played in the 1994 World Cup-winning squad and later became sporting director at Paris Saint-Germain.391. Patrick Kluivert (1976), Dutch: Striker who scored the winning goal for Ajax against Milan in the 1995 Champions League final.392. David Trezeguet (1977), French: Striker whose golden goal against Italy won the Euro 2000 final for France.393. Tim Cahill (1979), Australian: Everton midfielder who became Australia's record international goalscorer, with a knack for scoring spectacular headers.394. Stefan Edberg (1966), Swedish: Serve-and-volley specialist who won six Grand Slam singles titles and reached world number one.395. Evander Holyfield (1962), American: Four-time world heavyweight champion who beat Mike Tyson in 1996 to claim the WBA title.396. Masashi Watanabe (1936–1995), Japanese: Japan international who later moved into football management after his playing career.397. John Cena (1977), American: Won multiple world championships in WWE and later moved into film, including the comedy Peacemaker series and Trainwreck.398. Shigemi Ishii (1951), Japanese: Former footballer who won international caps for Japan during his playing career.399. Tomáš Rosický (1980), Czech: Creative midfielder who captained the Czech Republic for a decade and spent years at Arsenal.400. Pete Sampras (1971), American: Won 14 Grand Slam singles titles, seven of them at Wimbledon, and finished six straight years as world number one.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.

Marcel Desailly

Alessandro Costacurta

Shigeyoshi Suzuki

Miguel Induráin

Ruud van Nistelrooy

Gerardo Martino

Ricardo Quaresma

Alessandro Nesta

Tadao Kobayashi

Freddie Ljungberg

Wesley Sneijder

Wladimir Klitschko

Marco Materazzi

Felix Baumgartner

Dražen Petrović

Daniele Massaro

Gabriela Sabatini

Leonardo Araújo

Patrick Kluivert

David Trezeguet

Evander Holyfield

Masashi Watanabe

Tomáš Rosický

Who Shares My Birthday.

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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 8 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 #351)

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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