The Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo who helped his side win the La Decima this season has been named the world’s most marketable footballer by global sports market research experts ‘Repucom’.
Second place on the list is Lionel Messi, who until recently was named world’s best player while Gerard Pique of Barcelona surprisingly, clinched the third spot on the list.
The list also had Chelsea striker Fernando Torres ranking as fourth although he has been out of form since arriving Stamford Bridge from Liverpool in January 2011 on a £50million transfer.
Manchester United star, Wayne Rooney made the last of the top 5, having 20million Facebook fans and will be England’s best-known player at this summer’s World Cup.
The list was based on the the perceptions of 16-69 year olds in 13 markets including Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US, representing the views of more than 1.5 billion people.
The players made the marketable list by evaluating eight contributing attributes including the awareness, appeal, breakthrough, trendsetter influence, trust, endorsement and aspiration of and for the celebrity.
See list below:
| Rank | Player | DBI Score | Global Awareness | Facebook Likes* (May 2014) | Twitter Followers (May2014) |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 79.49 | 83.87% | 82M | 26M |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 75.87 | 76.07% | 57M | 2M |
| 3 | Gerrad Pique | 62.90 | 58.08% | 12M | 8M |
| 4 | Fernando Torres | 62.69 | 59.64% | 3M | 2M |
| 5 | Wayne Rooney | 59.47 | 55.82% | 20M | 9M |
| 6 | Andres Iniesta | 59.47 | 58.82% | 20M | 9M |
| 7 | Neymar Jr | 59.36 | 53.33% | 22M | 11M |
| 8 | Iker Casillas | 59.09 | 49.43% | 18M | 1M |
| 9 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | 59.07 | 55.81% | 15M | 1M |
| 10 | Thierry Henry | 57.56 | 51.62% | 16M | 300K |
