Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has been named as the world’s most famous athlete ahead of his great rival Lionel Messi.

The Real Madrid star was named by ESPN in their World Fame 100 ahead of NBA star LeBron James and the Barcelona star.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is the most popular athlete in the world

ESPN used a specially created formula to devise the list. The formula combined salary and endorsements along with social media following and Google search popularity to identify the top 100 most popular stars.

The website lays out their criteria by saying, “It started off with a simple question: Who’s the most famous athlete in the world? Ben Alamar, ESPN’s director of sports analytics, devised a formula that combines salary and endorsements with social media following and Google search popularity to create the ESPN World Fame 100 rankings. The names might be familiar, but where the planet’s biggest stars land on the list could surprise you.”

With over over $25m in winnings and endorsements while having a combined 39 million followers on Facebook and Twitter Indian batting sensation Virat Kohli is the highest ranked Indian in the list at number eight.India Test captain Virat Kohli’s reputation as cricket’s biggest global megastar has been validated by the list.The dashing batsman has left behind the likes of world No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic, sprint star Usain Bolt and many other superstars to become the eighth-most popular sportsperson in the world. The other cricketer in the list is Indian limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni at number 14.

Virat Kohli is one of just two cricketers in the list

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is the only other Indian to make it to the list. She is placed at 41.

The list created some interesting results.

Just eight women made the list with Maria Sharapova (18) the highest-ranked on the list.

Maria Sharapova is the highest ranked female athlete in the list

The list is heavily dominated by US athletes with more than half coming from the USA – 56 in total, while England came second with four. Russia, the Dominican Republic, Spain and India had three each.

Ronaldo, who scored the winning penalty to help Real Madrid win their eleventh Uefa Champions League last week, wins the competition by a good margin.

With 110.7million Facebook likes, he is 26.4million ahead of closest rival Lionel Messi (84.3). He also has 11.9million more Twitter followers (41.5million) than closest rival LeBron James (29.6million).