When we look at all sports, we have to understand how blessed we are to have some of the biggest and most famous people in the world in the sporting industry. Whether you are a fan of soccer, American football, basketball or any other sport, there is always that one athlete who has transcended the sport and become not just an icon in their respective sport, but an icon in sport as a whole.
Today, we want to highlight the biggest stars in the biggest sports and give them all the credit they deserve.
Frankie Dettori – Horse Racing
Horse racing is one of the world’s most prestigious sports and long-standing sports in the world, and that is why sports and sports betting are what they are today. With countless horse racing events and festivals around the world at all times, there is one man who has transcended this sport and become its biggest icon. Unlike other sports where the debate for the greatest could be a toss-up, like Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather and Mohammed Ali, horse racing is a sport where one man stands at the top.
Frankie Dettori is the greatest horse racer the sport has ever seen, with a career spanning decades that is filled with accolades that others have struggled to match. During his prime years, you wouldn’t have a race where Dettori wasn’t the favourite, whether you were placing Gold Cup bets at Boylesports or betting on the British Champions Day, Dettori would always be sat as the favourite with his odds very rarely exceeding 2/1.
This dominance mixed with his impact and personality has led to Dettori being not only the greatest horse racer of all time but the one who changed the sport forever.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – Soccer
Soccer, or football to most people in the world, is the biggest sport around the globe. No matter the country you visit, soccer will be the one they play most except for some exceptions. With this much love for soccer, there are so many athletes in the sport who have transcended the sport in more ways than none.
However, soccer is different from the rest of sports because the debate for the most famous athlete is a tie between two insanely gifted players. Lionel Messi and Cristian Ronaldo have spent most of their career battling for the best player in the world position. Despite our thinking that Messi is the greatest soccer player and most gifted athlete of all time, he would not have been as on top of the world as he was if it wasn’t for Ronaldo and his immense skill and hard work.
These two created a long-standing debate about who the greatest ever player is and this debate skill carries on today even as the players have started to step away from the biggest leagues and competitions.
Messi is naturally the most gifted player of all time, with the most technical ability, but Ronaldo’s skill was based on hard work and intense training. These two changed sports forever and set the bar for every footballer who will come after them.
Basketball
Basketball is a sport that dominates in the US, alongside American football, and has just started to make large strides across Europe with NBA games being held there for the first time. The start of this expansion has shown the size of this sport and this was massively helped by Michale Jordan.
Shown in the film Air, Michael Jordan’s rise from a college star to the best in the world was as quick as can be and teams and businesses were fighting for the signature of the young star. Despite being the number two pick in the draft, Michael Jordan showed why he was number one and became the greatest basketball player of all time, as well as the face behind one of the biggest and most successful shoes in the history of streetwear.