Most popular athlete IN THE WORLD ever to wear no. 23: Jordan or Beckham?

[QUOTE=Emile]And one more thing since I"ll know you"ll bring up "Jordan was at the top of his fame in 98". Beckham practically retired from soccer as well. I mean, playing in America, not playing for his national team, it's as if he's retired. I mean, it's like Scottie Pippen playing in Sweden. What's his status? Retired. It's like it doesn't matter that he's playing.
But thats just the thing. Beckham doesn't need to play, be in his prime or whatever. He's famous and known for reasons beyond that. So being practically retired, he's still one of the hottest celebrities. How's that? You rarely see or hear about Jordan, other than America, even more so. Beckham? All around the world aya ya ya... Even if he still isn't relevant to the soccer world. [b]That's one of many differences in favor of David Beckham over Michael Jordan.[/b][/QUOTE]it's still not enough sorry. There is a whole lot more world out there than the USA and UK. And MJ way more popular in the USA, and most other places as well. You can break it down all you want but picking random people from around the world and ask them who is the more popular athlete you will always get MJ.

[QUOTE=yobore]I think the thing is when people say "the world" means UK and Western Europe (though in most of Europe Zidane and Ronaldo was/are as or more popular). In fact the world includes the continents of Asia and Africa, where generally, even in countries where soccer dominates, MJ is much more well known and popular than Beckham.[/QUOTE]

you're kidding yourself. just compare the part of the world that watches world cup and champions league and the part that watches NBA, and you need nothing more. that last sentence is right out of your ass.
basketball in africa, especially compared to football? you got to be joking. not to mention latin america.

[QUOTE=Emile]Beckham still didn't really have a movie. If some day he does, most say he's eying Hollywood, of course it"ll be bigger and more publicized than anything Jordan's ever done in that venture because Beckham is so much bigger as far as entertainment goes. That of course being the USA, we're talking about, the place where MJ's bigger than everywhere else and soccer smaller than anywhere else. Well, Becks still trumps MJ, of course.[/QUOTE]

it was just a joke anyway.

[QUOTE=yobore]it's still not enough sorry. There is a whole lot more world out there than the USA and UK. And MJ way more popular in the USA, and most other places as well. You can break it down all you want but picking random people from around the world and ask them who is the more popular athlete you will always get MJ.[/QUOTE]

:oldlol:

[QUOTE=Sharas]you're kidding yourself. just compare the part of the world that watches world cup and champions league and the part that watches NBA, and you need nothing more. that last sentence is right out of your ass.
basketball in africa, especially compared to football? you got to be joking. not to mention latin america.[/QUOTE]
lol I am not talking about basketball in africa compared to football in africa. I am talking about MJ vs. Beckham. It is not close. Beckham may be popular in Europe but he is not a super-international-phenom like Jordan. He has never dominated soccer. He does get some boost from his celebrity status and the women vote, but really this is not a fair competition. MJ is by far more popular. Most african countries dont even have basketball but people know who MJ is.

[QUOTE=yobore]lol I am not talking about basketball in africa compared to football in africa. I am talking about MJ vs. Beckham. It is not close. Beckham may be popular in Europe but he is not a super-international-phenom like Jordan. He has never dominated soccer. He does get some boost from his celebrity status and the women vote, but really this is not a fair competition. MJ is by far more popular. Most african countries dont even have basketball but people know who MJ is.[/QUOTE]

sorry, that's not "some boost". beckham is a global sex and fashion symbol. he is a regular in every celebrity gossip magazine. he appeals to women in a way no athlete has ever appeared before. him never being a dominant on court player has nothing to do with it. he has reached paris hilton status now, famous for being famous. he transcended the sports themselves and became an worldwide icon in many other ways.

[QUOTE=Sharas]sorry, that's not "some boost". beckham is a global sex and fashion symbol. he is a regular in every celebrity gossip magazine. he appeals to women in a way no athlete has ever appeared before. him never being a dominant on court player has nothing to do with it. he has reached paris hilton status now, famous for being famous. he transcended the sports themselves and became an worldwide icon in many other ways.[/QUOTE]
The tabloid boost is good in the USA and Europe. But it doesn't happen everywhere in the world.

beckham receive one red card is bigger deal than jordan win 6 championship,or anything he has done,that's the fact

More people know Beckham. You can go into the most ghetto area of thailand or Congo and people know who he is.

Only the rich countries know who Jordan is. Most based off his name. They don't actually know who he is, just his brand of clothes and shoes.

See the way that I hope it would be debated was to take it in all context:

basketball vs. soccer
corperate Jordan vs. celebrity Beckham
male appeal vs. female appeal

Every angle is in favor of Beckham on a world-wide stage. Soccer is much larger than basketball. One continent that seemed to be ommitted was South America. In that regard I'd say soccer and it's not even close.
Corperate Jordan does not have as many outlets as celebrity Beckham. Jordan apperell only appeals to the sports apperell enthusiast whereas celebrity Beckham has some sport corperate appeal but has a much greater celebrity fanbase.
Male appeal may be very close but worldwide you have to give a huge advantage to Beckham.

The question was about popularity, not greatness in their own sport. Becks just has way too many outlets to be more recognized.

^^^just the truth. i've explained every one of those angles in my posts, and worldwide beckham has advantage in all three.

jordan should've married scary spice then he'd be #1

[QUOTE=Emile]LOL, I'm going to post this on a soccer board, just flat out do a V Unit and copy paste the whole OP. Let's see what they say.[/QUOTE]

The football fans would, and I am not joking, hunt you down and burn your house down. Then they would have an argy-bargy over who's more famous, Beckham or Ronaldo (pick any of them).

Famous:
Beckham=Jordan

Popular:
Jordan>Beckham

That's my personal opinion anyway, because of football's many great and existing legends, there is a great deal of diversity between support for the best footballers, but Jordan is the face of basketball.

And there was somebody who said that Tiger Wood was overrated, I can tell you, with quite a lot of certainty, that gather a thousand non-basketball, non-golf people in a place and ask each of them 'Who is Michael Jordan, who is Tiger woods, and what do you know about them?" They would answer, "Jordan plays basketball, Woods play golf.' Woods is by no means unknown in this world.

Also, just because Jordan got mobbed by fans in China is no indication of how popularh e is, I mean, McGrady and Garnett visited Hong kong last summer and people were mobbing for them too, does that mean they are as famous as Jordan? Of course not.

I'm not sure I actually understood what I typed.