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

[QUOTE=Kebab Stall]Well then, the title is misleading.

If we are talking about popularity as a whole, then I'll stick to what I said in the final paragraph of my previous post.[/QUOTE]

Lol, that's where my North American ignorance comes in. I've really only associated Beckham with 23. You guys must laugh alot about our ignorance when it comes to futball.

[QUOTE=hateraid]Lol, that's where my North American ignorance comes in. I've really only associated Beckham with 23. You guys must laugh alot about our ignorance when it comes to futball.[/QUOTE]
I'm gussing that when that the majority of Americans, or the non football fans over in the States, only really knew who Beckham was once he signed with Madrid, which was when he changed his number to 23.

[url]http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/1999/jordan_retires/news/1999/01/13/deford/[/url]

A good article on MJ's popularity

[QUOTE]

By now, is not Jordan a figure as cultural as he is athletic? Even several years ago, for example, in a vote of Chinese students, he tied Chou En-lai as "the world's greatest man." And, most people would ask, whatever happened to this Chou En-lai? Nowadays it is blithely accepted that the tall, dark and bald young man has become the most familiar face on the planet Earth, that with the death of Diana, princess of Wales, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, late of Wilmington, N.C., has become the First Celebrity of the World, positively ubiquitous, the human Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt. [/QUOTE]

Of course this was written almost 10 years ago, so the new generation of sports fans may not remember him or have never seen him.

[QUOTE=hateraid]I read thing magazine article a while back and it presented the most popular athlete in any sport to wear a particular number. This article was a while back and at the time Jordan was considered number one at the time to wear number 23. This was in SI so it may have been a little bias and now it's 2008. On a world-wide level of all-time, who is the more popular athlete:

Michael Jordan or David Beckham?[/QUOTE]

since Beckham chose 23 with Real Madrid to capitalize on Jordan's popularity,I think we know the answer.

[QUOTE=Sharas]^as kebab points out, beckham isn't universally associated with wearing #23, and it's really a minor thing when discussing him.

but generally speaking, he's the biggest hype machine in history of sports.
very few countries have a bigger basketball following than football following, and although jordan is surely the most famous basketball player ever, i doubt he's more famous on the world scale. there are so many countries that don't give a **** about basketball (africa, [B]asia almost on the whole[/B]) in comparison to the football.

beckham also became a worldwide celebrity outside the football too much more than jordan. marriage with victoria, fashion stuff, etc...every woman in the world knows who david beckham is, which i wouldn't be so sure to say for jordan.

so i'd say in worldwide appeal and fame, women's votes (along with asia and africa) win it for becks. worldwide you're much, much more likely to meet women who never heard of jordan than who never heard of beckham.[/QUOTE]

NBA Basketball is more popular in China, Taiwan, The Philippines and Korea than any pro soccer league could ever dream of being, including their own domestic ones.

I'd say beckham is more popular for 5 reasons,

1. Football or soccer is a more worldwide game.
2. hes a media whore who will sell anything.
3. his of the pitch life gains more attention then what he does on it.
4.he and his wife will appear to be friends with all/ any celebrities.
5. he is also viewed as a "sex" icon

but when you compare them as athletes and what they accomplished

Jordan>>>>>beckham (and its not even close)

WARNIE!!!

[IMG]http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/images/2007/02/27/shane_warne_nov06_203_203x152.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/13500/13516.jpg[/IMG]

I like all of the arrogant European people on here saying "WELL ITS OBVIOUS THAT YOU AMERICANS WOULD SAY JORDAN!"



Jordan was in like 50 movies, what about Beckham? How about you arrogant FOGBREATHERS (I made that one up for British people) think outside of the UK and realize that just because he was a soccer star in YOUR country it doesn't mean that the other soccer fan countries cared about him (Brazil, Venezuela etc)

Kim Jong Il even knows about Jordan. Nobody in Asia gives a **** about Soccer, they're all about their basketball leagues and the NBA. Beckham is popular in Europe, that's it. You come in here talking about how arrogant Americans are thinking that Jordan is more popular because more Americans know about him and then because Beckham is from England and that he plays soccer that he's automatically more well known because Europeans know about him. Your continent isn't the entire world, get over yourselves.



Arrogant American says Jordan, hands down because of Asia and Pacific Island countries. It's not even close.

[QUOTE=Geandily]I like all of the arrogant European people on here saying "WELL ITS OBVIOUS THAT YOU AMERICANS WOULD SAY JORDAN!"



Jordan was in like 50 movies, what about Beckham? How about you arrogant FOGBREATHERS (I made that one up for British people) think outside of the UK and realize that just because he was a soccer star in YOUR country it doesn't mean that the other soccer fan countries cared about him (Brazil, Venezuela etc)

Kim Jong Il even knows about Jordan. Nobody in Asia gives a **** about Soccer, they're all about their basketball leagues and the NBA. Beckham is popular in Europe, that's it. You come in here talking about how arrogant Americans are thinking that Jordan is more popular because more Americans know about him and then because Beckham is from England and that he plays soccer that he's automatically more well known because Europeans know about him. [B]Your continent isn't the entire world, get over yourselves.[/B]



Arrogant American says Jordan, hands down because of Asia and Pacific Island countries. It's not even close.[/QUOTE]
That's delightful coming from a yank.

[QUOTE=Kebab Stall]That's delightful coming from a yank.[/QUOTE]
Agreed.

[QUOTE=JtotheIzzo]NBA Basketball is more popular in China, Taiwan, The Philippines and Korea than any pro soccer league could ever dream of being, including their own domestic ones.[/QUOTE]

i know what you're saying but still, everything included, much, much more people globally watch football than basketball.

and even though becks isn't in GOAT discussions in his sport, he's among the most famous footballers ever if not the most famous one. i bet right now more people who don't follow the sport recognize him than say, pele. he is a celebrity in more ways than one. wikipedia says that his name was the most searched sport topic on google in 2003 and 2004 consecutively.

[QUOTE=Kebab Stall]That's delightful coming from a yank.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for proving my point :D


Here's my point in plain English(American) for you to understand:


All of you Euros are calling Americans arrogant for saying that Jordan is more popular than Beckham, then I call you out on the fact that you Euros only think Beckham is more popular because he's from Europe and then told you to get over yourselves, noting the fact that you had completely disregarded what people in Asia and South America think. Then you replied with this, bravo good sir!

Jordan's been out of the game for some time now. It wouldn't be surprising if he's less popular nowadays than his heydays, but I guarantee he was one of the most recognizable names in the world in the 90's. And this was without the information boom that came with the internet.

Typical western hemisphere thinking, the "logical" Americans think that Bechkam is more popular because they think of Soccer as the "world sport" (IE it's played in every Western Hemisphere country) whereas Jordan is only an NBA star (only played in the US & Canada)

Everyone on here forgot about Asia & the pacific island countries, once again proving the fact that European and American culture is nearly identical.



Edit: Me (possibly) proving myself wrong, [url]http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Micheal+Jordan&word2=David+Beckham[/url]

If we're talking all time, it's not really that close. Michael Jordan's legacy is more popular than David Beckham. Of course, that's in America, I'm not sure how the rest of the world views Beckham. I still would think MJ wins this one.