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

[206kid]

Jordan

[Kblaze8855]

The question is how popular each guy is. Meaning how many people know him not how devoted people are to him.

You're right that Beckham fans are more devoted to him, but I bet more people around the world know who Jordan is (ie popularity) even if they aren't going to cry over his last game.

A billion people watch the world cup. At least. I doubt many of them wouldnt know Beckham. Especially considering how many countries have ties to England. I cant see 1 in every 6 people on earth knowing Jordan.

[qrich]

Wow at people acting like it's easily Jordan. It isn't as big a gap as you put it. When it comes to popularity world wise, Beckham is one of the few people that can walk down a random street in a pretty major city in the world and people would know who he is[along with Tiger and especially Shaq + Yao]

[bigboi_baller]

A billion people watch the world cup. At least. I doubt many of them wouldnt know Beckham. Especially considering how many countries have ties to England. I cant see 1 in every 6 people on earth knowing Jordan.

In a 3rd world country like Pakistan, anyone who knows Beckham knows Jordan simply because of the amount of times they are mentioned on TV/Movies/Music. Plus, countries across the middle east and Asian tend to follow American culture (and Jordan is a cultural icon) rather than British/Euro culture.

They watch soccer but they don't identify players as individuals. In basketball, its easy to distinguish players as individuals. Nike marketing has caused tons of fake Jordan shoes and clothing throughout asia. Whenever I go to Pakistan, I see fakes Jordan shirts in a lot of sports shops. There are also a ton of soccer jerseys, but the people buy those jerseys for the team/country rather than the player himself. They think of soccer in terms of teams.

In Saudi Arabia, I found a store selling Jordan shoes and a fake store with more J's down the street. They marketed Jordan as an "American athlete" while the soccer jerseys were marketed in terms of "this team won this title."

You think so? Think about some countries where basketball takes a back seat to soccer/futball. Think of small towns in Sweden, France, Holland, Turkey, Poland... Countries with proud soccer heritages. Think that they would know Michael Jordan as opposed to small town USA knows who Beckham is?

Manchester is my home away from home. All the kids on the streets used to wearing Beckham jerseys when he played for United. He was a living legend, everyone knew him.

But at the same time, everyone knew who Jordan was as well. They don't know specifics, but they recognize that he was an "black American basketball players who was the greatest ever." People recognize the jumpman logo in the UK and even rock the shoes. Stores like Footlocker have made Jordan shoes an everyday thing in England. Television, movies, and American culture has made knowing who Jordan is general knowledge.

Around the world, Jordan is better recognized because there's always been a lot of good footballers and they rise and fall. Beckham had his years of fame, but Jordan is a world wide icon because of his accomplishments on the court and JB which cemented him as an American icon.

[bdreason]

Jordan.

Beckham is known all over the world because he plays Football (soccer).... but never has he been the best Football player on the planet.


Jordan is a global icon and also considered by many to be the best of all time.

[23airjordan23]

Jordan,
Becham used to wear No. 7 and also jordan had alot of his merchandise with no.23.

[Beebo]

Ummm Beckham became famous with #7. Besides, he's super overrated.

[starface]

Take into account how popular futball is in comparison to basketball on a worldwide stage. Not only the fact that Beckham has some sort of celebrity status being married to Posh. I don't think it's as lopsided as people are thinking. Think outside the North American box.

nah dude beckham isnt and never was nearly the icon in soccer that jordan was to basketball.

no person has ever been the face of a sport more than michael jordan and basketball. ever. he is the Number 23

[Kblaze8855]

In a 3rd world country like Pakistan, anyone who knows Beckham knows Jordan simply because of the amount of times they are mentioned on TV/Movies/Music. Plus, countries across the middle east and Asian tend to follow American culture (and Jordan is a cultural icon) rather than British/Euro culture.

I imagine if you are in a third world country you need a tv to know either one. Hard to have a tv and be anything close to a sports fan and not know Jordan. You might see a face on a shirt or a bottle but im not sure id call that knowing a guy.

They watch soccer but they don't identify players as individuals. In basketball, its easy to distinguish players as individuals. Nike marketing has caused tons of fake Jordan shoes and clothing throughout asia. Whenever I go to Pakistan, I see fakes Jordan shirts in a lot of sports shops. There are also a ton of soccer jerseys, but the people buy those jerseys for the team/country rather than the player himself. They think of soccer in terms of teams.

In Saudi Arabia, I found a store selling Jordan shoes and a fake store with more J's down the street. They marketed Jordan as an "American athlete" while the soccer jerseys were marketed in terms of "this team won this title."

I think the clothes thing is a little hard to call. Wearing Jordans might mean you know the guys name...doesnt mean you know who he is. I know black kids in america right now who wear jordans and wouldnt know the guy if he walked in. The kinds of 3rd world people who would buy ripoff Jordans because Jordans are the thing to buy arent likely to know what happened in the 1991 NBA finals are they? Are we talking name recognition or actually knowing a guy?

Anyway this is something that comes up now and then. Some say they go places and nobody know anything about basketball or who plays it but everyone know every soccer star. I cant say. Ive not been to India or...wherever.

But with a billion plus people watching them play I gotta assume more people know soccer players than anyone in any other sport. Even if you just root for a country....how do you not know the guy whos name gets mentioned 600 times per broadcast and gets zoomed in on every time? What is Jordan gonna do to be seen by 1.4 billion people at once? Go streaking during the world cup perhaps?

The olympics gets attention to but its a much more spread out thing covering many many sports and so on.

Soccer is just such a big deal to billions of people. How can you watch a game with a broadcast in your language and not even hear about the most popular players? I know beckham isnt in all games...and that he isnt as good as he is popular. But still.

A billion fans is a billion fans. Beckham and company have a stage too big for me to assume millde eastern merchants selling knockoffs to kids who never saw the guy play have more influence.

[darabzarrabi]

I think regardless of who is better down, Jordan and 23 are almost synonymous now, a lot of the people that are into Beckham dig his charisma etc, but he wasn't marketed as Jordan was with his number, so I will have to go with Jordan

[hateraid]

I think regardless of who is better down, Jordan and 23 are almost synonymous now, a lot of the people that are into Beckham dig his charisma etc, but he wasn't marketed as Jordan was with his number, so I will have to go with Jordan

Agreed that Jordan is synonymous with 23. Just like if Zidane wore 99 it wouldn't be as iconic as Gretzky wearing it.
Guess my wordplaying in the title was to compare the poularity of Jordan to Beckham worldwide. That's the only way I can word it to link the 2 together.

[Kblaze8855]

Well yea Jordan is #23. I didnt even know Beckham wore it. Not that I know much of anything about soccer to begin with.

[Chicago76]

They watch soccer but they don't identify players as individuals. In basketball, its easy to distinguish players as individuals. Nike marketing has caused tons of fake Jordan shoes and clothing throughout asia. Whenever I go to Pakistan, I see fakes Jordan shirts in a lot of sports shops. There are also a ton of soccer jerseys, but the people buy those jerseys for the team/country rather than the player himself. They think of soccer in terms of teams.

For "real fans" of teams this is true, but for the Beckham hype machine it isn't. Real Madrid bought David Beckham because he could sell more merchandise for the club, not for him to be the 6th best player on RM. The LA Galaxy (w/ help) spent $200 million to secure his services to sell more jerseys and merchandise. The number 23 might be more synonymous with Jordan, but that doesn't make him more recognizable on the street, on billboards, or to the average guy in Asia, Africa etc. Beckham is most likely the most popular athlete to wear #23, even though #23 and Beckham don't automatically go hand in hand.

Real and ManU both took pre-season tours to Asia to hype the marketing machine that was David Beckham. Tens of thousands of people showed up at airports in places like Tokyo, Beijing, and Hong Kong just to see him. It made the Dream Team reception in Barcelona look like a church choir tour. Teenage girls are obsessed. It's like a weird cult or something. The closest thing I can think of that reminds me of Beckhamania is the height of Michael Jackson's fame in the mid-80s.

In any soccer-loving country, Beckham will automatically be more well known. That means all of Latin America except Venezuela, Cuba, a couple of other places. That includes all of Europe except maybe Lithuania. That would include China/Japan/Korea, where soccer is still bigger than basketball. That includes the middle east, and it includes Africa. The largest nation this would not cover is India, which thanks to it being a former colony and Bend it Like Beckham makes him more popular there. Throw in the fact that he is half of the most well-known celebrity couple in the world (ahead of Jolie-Pitt) and this is a no brainer.

It might change in a decade or two, but I don't see it changing for a while.

[ukballer]

at everybody who has gone for MJ without considering anything. No surprise that most of you are Americans, and are probably completely unaware of the worldwide affection and appreciation for David Beckham.

This past season David Beckham had the 5th best selling shirt in the World, only behind Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and Rooney. Considering that nobody watches MLS, not even Americans except diehard fans, this is a pretty crazy statistic.

When Beckham joined Real Madrid in 2003, over 50% of the shirts sold in the first few months were his, and generated millions of Euros of merchandise income, and I also read somewhere with the amount of Beckham shirts he had sold generated enough money to completely wipe out the amount of money they had spent on buying Becks in the first place.

The gap is far less than you guys would think, believe me.

Jordan shoes and other apparel are merely fashionable, its not necessarily because its Michael Jordan's name on them. I guarantee if you asked some Europeans (Brits especially), they would know they are wearing Jordan's, but probably the best answer you could get out of some of them is 'Oh isn't he some famous basketball player? I dunno...'.

I'm NOT saying Beckham >>>>>>> MJ in popularity, because no thats not entirely true, I'm just saying the appreciation for Beckham is worldwide while MJ obviously dominates the US market, but less so in other countries. :)

[willds09]

Jordan is more talented and clutch in his game, and is more respected case close!