South African batsman and ODI captain AB de Villiers is amongst the elite in the upper echelons of sports stardom as he was part of the biggest names in sports in 2018, as he made it onto the ESPN World Fame 100.
ESPN sought out to find the 100 most famous athletes in the world in which de Villiers was ranked 99th, and was the only South African to make it on the list.
The criteria were based on three aspects, search score, endorsements and social following. De Villiers scores were as follows
Search Score: 4
Which measures how often a name is searched (using Cristiano Ronaldo's score of 100 as a baseline).
Endorsements: $4.5-million [57-million]
Which measures how much money athletes make from endorsement deals (sources ranged from Forbes to ESPN contributors).
Social Following: 5.7-million
Measures how many followers athletes have on the major social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter)
De Villiers is regarded as one of the best modern-era batsmen. He holds unprecedented records that still haven't fallen, including the world's fastest 50, 100 and 150 in One-Day Internationals [ODIs], the fastest Test century by a South African, and the fastest 50 by a South African in a T20 [20-over matches].
Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid was number one on the list with more than 120-million following him on social media and $40-million [~R508-million] in endorsement deals. Runner-up was NBA juggernaut LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who has a social media following of more than 40-million and endorsement deals worth $55million [~R698 million].
Lionel Messi completed the top three as the third biggest name in sport with a social following of 88-million and endorsement deals worth $25-million [~R316-million].
To see the rest of the 2018 ESPN World Fame 100: Click here