Top 15 most marketable athletes in 2024

Since its launch in 2010, SportsPro's list of the Top 50 Most Marketable Athletes has monitored athletes' popularity in a variety of categories. The index has listed 320 individual athletes since its first edition 12 years ago.

With 65 players having made the honor roll in the publication's history, football is the sport with the greatest representation on this list, demonstrating its status as the most popular sport in the world.

With 14 appearances on the list, Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton has more appearances in the top 50 than any other athlete. Hamilton's name was only excluded from the list once, in 2019.

Simone Biles, the only athlete to top the list twice, is ranked #1 this year. She took first place in 2021, surpassing former American football player Ashlyn Harris and tennis player Naomi Osaka.

At 39, the three oldest players in the top 50 are LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lewis Hamilton. The youngest person on the list is 17-year-old Spanish football prodigy Lamine Yamal.

15. Sunisa Lee

Sunisa Lee is an artistic gymnast who has won six medals at the Olympics in just two editions. Lee became the first Asian American woman to win a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the same year, she also won a bronze and a silver.

In the team event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Lee assisted the United States in winning a gold medal. She won bronze in both the uneven bars and individual all-around events, bringing her total to three in Paris.

With three medals to her credit, Lee's breakthrough performance occurred at the 2019 US National Championships. In 2021, the highly decorated gymnast was named Sports Illustrated’s Female Athlete of the Year.

14. Noah Lyles

At the end of the 2024 Paris Olympics, American track and field star Noah Lyles won a gold medal in the men's 100-meter event. Lyle won his first Olympic title with a personal best time of 9.79 seconds in the 100-meter dash final.

Lyles added a bronze in the 200-meter race as well. After winning bronze in the 200-meter event in Tokyo 2020, it was a rerun performance. He has also won the Diamond League four times and won gold at the World Championships three times.

13. Coco Gauff

After winning the 2023 US Open single titles at the age of 19, Coco Gauff went from being a relative unknown to one of the most popular tennis players. She became the youngest woman to win in New York with that victory. After winning in Auckland, Washington, and Sydney that season, she won her fourth title at Flushing Meadows.

Gauff already has a stacked résumé that is the envy of many budding tennis players. From the 2019 Linz Open to the 2014 China Open, Gauff has won nine WTA-level singles championships. Alongside Katerina Siniakova, the American also won the French Open doubles championship in 2024.

12. Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce has been with the Kansas City Chiefs for 12 seasons. In the 2013 NFL Draft, Kelce was selected by the Chiefs as the first of two third-round selections. The Chiefs' tight end, Kelce, has caught a pass in 158 straight games, which is the longest streak in the team's history.

He needs just three more games to overtake DeAndre Hopkins (161) as the current active streak holder. Kelce has 11,328 receiving yards to his name, the most by a Chiefs player. After Dante Hall (12,356), he is the only player in franchise history to have more than 11,000 total yards.

The Chiefs, led by Travis Kelce, have won three Super Bowls: against San Francisco in 2020, against Philadelphia in 2023, and against San Francisco again in 2024. Their latest win against the 49ers was their third Super Bowl in five years.

11. Lewis Hamilton

British racer Lewis Hamilton is associated with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Over his 18-year career, he has made 351 starts with 105 wins. Hamilton has climbed to the top of the podium 201 times and held the pole position 104 times.

Hamilton has seven Driver's Championship victories to his name. In 2008, at the age of 23 years and 300 days, he became the youngest World Champion. Lewis Hamilton went on to win the title in 2014 and 2015 and four more times between 2017 and 2020.

10. Katie Ledecky

American competitive swimmer Katie Ledecky first gained notoriety at the 2012 London Olympics. In London, Ledecky won the 800m freestyle gold at the age of 15. The American went on to become Olympic champion, covering all distances from 200m to 1500m.

Throughout the four Olympics—London, Rio, Tokyo, and Paris—Ledecky has won 13 medals. Her medal total following the Paris Games is nine gold, three silver, and one bronze. In the 2024 Summer Games, she added two gold, one silver, and one bronze to her medal haul.

9. Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo plays as a forward and is one of the most prolific scorers in football. The Portuguese has won five Champions League titles in addition to individual honors. Four of those wins came with Real Madrid and one with Manchester United.

With 451 goals, Ronaldo is Real Madrid's all-time top scorer and the first player to win the UEFA Champions League five times. Ronaldo set the record for most goals scored by a Real Madrid player in a single season in 2014–15 with 61 goals.

8. Ilona Maher

Ilona Maher is a professional rugby sevens player hailing from Burlington, Vermont. At the age of 17, she started playing rugby. Maher, a two-time Olympian, took home the bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

With their third-place finish in the Rugby 7s in a century, Team USA earned their first medal. They won 14–12 against the more favored Australian squad. Team USA came in sixth place at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Maher was a recipient of the 2017 MA Sorensen Award for National Player of the Year.

7. Kylian Mbappe

At the age of 16, Kylian Mbappe started his professional career with AS Monaco in 2013. He later moved to PSG and, most recently, Real Madrid. Mbappe won the Ligue 1 title on six occasions with Monaco in 2017 and five more times after his move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023.

Along with Paris Saint-Germain, Mbappe won the French National Cup three times in 2018; 2020; and 2021. Winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup with the French national team at the age of 19 was the high point of his career.

6. Rebeca Andrade

Rebeca Andrade overcame three serious ligament injuries during her career in artistic gymnastics. Andrade had to undergo three reconstructive surgeries in order to make a full recovery.

Andrade made history at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by taking home the gold in the vault competition and then finishing second in the individual all-around competition. She was the first female gymnast from Brazil to take home an Olympic medal. She increased her total by one gold, two silver, and one bronze while she was in Paris. At the world championships, Rebeca Andrade has won three gold, four silver, and two bronze. 

5. Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi, a football player from Argentina and Inter Miami, got his big break in the 2000–01 season when he joined FC Barcelona in La Liga as a member of their under-14 team. He moved to the senior side in 2004 and remained with them until 2021. He scored a record 474 goals in La Liga, 672 goals for Barcelona, and 10 La Liga titles during his 17 seasons with FC Barcelona.

Four Champions League titles, two Copa América titles, seven Copa del Rey titles, eight Ballon d'Or honors, and an Olympic gold medal (2008 Beijing) are among Messi's other notable accomplishments. His victory with Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup was the apex of his football career. It was Argentina’s first World Cup in 36 years.

4. Caitlin Clark

Caitlin Clark hails from Des Moines, Iowa. She plays women’s college basketball for the University of Iowa. During her four years at Iowa, Clark broke numerous NCAA records while playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Her achievements include scoring the most points (3,951) of any male or female college athlete in NCAA history. Clark is the first player in college basketball history to record at least 3800 points, 1000 assists, and 950 rebounds with 1,144 career assists and 990 rebounds.

At the moment, Clark is a member of the Indiana Fever, a WNBA team. She was selected in the first round of drafts and is playing in her first season in the WNBA. In the first week of October 2024, the guard for the Indiana Fever was named the 2024 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Among the starting line-up in all 40 of Indiana’s regular-season games, Clark set a single-season record of 337 assists. In the WNBA, she also set rookie records for a single season with 769 points and 122 three-pointers.

3. Lebron James

LeBron James is the NBA's all-time top scorer.  The California native and forward for the Los Angeles Lakers is one of the most successful basketball players in history. Since making his NBA debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003, James has received numerous honors.

In 2018, following stints with the Miami Heat and a reunion with the Cavaliers, he joined the LA Lakers and has remained with them ever since. The 39-year-old, who is currently in his 21st season, has won the NBA Championship four times (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020). In addition, Lebron James has won the NBA Finals MVP award four times (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020).

2. Vinicius Junior

The Brazilian forward Vinicius Junior joined Real Madrid in 2018 and currently plays for them. He carried on Cristiano Ronaldo's legacy by inheriting the renowned No. 7 jersey prior to the 2023–24 campaign. Before joining Real Madrid at the age of 18, the Brazilian started his career at Flamengo.

During the 2023–24 season, the Real Madrid player assisted the Spanish powerhouses in winning both the La Liga championship and the UEFA Champions League. Vinicius Junior, who won Player of the Season in 2023–2024 as well, is this year's Ballon d'Or nominee.

1. Simone Biles

Simone Biles, an 11-time Olympic medallist for Team USA, is an iconic figure in her chosen field of artistic gymnastics. Across three Olympics—Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024—she has won seven gold, two silver, and two bronze medals.

Biles officially overtook Shannon Miller as the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Miller won seven medals between Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. In her illustrious career, Biles has also won 30 World Championship medals, including 23 gold, four silver, and three bronze.

Cover Credits - USA Today