Argentine football icon, Lionel Messi is the most-ranked footballer in the top 100 athletes of the 21st century according to ESPN.
This means that no footballer is as great as Lionel Messi in the 21st century including his career-rival, Cristiano Ronaldo who many believe is worth being called the greatest of all time.
Messi has been more successful than Ronaldo in terms of winning major titles. The Argentine is currently the footballer with the all-time highest number of trophies (45).
Aside from that, he is the first and only footballer to win the Ballon d’Or eight different times, while his career rival, Ronaldo has managed just five victories.
Hence, it might not be a big surprise that the 2022 FIFA World Cup and two-time Copa America winner who currently plays for Inter Miami is the highest-placed footballer in the top 100 athletes of the 21st-century list.
On the list, Messi ranked third behind second-placed tennis icon, Serena Williams, and first-placed swimmer Michael Phelps.
Interestingly, the most followed human being on social media, Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t make the top ten. He was ranked 13th in the top 100 athletes of the 21st century list.
Hence, among the footballers that made the list, Ronaldo is second to Messi, Brazil’s Marta who is ranked 32nd is the highest-ranked women’s footballer on the list and the third-best-ranked soccer star.
France and Arsenal’s icon, Thierry Henry is ranked 48th, Barcelona women’s star Aitana Bonmati is ranked 49th, Zinedine Zidane is ranked 50th, and Luka Modric is ranked 55th.
Other Footballers that made the top 100 athletes of the 21st-century list are Barcelona’s women’s star Alexia Putellas ranked 56th, Mia Hamm of USWNT ranked 64th, Kylian Mbappé ranked 65th, Andrés Iniesta ranked 70th, Xavi Hernandez ranked 75th, Ronaldo Nazário ranked 87th, Ronaldinho ranked 94th, and Zlatan Ibrahimović ranked 95th.
How did ESPN arrive at the top 100 athletes of the 21st century ranking:
Voters were asked to take into account an athlete’s performance just from 2000 onwards, and more than 70,000 votes from ESPN contributors were totaled to produce their top 100 athletes of the 21st century ranking.
