The quest of finding the world's most famous athlete started off from a question asked by ESPN's Director of Sports Analytics Ben Alamar. They devised a formula to which consolidates the salary and endorsement deals with social media following and Google search fame to find the answer to Alamar's question. Lo and behold, football's Cristiano Ronaldo bagged the No. 1 spot at ESPN's List Of 100 Most Famous Athletes in the world.

ESPN kicked off the creation its list of 100 Most Famous Athletes through statistical analysis of all the athletes in the world. ESPN cited Forbes' 100 highest-paid athletes list to sought input about the athletes' salary, winnings and endorsement dealings. Then their social media following on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were combined along with Google search popularity to make a comparative ranking methodology, ESPN reported.

The figures for salary and endorsement came from the 2015 to 16 seasons. ESPN researchers compiled their endorsement data. NFL salary figures consider only the previous season's salary with any added bonuses paid out in 2015. However, researchers do not match the salary-cap figures for 2016. Meanwhile, the number of followers from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were cut-off until May 12, 2016. On a scale of 0 to 100, Google Trend scores measure the relative popularity of players based on how often their names are searched, ESPN added.

The new rankings do not totally match the version published in the ESPN The Magazine issued on May 9 because many additions to the list were completed after the publication deadline. Below is the Top 10 and the link to List Of 100 Most Famous Athletes .

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

Soccer | Portugal
Salary/winnings: $53M
Endorsements: $27M
Facebook likes: 110.8M
Twitter followers: 41.5M

2. LeBron James

Basketball | United States
Salary/winnings: $23M
Endorsements: $44M
Facebook likes: 22.4M
Twitter followers: 29.6M

3. Lionel Messi

Soccer | Argentina
Salary/winnings: $52M
Endorsements: $22M
Facebook likes: 84.3M
Twitter followers: 13.5K

4. Neymar

Soccer | Brazil
Salary/winnings: $12M
Endorsements: $17M
Facebook likes: 56.4M
Twitter followers: 22.1M

5. Roger Federer

Tennis | Switzerland
Salary/winnings: $9M
Endorsements: $58M
Facebook likes: 14.5M
Twitter followers: 4.7M

6. Kevin Durant

Basketball | United States
Salary/winnings: $20M
Endorsements: $35M
Facebook likes: 10.1M
Twitter followers: 13.5M

7. Tiger Woods

Golf | United States
Salary/winnings: $1M
Endorsements: $50M
Facebook likes: 3.1M
Twitter followers: 5.7M

8. Virat Kohli

Cricket | India
Salary/winnings: $7M
Endorsements: $18M
Facebook likes: 28.3M
Twitter followers: 10.7M

9. James Rodriguez

Soccer | Colombia
Salary/winnings: $10M
Endorsements: $5M
Facebook likes: 29.7M
Twitter followers: 9.6M

10. Rafael Nadal

Tennis | Spain
Salary/winnings: $5M
Endorsements: $28M
Facebook likes: 14.6M
Twitter followers: 9.3M

Click here to ESPN's List Of 100 Most Famous Athletes.

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Tags Football, Espn