The world’s five most marketable footballers ranked

Cristiano Ronaldo has more to celebrate this week after winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, as sports marketing experts Repucom have just announced research results placing the Ballon d’Or winner as the most marketable footballer in the world currently.

Repucon measured perceptions of over 6,500 people in 13 international markets representing over 1.5bn people, evaluating a range of attributes including awareness, appeal, trust and trendsetting influence amongst other factors, to calculate the most marketable players in the world today.

Results of their research suggested that globally 83.9 per cent of people know of Portuguese star Ronaldo, with 82.5 per cent of people surveyed considering him a trendsetter, with Ronaldo described as an “endorser’s dream” ahead of the upcoming 2014 World Cup in a couple of weeks.

Rival Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Argentina was in 2nd with 76.1 per cent global awareness, while 3rd place was surprisingly taken by Barcelona team-mate and Spain defender Gerard Pique, probably helped by his relationship with well known pop star Shakira.

The most marketable footballers playing for British clubs were represented by Fernando Torres of Chelsea and Spain in 4th place, and Wayne Rooney of Manchester United and England in 5th place.