J.J. Watt named to ESPN’s top-100 most famous athletes in the world

Houston Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt is one of the most famous athletes in the world.

ESPN has released their own list of the top-100 most famous athletes in the world.

Texans’ defensive star J.J. Watt made the list at No. 74.

Watt is right in between United State’s women’s soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo who’s at No. 75 and professional golfer Justin Rose (No. 73).

In case you’re wondering, Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is No.1 on the list with LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers at No. 2 and Barcelona soccer star Lionel Messi at No. 3.

ESPN says they came up with a formula that helped them create the list.

"Who are the most famous athletes on the planet? Ben Alamar, ESPN’s director of analytics, devised a formula that combines endorsements with social media following and internet search popularity to create the ESPN World Fame 100 rankings."

Of course you can check out the entire list here.

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I honestly had no idea that Watt is considered to be one of the most popular athletes in the world.

I guess it helps that Watt is certainly one the most popular NFL players and the league has done a nice job of expanding it’s foot print across the globe.