SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Athletes 2013

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June 2013

THE 50 MOST MARKETABLE ATHLETES 2013 In collaboration with

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THE WORLD’S 50 MOST MARKETABLE ATHLETES In collaboration with

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The 50 athletes you should be investing in over the next three years #SP50MM

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he 50 athletes who appear in the following pages and the order in which they appear will be hotly debated and argued over. That is the one certainty of a list which, since the first edition in 2010, has ranked athletes by their marketing potential over a three-year period.

The ranking is not scientific, although much data was used to put it together; it is a subjective rating, based on expert knowledge, extensive counsel from a range of global sources and just a touch of soothsaying. Cases were made for at least 50 other athletes before the final selection was locked in – others could, doubtless, come up with 50 entirely different names.

As in previous years, the central criteria that shaped the list were value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal. The sporting calendar for the next three years was also closely examined: 2014 throws up, for instance, a winter Olympic Games and a Fifa World Cup, while there are two World Athletics Championships scheduled between now and 2015, by which time the build-up to Rio de Janeiro’s summer Olympics will be in full flow. Four athletes bound for Sochi make the list this year – the likely home hero Alex Ovechkin, ski queen Lindsey Vonn, South Korea’s darling Kim Yu-Na, and action man Shaun White – while the inclusion of American swimmer Missy Franklin for the first time is a reminder that Rio 2016 is beginning to loom on the horizon.

Overall, this year’s list features 19 different sports – or 20 if skateboarding and snowboarding, Shaun White’s disciplines of choice, are counted separately – with eight featuring in the top ten. The list is made up of athletes from 23 countries, with seven different nations in the top ten. There are more women, 14, in the list than ever before and there are 19 new entries in total. 14 athletes have risen from their 2012 ranking, while 16 have dropped. There is one non-mover.

Unsurprisingly, soccer is the most represented sport with nine and a half athletes – the half being the remarkable Ellyse Perry, who has played for Australia in soccer and cricket. There are four Premier League players in the list and two, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel

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The criteria Athletes from across the world have been ranked according to their marketing potential over a three-year period from this summer.

Value for money Age Home market Charisma Willingness to be marketed Crossover appeal

Golfers Shanshan Feng and Guan Tianlang miss out on a list which features no Chinese athletes

Messi, from Spain’s La Liga.

Tennis has more players in the 50 than ever, including five representatives from the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour – the most of any single league, series or tour. Formula One is represented by three current drivers, half of the six motorsport stars in the list. Five golfers, three men and two women, are included in the 50. Four National Basketball Association (NBA) players appear, while there are two representatives each from athletics, ice hockey and boxing.

Aside from Perry, the only other cricket representative is rising Indian star Virat Kohli. There is one athlete each from American football, swimming, baseball, snowboarding/skateboarding, cycling, skiing and mixed martial arts, as well as the first-ever representatives from ice skating and horse racing. For the first time, meanwhile, a 50 Most Marketable list includes a para-athlete, with Brazilian sprinter Alan Oliveira a new entry on account of his nationality and the rising global profile of Paralympic sport.

Perhaps the most conspicuous omissions on this year’s list are Chinese athletes, following the departure of badminton star Lin Dan. Several were considered, in particular golfers Shanshan Feng and Guan Tianlang and tennis star Li Na. Despite winning a Major last year 23-year old Feng, who plays on the LPGA Tour, was deemed to have less marketing potential than Yani Tseng and Stacy Lewis, the two LPGA players who made the final 50. Despite a remarkable performance at April’s Masters, 14-year old Guan was ultimately deemed too young to make the list – he will likely not even be starting college in three years’ time. Na, meanwhile, missed out when the value for money criteria was applied.

No other Chinese athlete, with the possible Olympics-related exception of hurdler Liu Xiang, has broken through on the global stage since the days of Yao Ming. Within basketball itself, a huge sport in China, it is now LeBron James and his NBA colleagues who dominate in the country rather than local stars. Indeed, although there is no Chinese national in the list, the country’s influence can still be seen on the 50: the likes of Tiger Woods and the soccer players in the list are all huge stars in China, where the appetite for western sports is vast. Outside China, meanwhile, Asia is represented by athletes from Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea.

Another factor keenly debated as this year’s list was assembled was the extent to which team sports affect marketing potential. For several years, this list has not included any Spanish soccer players, a result of our belief that the Spain national team brand outstrips the stars that comprise it, in marketing terms at

FAQ: why aren’t Beckham, Federer or Bryant in the list?

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ny list based on marketing potential is likely to have its fair share of high-profile absentees. The 50 Most Marketable Athletes is no different.

David Beckham, to cite a prime example, has never appeared on the list. That is no reflection on his skills as a player nor on his undoubted star appeal when it comes to marketing and product endorsement, but simply a reflection of the huge price tag he commands to be associated with a brand. The likes of Derek Jeter, Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer and Fernando Alonso fall into the same category as, for the first time this year, do New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni. All remain consummately gifted athletes but, for the purposes of

this list, the fact they are established endorsers works against them.

The highest entry on last year’s list to drop out of the top 50 altogether this time around is Tim Tebow. The quarterback was the talk of the NFL a year ago, on the crest of the wave after leading the Denver Broncos into the end-of-season play-offs and then being traded to the New York Jets. At the time it was considered a potentially career-defining move into the world’s largest media market. A year on, Tebow has just been released by a struggling franchise and his marketing appeal has dwindled in parallel. Much the same can be said for the absence of breakout basketball player Jeremy Lin, who was not considered for this year’s list despite being flavour of the month in

early 2012.

Several athletes included last year with London 2012 very much in mind missed out in 2013, amongst them Sir Ben Ainslie, boxer Mary Kom and sprinter Yohan Blake. Olympic legend Michael Phelps, meanwhile, has retired. In other areas of the list there are like-for-like replacements – US female soccer star Hope Solo has been substituted for teammate Alex Morgan, Major League Baseball player Logan Morrison is replaced by Mike Trout, and hockey draft pick Seth Jones is in for Russian Evgeni Malkin. It is the natural ebb and flow of this list: Solo, Morrison and Malkin retain huge appeal but at this moment Morgan, Trout and Jones offer more bang for a brand’s marketing buck.

It has been the year of the marketable couple, with Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn joining Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki in the pairs on this list

least. The German national soccer team has fallen into the same category this year. Several German soccer players were considered, including Mario Götze, Manuel Neuer and Mezut Özil, but it is the strength of the national brand that shines brightest just now in one of Europe’s mega-markets.

Perhaps more than any previous list, this has proved to be the year of the individual sports. There is, to cite but one example, only a single representative from the richest league on the planet, the National Football League (NFL),

in the shape of Washington Redskins’ quarterback Robert Griffin III. This is perhaps a legacy of the past season’s Super Bowl not being dominated by a one-man team and the lack of quarterbacks, still by some distance the NFL’s most marketing-friendly position, at the top of this year’s draft.

The way basketball allows individual characters to shine on and off-court has been well documented in previous versions of this list and tennis and golf players are fixtures in the rankings, too, but there is a new marketability

category evident on the 2013 list too: the sporting power couple. Four athletes on this list have formed two highly marketable pairings – Woods and Vonn having recently joined Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki – while at least two others in our 50 are enjoying highprofile relationships with other athletes – Alex Ovechkin with tennis star Maria Kirilenko and Danica Patrick with fellow Nascar driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The celebrity profile such relationships bring is another intriguing element of the marketing mix that makes this list tick.

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Eurosport’s Vincent David on the 50 Most Marketable 2013

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any hours and animated conversations are spent attempting to predict the future of sport. While the calendar of annual events provides dates and locations, predicting the results and the names which will perform at their peak is a less exact science.

This is why the list of the 50 Most Marketable Athletes makes for such fascinating reading.

Which names will carry the profile, values and box-office appeal of their respective events in the years to come both on the field of play and out into the wider society?

If there are two standout themes in the 2013 Top 50 list it is that marketable athletes are getting younger - eight are 21 or under - and individual sports present the biggest marketing opportunities.

As a broadcaster, telling stories is our business. At Eurosport we pride ourselves on the breadth and volume of our live sport programming and therefore many of the Top 50 Most Marketable Athletes list are regular faces on the channel and their exploits are reported daily on Eurosport.com.

With the television rights to three tennis Grand Slams every year we are not surprised to see tennis achieve so many names on the list. Increasingly the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open provide a sporting spectacle that can propel a rising

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player into a household name overnight.

In the same way golf, which is also well represented, uses the Majors as its benchmark, so the Grand Slams provide tennis with its focus and give the players an unrivalled live television spotlight in which to shine.

In fact any sport with consistent live television coverage is attractive for brands and advertisers as viewer engagement is so much higher. There is less temptation to change channels when watching live sport, as viewers are attentive and focused, which leads to a better recall of commercial messages.

Tennis represents a well established opportunity for brands. Grunting aside, the players conduct themselves well, are eloquent, good role models and can provide enthralling entertainment. Add to that mix the live TV and media exposure of the Grand Slams and the package is very attractive.

With an average of 13 hours of live sport across our TV channels on any single day Eurosport always faces tough editorial choices, especially when broadcasting individual sports. Deciding which match to broadcast is determined by many factors, but having athletes with box office appeal can make it easier. We want to provide the best possible entertainment through the best athletes performing at their peak.

Add to that live match commentary online, scores and results alerts via mobile apps, interaction on social media and post

match interviews and quickly the visibility for an athlete goes far beyond the field of play and can give commercial brands aligned to the right talent increasing value and exposure.

The judging criteria for the Top 50 sensibly rule out the biggest global names and also smartly take into account the sometimes overlooked factor of home market support. A passionate nation cheering its local hero is a powerful force.

Across Europe sport is always the top rating television genre.

Names like Robert Kubica, Laura Robson, Alex Ovechkin, Virat Kohli and Missy Franklin can all rely on their home market as the prime source of their potential marketability.

So while this year’s list contains 19 new entrants it is surprising that there appears to be little legacy effect from the London 2012 Olympic Games. No host nation Olympic athletes make the cut, except Mark Cavendish, who has his own international appeal, and tennis stars Robson and Andy Murray. It falls to three exceptional athletes to carry the Olympic flame; American swimmer Missy Franklin, Kenyan gold medallist David Rushida and Usain Bolt.

Is Vincent Kompany really more marketable than Ryan Lochte, Mo Farah, Laura Trott, etc? Will he be a long-term marketable star of the future? It will be hard to predict, but an interesting conversation nonetheless.

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Katie Walsh Irish, 28, Horse Racing

atie Walsh is not the most successful jockey, nor is she the most popular. In fact her chosen discipline, jump racing, is not nearly as widely practised around the world as its flat cousin. But, more than any of her peers, the Irishwoman has the potential to be at the centre of a global, historic story. The Grand National is the most anticipated annual horse race in the UK. It is arguably the hardest to win and is certainly the one that non-racing fans tune in to watch.

What was once simply a great British event, part of the fabric of domestic tradition, is now broadcast around the world to a potential audience of 600 million in 140 countries. First run in 1839, not one of its winners in the following 173 years has been female. Walsh, sister of renowned jockey Ruby and daughter of trainer Ted, made history in 2012 when she became the highest female finisher in third, confirming her candidacy to make even more. This year she started the race as favourite, only for her horse, Seabass, to run out of steam. Never has there been a woman more likely to win the National, and at 28, Walsh has much of her career ahead. JE

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Robert Kubica Polish, 28, Motorsport

he Robert Kubica story may not have a happy ending, but there is still hope where once there was none. The Pole, considered one of Formula One’s future superstars from the moment he made his Grand Prix debut in 2006, is only now making his return to international motorsport after a truly horrific rally accident in February 2011. He could easily have been killed and only hours of delicate reconstructive surgery saved his hand – to which he had suffered the most serious of a variety of bad injuries. Progress since has been frustratingly slow for a man whose business is speed, his career very much on hold throughout a tortuous rehabilitation. In 2013, though, he is taking the first steps back into the sport, signing an agreement with Citroën to compete in both the World and European Rally Championships. Deals with Polish petrol firm Lotos and racewear manufacturer Alpinestars, both of whom are backing his exploits this year, are the first indications of renewed commercial momentum around a man who, at 28, still has time on his side. While there is scepticism about whether Kubica will ever have the hand and wrist dexterity required to race in Formula One again, his inclusion on this list is based on the potential that the man Fernando Alonso maintains would be the quickest of all in Formula One today does make what would be a quite remarkable, not to mention popular, comeback. DC

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Gareth Bale British, 23, Soccer

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areth Bale announced his arrival on the world stage with a Uefa Champions League hat-trick at Inter Milan’s San Siro almost three years ago but only this season has he turned sporadic brilliance into genuine potency. Given a freer, more central role in the Tottenham Hotspur XI, Cardiff-born Bale has become one of the Premier League’s top performers, a consistent match-winner who has lit up English soccer with his raiding runs, explosive pace and ability to score spectacular goals. Any failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League may or may not spell the end of Bale’s tenure at the north London club but a lucrative move to a European powerhouse surely beckons soon for the PFA Player and Young Player of the Year, who has become a leading target for a host of top clubs. And yet despite his heightened stock Bale is still, astonishingly, more or less a blank commercial canvas.

Besides a boot deal with Adidas and a digital rights agreement with Sundog Pictures, a company co-run by Richard Branson’s son Sam, Bale and his agent Jonathan Barnett have plenty of real estate left to fill. And with BT Sport set to throw its weight behind Bale by giving him a three-year deal to front its entry into the British sports broadcasting market, the value of an association with the Welshman stands only to rise. ML

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Dale Earnhardt Jr American, 38, Motorsport (45)

fter over 20 years in stock car racing there is little that has not already been said about Dale Earnhardt Jr, with perhaps a single exception: “Dale Earnhardt Jr, Sprint Cup champion.” Though he will now never emulate the achievements of his late father the 38-year-old remains an American sporting institution, winner of Nascar’s Most Popular Driver award ten years in a row, and there will be fevered interest in his career as long as he remains a realistic contender for the title. So far, he and his number 88 Chevrolet have been running well in 2013. When not behind the wheel, Earnhardt is the face of one of the biggest brands in world motorsport – team owner, entrepreneur, spokesman and hundred-millionaire.

In the Sprint Cup, his primary sponsor remains the National Guard, and brands like Mountain Dew, Hellmann’s, Great Clips and Wrangler know he is a figure trusted and admired by millions in Middle America and beyond. EC

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Anderson Silva Brazilian, 37, MMA (37)

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FC middleweight champion, ten-time title defender, king of the highlight reel and generally accepted as the greatest mixed martial artist since the sport broke into the mainstream, Anderson ‘Spider’ Silva is part of the MMA furniture.

Though the 38-year-old has dropped in this year’s list, his is still the face of the UFC. His commercial appeal was underpinned by the global expansion of his deal with Nike in October 2012, which made him only the second UFC fighter – along with American Jon ‘Bones’ Jones – to have a global deal with the sportswear giant.

That, in addition to his partnerships with Burger King, Ford and Brazilian soccer team Corinthians among others, cemented Silva as the go-to guy for sponsors looking for a piece of the UFC pie. In contrast with the likes of Jones, who was marked as one to watch on this list last year but whose high-profile misdemeanours have seem him become a risky investment for marketers, Silva’s enduring popularity and his June date with Chris Weidman have ensured his commercial value remains high. As long as ‘super fights’ against Jones or Georges St-Pierre remain a possibility before retirement – and, if the UFC’s outspoken president Dana White or Silva’s agent Jorge Guimaraes are to be believed, they do – then the São Paulo native has the potential to get even bigger in his sport than he currently is. IM

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Danica Patrick American, 31, Motorsport (49)

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ore hardened Nascar fans may not yet be convinced of her ability behind the wheel of a stock car and frustrated by the disproportionate amount of television coverage she receives, but there is no denying that Danica Patrick has become the sport’s latest transcendent star. The former Indycar driver spent last year in Nascar’s second-tier championship and ran a handful of races in the toptier Sprint Cup. In 2013 she has embarked on a full Sprint Cup season, backed by long-time sponsor Go Daddy, the internet domain name registration company for which she has starred in many a Super Bowl advert over the years. The trailblazing Patrick wasn’t entirely responsible for the 30 per cent increase in Fox’s ratings for February’s Daytona 500, but that she started from pole position and ran up front for the whole race certainly didn’t hurt. Her exploits, with the added intrigue of a new relationship with fellow Nascar driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr, are winning Nascar new fans and have made her a national story across the USA for the first time since she was challenging for the Indianapolis 500 in the mid-2000s.

Despite struggling at more technical tracks since Daytona, Patrick is already safely amongst the top ten Nascar drivers in merchandise sales. It is the type of marketing power first demonstrated in 2006 when, according to Forbes, she was responsible for 43 per cent of all merchandise shifted by Indycar. DC

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Kim Yu-Na South Korean, 22, Figure Skating

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n Olympic champion in a world of her own, Kim Yu-Na returned from a year’s hiatus in 2013 to re-establish herself as the most dominant of winter athletes. The South Korean reclaimed her ladies’ singles

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crown at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in London, Ontario in March by a margin unmatched since a new scoring system was introduced in 2004. Still just 22, she has entranced a nation – and the international skating

Stacy Lewis American, 28, Golf

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he sporting world stood up and took notice when American Stacy Lewis came from behind to win this year’s Arizona LPGA event and take top spot in the world rankings from Yani Tseng in March. But it was her story, not her performance, that grabbed the attention. Here was a player who, barely a decade ago, was lying on a hospital bed undergoing surgery to treat a severe curvature in her spine. Needless to say, a career in golf looked more than unlikely at that time and yet, despite all the odds being stacked against her, the 28-year-old’s rise has hardly surprised those in the know. A Major winner in 2011 who went on to be named the LPGA’s Player of the Year in 2012, Lewis is a true fighter who has been making waves ever since she turned pro in 2008. The LPGA Tour itself has been gathering commercial momentum in recent times thanks largely to an explosion in Asian interest but it is Lewis, as the leading American on tour, who is helping to drive growth on home shores. Two of her personal sponsors – Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) and Pure Silk – have already signed up in support of LPGA tournaments.

Managed by Sterling Sports Management, Lewis’ personal portfolio also includes KPMG, Omega, The Antigua Group and Mizuno. ML

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community – with remarkable technical skill and haunting poise. “The thing about Kim is that she has this ability to tell a story and take you with her,” said US champion Ashley Wagner, speaking to Sports Illustrated. “It’s so clean from start to finish.” That quality has brands in South Korea rapt, with Nike, Kookmin Bank, Korean Air, Hyundai and Samsung among those making her one of the world’s best-paid sportswomen. Forbes estimates her earnings at US$9 million a year. It will be a huge loss to her sport if Kim steps away from competition as promised, this time for good, after her Olympic defence in Sochi next year.

She then hopes to combine professional dancing with IOC membership, having served on the PyeongChang bid as the city secured the winter Olympics at the third attempt. A Unicef ambassador, a former entry on the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people, and a philanthropist who has donated millions of dollars to charity, she bears the image South Korea wants to present to the world ahead of 2018. EC

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Mark Cavendish British, 27, Cycling (22)

ritish cycling’s golden boy moved to British cycling’s golden team for 2012, but Mark Cavendish’s stay at Team Sky was short-lived. It wasn’t unsuccessful, per se, but with Sky’s eggs all very clearly in the basket marked ‘Bradley Wiggins: Yellow Jersey’, the Manxman’s opportunities were limited. To see the rainbow jersey of the world champion, especially on the back of a race winner as prolific as Cavendish, bulging with bottles to be distributed to team-mates spoke well of Cavendish’s loyalty but also of his own lack of support from his team. Cavendish bore his duty as domestique to the Wiggins Tour de France campaign with dignity, but for a man with a very real chance of overhauling Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34 Tour de France stage wins, one season of that was enough. Now at the Belgian super-team Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Cavendish will have every opportunity to add to his 23 stage victories at this year’s centenary Tour. What’s more, Simon Bayliff, the WMG agent Cavendish shares with Jack Wilshere, may find he is able to be a little more flexible commercially with his client now that he’s been freed of the shackles of the Team Sky publicity machine. JE

David Rudisha Kenyan, 24, Athletics

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ondon’s Olympic Park reverberated to all kinds of sounds last summer but there was little to match the upward rush of astonishment that left the stadium at the end of the men’s 800m final. The feats of Farah, Ennis, Kirani James and – of course – that man from Jamaica will live long in the memory, but few would argue that David Rudisha produced athletics’ performance of the 2012 Games, stringing an elite field behind him to wreck his own world record in the fastest race of all time. That he did so in front of the watching Sebastian Coe only served as a reminder of the rich history that the Kenyan had stormed through. Aged 24, he has run ten of the fastest 20 times over 800 metres. His father Daniel was a 400m runner who won Olympic silver in the relay at Mexico City in 1968 and David’s own proficiency in that event, where his personal best falls just outside world class, led to some cheeky speculation of a race with Usain Bolt over the distance. Still, a future in the uniquely revered and cosmopolitan middle distances seems likelier. A humble, levelheaded sort, the Adidas-backed world champion carries enormous symbolic power as an African athlete dominating outside the long-distance events.

Coming into a cycle of two IAAF World Athletics Championships in new markets in three years he is no longer, as Vanity Fair called him last July, ‘The Best Olympic Track Star You’ve Never Heard Of’. EC

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Opening Ceremony London 2012 Paralympic Games

Brian McKeever

BUILDING ON THE MOMENTUM OF LONDON 2012

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“The interest in para-athletics at London 2012 was huge with over one million tickets sold,” explained Gonzalez. “All sessions were 80,000 sell-outs and since the Games that interest has snowballed.

s the one-year anniversary of London 2012 quickly approaches, the Paralympic Movement is working hard to capitalise fully on what International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Sir Philip Craven described as the “best Paralympic Games ever”.

“Following London, the hunger cities showed for wanting to host a major para-sport event increased tenfold. They wanted the contracts signed as soon as possible before anyone else came in with a rival bid.”

London 2012 set the benchmark for all future Paralympic events – 2.78 million tickets were sold, a cumulative global TV audience of 3.8 billion watched in over 115 countries, and many athletes such as Brazil’s Alan Oliveira and Great Britain’s Jonnie Peacock went from relative unknowns to household names.

One huge development in para-athletics this year has been the launch of the IPC Athletics Grand Prix – a series of events that aim to give the world’s best athletes a chance to go head-tohead in cities such as Berlin, Beijing and Sao Paulo. June’s IPC Athletics Grand Prix Final in Birmingham is already sold out.

Developing new properties Xavier Gonzalez, IPC Chief Executive Officer, said: “London 2012 made Paralympic sport mainstream for the first time. It’s vital now that we keep it that way leading up to Rio 2016.

Gonzalez said: “The reaction to the launch of the Grand Prix has been fantastic. Many people have likened it to the IAAF Diamond League and that is our eventual aspiration. However, this year our focus is on getting things right on the track and ensuring the sport side runs smoothly.

“To achieve this we need the media and broadcasters to cover para-sport in the years in between the Games and help us continue telling the story of the amazing athletes. However, they will only do this if they have high-profile events to cover.”

Since London 2012 the IPC, which also acts as international federation for eight summer and winter Paralympic sports, has put a lot of work into increasing the appeal of each sport’s competition calendar. This has included finding host cities for many World and regional Championships and developing new properties that will not just showcase the skills of the world’s leading athletes but will also be attractive to the media and sponsors.

One sport that is leading the way is para-athletics. In the six months since the Games closed, IPC Athletics has announced Doha and London as the host cities for the 2015 and 2017 World Championships and confirmed Swansea, Wales as hosts for next year’s Europeans.

@Paralympics

“Next year we’ll look to develop things off the track in terms of broadcasting, media and sponsorship. The good thing is that the interest is there, and hopefully a successful World Championships this July in Lyon will only increase it further.

“Overall, our plan for all IPC sports is to develop the competition calendars so athletes know when and where they will be competing for years to come.”

In addition to the IPC Athletics World Championships taking place this July, Montreal will stage the IPC Swimming World Championships in August. European Championships will also take place in IPC Powerlifting in Russia and IPC Shooting in Spain.

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Alan Oliveira

Growing winter sports

“It’s good to see people getting behind the sport in all kinds of areas. In eight years, it’s grown a lot. I think we’re in a really good place. The level of competition just goes up and up every year.

All photographs courtesy of Lieven Coudenys

Jonnie Peacock

Next March around 700 athletes from 45 countries will gather in Russia for the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics, and even before the Games get underway all sports on the Paralympic winter programme are enjoying sustained growth.

In recent years IPC Alpine Skiing, which for Sochi will also include para-snowboard, has doubled the number of events it stages each year and also doubled participation.

“We have enough races each year. The next step is diversifying where we go in terms of race stops. I think a really good thing that’s probably achievable as a next step is to have a consistent circuit where we go back to the same hills each season.”

The sport now has four clear competition levels, all of which have grown tremendously. During the 2012-13 season, which featured a World Championships in La Molina, Spain, more than 600 athletes from nearly 40 countries took part in over 200 races.

IPC Nordic Skiing, which covers biathlon and cross-country skiing, has mirrored the success of alpine. This season nearly 300 athletes from 22 countries competed on the sport’s circuit – nearly double the amount of total participants from just two seasons ago.

Sylvana Mestre, IPC Alpine Skiing Sport Technical Committee Chairperson, has been one of the key influencers in the sport’s growth and has helped develop the sport’s annual calendar which now features blocks of races in a specific region to ease travel and the transfer of equipment.

Canada’s multi-Paralympic champion Brian McKeever said the number of stops on the circuit have increased so much that he now hand picks his events rather than having to settle for the three or four that used to be on the schedule each season.

“The competitors are being considered as elite athletes in their own countries more and more,” Mestre said. “As the standards of athletes increase so does the interest from the media and the sponsors.”

One athlete who is delighted at the growth in recent years is 22-year-old Australian alpine skier Mitch Gourley, who joined the circuit in 2005.

“I’ve grown a lot with the sport,” said Gourley, who spends around five months a year on the road. “I never thought eight years ago that I’d be racing in Slovenia, but now I do.”

In addition, McKeever and his teammates are now able to specialise in a discipline. McKeever focuses solely on crosscountry skiing, while his compatriot Mark Arendz concentrates all of his attention on biathlon, and they hardly need to cross over due to the high number of events offered.

For further information about all Paralympic sports, please visit www.paralympic.org

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Laura Robson

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British, 19, Tennis

or years Britons have grumbled at their lack of female tennis stars but in Laura Robson they finally have a name on which to pin their hopes. At 19 and having already broken into the world’s top 40, Robson is an emerging talent with the necessary mix of personality and good looks to propel her right the way to the top. After claiming an Olympic silver medal alongside Andy Murray on home soil last summer, the 2008 Wimbledon junior champion went on to become the first British woman since 1990 to reach a main-tour final at September’s Guangzhou Open, displaying the kind of performances that saw her named WTA Newcomer of the Year for 2012. Away from the court, Robson’s future looks equally bright.

Coming as she does from Britain, she has the potential to earn more from endorsements than a top 50 player from across the Atlantic, say, where only a much higher ranking would suffice. Currently represented by Octagon – although there is speculation she will join Murray at XIX – Robson recently signed up to spearhead the growth of tennis at Virgin Active, the health club chain owned by British billionaire Richard Branson. ML

American, 18, Ice Hockey

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s one of the top prospects for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, 18-year-old Portland Winterhawks defenseman Seth Jones is widely tipped to become the first African-American number one pick in ice hockey history. The son of former Denver Nuggets basketball player ‘Popeye’ Jones, at 6ft 4in and 206 pounds Jones is physically more suited to follow his father into the NBA. Yet his frame and athleticism have served him equally well on the ice. With excellent mobility, he possesses both offensive and defensive qualities, blessed with an eye for goal and superb distribution from his own end zone. He is, by all accounts, extremely grounded too, displaying admirable maturity regardless of the hype that surrounds him. Texas-born and Denverraised, Jones has been one of the most written-about prospects this year and stands to be one of the most marketable players in the NHL, which could do with a standout US star, for many years to come. ML

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Shinji Kagawa Japanese, 24, Soccer

n the back of winning Germany’s Bundesliga title and DFB Pokal with Borussia Dortmund at the end of the 2011/12 season, Shinji Kagawa became the first Japanese player to sign for Manchester United last June. The slight attacking midfielder’s arrival coincided with the departure of South Korean star Park JiSung for Premier League strugglers Queens Park Rangers and saw him become the face of the 19-time league champions in Asia: a region which, according to the club, is home to some 325 million United followers. Though the Red Devils’ numerous commercial commitments are likely to tie Kagawa’s hands somewhat in terms of marketing activity – particularly given the arrival of Japanese firms Kagome, Kansai and Yanmar as club sponsors since his signing – any company looking to tap into Asia’s burgeoning soccer market will rank United’s latest recruit at the top of its wish list. And there is scope for local activity: Kagawa was apparently allowed to sign a Japan-specific endorsement with Audi this year despite his team’s blockbuster global deal with Chevrolet. A Premier League winner’s medal to add to his growing personal collection, as well as the added exposure that he will receive playing for Japan in this year’s Fifa Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup, place him among the most marketable players at one of the most marketable sports teams in the world. IM

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James Harden American, 23, Basketball

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ames Harden is a 6ft 5in man with a beard to match his frame.

Attracting attention is not a problem for him. There are very few frills about the 23-year-old, least of all his nickname. ‘The Beard’ insists his facial hair is not a vainglorious flourish, but simply a legacy of college where he became “that guy with a beard” after letting his “facial hair peach fuzz” grow into something more mature. Harden’s old-school, unpretentious style has already been foregrounded by two of his key endorsers, Nike and Foot Locker, for whom he has done a nice line of deadpan ads. This was a breakout season for Harden. Having won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award on his way to a finals appearance with the Thunder last year, Harden moved to the Rockets for the 2012/13 season, earning an All-Star place and cementing himself as the franchise’s first real star since Yao Ming while eclipsing last year’s poster boy Jeremy Lin in the process. The boy with the peach fuzz at Oklahoma has become the man with a giant beard in Houston, a far larger market, and one he could dominate for years to come. JE

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Ellyse Perry Australian, 22, Soccer/Cricket

llyse Perry is the throwback leading emerging sports into a new era. Aged 16, this presentday, pony-tailed Denis Compton became the youngest person to play cricket for Australia in 2007 – a month before a historic debut for the national soccer team. Now 22, she has represented both in their respective World Cups, defying injury to produce a match-winning contribution in the final of the cricketing version in February. She has so far rebuffed attempts to curtail her daunting schedule, politely telling Canberra United in 2012 that she would seek new employers rather than play less cricket and moving on to Sydney FC. Assuming she recovers in time from ankle surgery her fast bowling will be a feature of an Ashes summer in England which could raise the profile of women’s cricket and confirm Australia’s pre-eminence in all three forms of the game. On the field, she may stay within the confines of women’s sport – the first woman to play Sydney men’s grade cricket in 117 years in November 2010, Perry has nonetheless spoken carefully about avoiding “token gestures” in breaking the gender divide.

Off it, this unique all-rounder has found time for an economics and social sciences degree at the University of Sydney, and roles in radio and television. That has still left room for sponsors: deals are in place with Adidas and Commonwealth Bank and she has appeared in campaigns for Microsoft. Perry is personable, presentable and at ease in front of a camera, but it is her example that makes her extraordinary. EC

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Shaun White American, 26, Snowboarding/Skateboarding (17)

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hough Shaun White’s ranking in this list is significantly lower than in previous years, the 26-year-old Californian retains his title as action sports’ biggest draw. Fellow X Games stars such as Travis Pastrana have their backers, but White’s mainstream appeal and profile among non-action sports fans make him the first choice for sponsors looking to make the leap into skateboarding or snowboarding. His colossal commercial portfolio – which includes the likes of BFGoodrich Tires, GoPro, Oakley and his own clothing line with Burton – is evidence of his marketing power and has helped him make the always tricky transition from rebellious thrill-seeker to corporate ambassador in a way not seen since Tony Hawk. A charge of public intoxication and vandalism in September last year saw the double Olympic gold medallists make headlines for all the wrong reasons – a sign, perhaps, that the rebellious side remains – but White will undoubtedly still be one of NBC’s faces of the winter Olympics in Sochi next year. The expansion of ESPN’s X Games franchise into Brazil, Spain and Germany is also likely to futher enhance his international exposure in the coming years. IM

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Bubba Watson American, 34, Golf (20)

inning the 2011 Masters hasn’t changed Bubba Watson. That much was clear when his menu selection for the Champions dinner at this year’s event, a right of the defending champion at Augusta, was revealed in April: Caesar salad, then chicken breast, green beans, corn and mashed potato. In a sport where high-profile, cleancut, marketing-friendly athletes abound – Mickelson, Donald, Furyk, Rose, Westwood and Poulter to name but six – Floridian Watson continues to offer something unique. His unorthodox but evidently rather effective swing marks him out amongst his peers, as does the kind of rabble-rousing performance he used to stoke up the US supporters at last year’s Ryder Cup in Chicago.

He will no doubt be a key figure when the Americans take on Europe in Scotland next year. Watson’s popularity and likeable family-man personality have endeared him to sponsors as well as fans, with Oakley selecting him to effectively replace Rory McIlroy as its leading golf endorser early this year – he has already memorably appeared in an Oakley viral driving around in a ‘hover golf cart’, an idea developed by Bubba and the company. Managed astutely by Arizona-based Pro Sport Management, Watson clearly still has marketing momentum from his day in the sun at Augusta. A return to winning form, though, is a priority for this golfing everyman and the brands that back him. DC

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Lucas Moura Brazilian, 20, Soccer (43)

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ucas Moura has been making his case that some things talk louder than money. Given the cynicism that surrounds the Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain project in some quarters, it was inevitable that the Brazilian midfielder’s decision to turn down the mighty Manchester United and take the riyals on offer in France would draw questions about the nature of his ambition. But the 20-year-old has issued his response in the only forum that matters, turning heads with a string of persuasive performances since his €45 million January move to Ligue 1 from São Paulo. Lucas shares a dressing room with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Beckham – and in April shared a pitch with Barcelona in the Champions League – but has often found a way to make himself the subject of conversation. Back home in Brazil, Neymar is dominating the agenda ahead of next summer’s World Cup but by the time the tournament starts his younger team-mate will boast at least one French championship medal and considerable meaningful experience in European club competition. It may even be that it is Lucas who has the final say. In any case, sponsored by Adidas but so far free from the kind of commercial noise that envelops some of his compatriots, he looks a good shout, so to speak, for brands looking to make themselves heard in Brazil, France and beyond.

It would certainly be worth having a word with his commercial representatives at Ronaldo’s 9ine agency. EC

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Saul Alvarez Mexican, 22, Boxing

ith Manny Pacquiao entering the twilight of his boxing career and falling in this year’s list, undefeated Mexican WBC, WBA and The Ring magazine lightmiddleweight champion Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez has the record and the chutzpah to be the next global boxing phenomenon.

With an impressive record of 42 professional fights and 30 knockouts at the age of just 22, Alvarez is widely rated as one of the most promising young contenders on the professional circuit. The red-headed Mexican’s popularity in his home nation, as well as in North America, makes him a huge draw in terms of ticket sales and television audiences alike – 3,000 additional seats were added to the Alamodome in San Antonio for his April unification bout with American Austin Trout – while his contract with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions almost guarantees a well-nurtured progression in the professional game. However, the trajectory of his marketability largely hinges on the materialisation of a contest against the 35-year-old WBC world welterweight title holder Floyd Mayweather. Though Golden Boy’s recently extended deal with Fox will ensure that he continues to receive wide exposure and his stock remains high, it is only a clash with an opponent of Mayweather’s calibre that will propel the young Mexican into the mainstream. Losing is not a dirty word in Central American boxing culture so if Alvarez gets as far as a Mayweather bout, he can expect to get a lot further. IM

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Manny Pacquiao Filipino, 34, Boxing (15)

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own but not out. Manny Pacquiao has had the kind of year that makes brands wary of long-term commitments in boxing. His split decision defeat to the unheralded American Timothy Bradley in June – a first in seven years – resulted from the kind of maddeningly opaque judging that brings the sport’s very viability into doubt, but there could be no questioning the right hand with which Juan Manuel Marquez poured cold water on a spicy December encounter. Any finality to that knockout, however, was lost on Pacquiao. The 34-year-old responded stoically to the loss of his pound-for-pound supremacy, ignoring pleas from his tearful wife and family to move early into politics and stooping to build again with worn-out tools. Bob Arum and Top Rank now intend to exploit the Filipino’s celestial status in Asia with a bout there in September, probably in Singapore or Macau. With the pay-per-view market in the US somewhere between transition and chaos his match-making strategy is unclear. Arch-nemesis Floyd Mayweather Jr is newly flush from his six-fight deal with Showtime – Pacquiao fights on rival network HBO – and holds the whip hand in any negotiations. Marquez, meanwhile, might need considerable material persuasion to accept a fifth fight with history’s only eight-weight world champion.

But whoever his opponents, the Pac-Man remains the most internationally popular fighter around and his commercial team, under Lucia McKelvey, is among the shrewdest in boxing. Top sponsors like Hewlett-Packard remain in his corner, with Nike reportedly considering switching him to its Team Jordan brand. EC

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Yani Tseng Taiwanese, 24, Golf (10)

er 109-week reign at the top of women’s golf may have come to an end during the early exchanges of 2013 but Yani Tseng remains a marketing force to be reckoned with. Having ruled her sport with Tiger Woods-like dominance over the past two years, Taiwanese sport’s best-known daughter maintains huge appeal in Asia, where golf’s popularity has led to the emergence of a host of Asian players intent on superseding her. As the women’s game continues to grow, that potential for future rivalries will surely

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only add to the interest that surrounds Tseng, who at 24 has plenty of time to add to her five Major victories and has a long Olympic career ahead of her. Globally, Tseng currently represents Adams Golf, Oakley, Lacoste and Titleist, a portfolio to which her commercial team are no doubt keen to add. ML

Jack Wilshere British, 21, Soccer (25)

fter a year out with a persistent ankle injury, Jack Wilshere is once again bringing solace to Arsenal and England’s longsuffering fans. Consistently assured and imposing displays at the heart of his club’s midfield in the Premier League and a man of the match performance against Brazil at Wembley in February have served as a reminder of the 21-year-old’s talent, which had become a theoretical property in his time out. His subsequent return from a selfimposed exile – nine months off Twitter – has reaped 200,000 followers in a few short weeks. He is not the finished article but as his German counterpart Marco Reus would have it, speaking in an April interview with The

Guardian, “Boy, he’s fucking good.” Impetuous and fiery, Wilshere is no golden boy but has developed the tendency to stand out, blessed as he is with both technical skills and a desire to take responsibility. That he has emerged at a time where both Arsenal and England have been short of leaders has intensified the limelight. For many reasons – not least the country’s propagation of the game and the global success of the Premier League – the England soccer team attracts peculiar levels of worldwide interest and their date with World Cup qualification destiny will be marked far and wide this autumn. Wilshere’s representatives at Wasserman Media Group, who already manage a portfolio including Nike and Pepsi, can look forward to a busy year as the crescendo builds – and to doing it again for Uefa Euro 2016. EC

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Mike Trout American, 21, Baseball

here is a lot to be said for big hitters in big markets.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Mike Trout emerged as just that in 2012, breaking all manner of batting and running records on his way to being named the American League’s Rookie of the Year. The New Jersey native, who registered fourth in last year’s MLB jersey sales, began cashing in on his breakthrough year in September when he signed his first national endorsement contract with Bodyarmor Superdrink.

Since then, deals have followed with J&J Snackfoods and Subway, who used the 21-year-old in a Super Bowl broadcast commercial, but there must surely be room for more. Barring any kind of sophomore slump Trout can expect his endorsement earnings to surge in the coming months, particularly given that he is set for wider recognition as the face of Major League Baseball’s new ‘I Play’ campaign. And it is surely only a matter of time before his on-pitch rivalry with Bryce Harper, the equally big-hitting youngster at the Washington Nationals, extends beyond the ballpark to become an endorsement battle. Both are being called upon to carry America’s pastime into a new era and have quickly grown into national names. The only difference is that Trout is making his in a bigger market. ML

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Alex Morgan American, 23, Soccer

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here once there was Mia Hamm and, more recently, Abby Wambach, now there is Alex Morgan. US women’s soccer has a new face and it belongs to a 23-year old forward who, through a string of stirring performances and crucial goals, has become a national sports figure in America. Her breakthrough moment came in Germany at the 2011 Fifa Women’s World Cup. Having started the tournament on the bench, Morgan contributed to the USA’s dramatic run by scoring in the semi-final. Despite the team’s defeat by Japan in the final, the tournament popularised women’s soccer in the country like never before, with Morgan chief amongst the new heroines. Her three goals in last year’s Olympic tournament, notably a dramatic extra-time header that put the US in the final at the expense of Canada, helped the US to gold. Endorsements have naturally followed, not least with Nike, for whom she is now a regular in campaigns, and Panasonic, Coca-Cola and AT&T. A Sports Illustrated

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body-paint shoot last year probably helped but her status as a sporting role model is undimmed: she is writing a series of semi-autobiographical books aimed at teenage girls, while a new day job beckons, too. In March, Morgan confirmed she had signed to play for the Portland Thorns. She will undoubtedly be one of the central figures in the new National Women’s Soccer League’s development in the coming months and years. Further down the line, the 2015 World Cup in Canada could prove to be her crowning moment. DC

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Lindsey Vonn American, 28, Skiing (32)

indsey Vonn faces a race against time to take what many see as her rightful place as the queen of the winter Olympics next year in Sochi. Tearing two knee ligaments during the super-G at February’s world championships in Austria, a gruesome injury which required reconstructive surgery, is far from the ideal preparation for the Games, but the latest indications suggest America’s toggedup golden girl will be in the start-gate in Sochi to defend her Olympic downhill title.

That will be of more than a little relief to US broadcaster NBC, which has long positioned her as one of the faces of the Games in 2014, and the 28-year-old’s enviable crop of partners, notably Red Bull, Oakley, Head and Rolex.

Vonn had held magnetism for many by dint of becoming one of skiing’s most consistently outstanding performers; such is her downhill dominance she retained her World Cup title this year, her sixth in a row, despite missing the final two events. Her standing in the winter sports world ensures that her rehabilitation will be pored over in minute detail in the coming months, but Vonn is now garnering attention outside the sports pages. Earlier this year she and Tiger Woods went public on a blossoming relationship that may have already raised her profile in some quarters more than skiing ever could. DC

Rafael Nadal Spanish, 26, Tennis (27)

fter claiming a record seventh French Open title at Roland Garros, his 11th Grand Slam in all, in June last year, Rafael Nadal bowed out in the second round at Wimbledon. That was the cue for an injury-plagued end to 2012, after which the Spaniard faced an uphill battle to get his attempts to usurp Roger Federer at the top of the major winners’ list back on track. His post-injury turnaround on the court – capped by a remarkable victory over Juan Martin del Potro at the BNP Paribas Open in March – restored faith that he would continue down Federer’s path on the court, while his decision to leave IMG and set up an in-house company with agent Carlos Costa at the end of December saw him follow in the Swiss’ footsteps off it.

Essentially a ‘come and get me’ cry to endorsers, the move also grants the 27-year-old freedom to handle his marketing independently and could breathe new life into the Nadal brand. His latest injury comeback, meanwhile, has added an extra dimension to his career story which, in all likelihood, will only enhance his appeal as a commercial vehicle for sponsors.

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Caroline Wozniacki Danish, 22, Tennis (13)

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Sergio Perez Mexican, 23, Motorsport (23)

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ergio Perez was included as a new entry on this list last year largely in the belief that a move from the midfield Sauber team to one of Formula One’s front-running outfits was very much on the cards. And so it has come to pass, although not with the team most believed it would. Despite spending last year as a member of Ferrari’s young driver academy, Perez is now beginning his first season as a McLaren driver. The 23-yearold has been supported throughout his motorsport career by the Carlos Slimfunded Escuderia Telmex but it is his talent alone – three podium finishes for Sauber last season in only his second year of Formula One marked him out as a potential star – which convinced the British team to select him as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement. Perez, ‘Checo’ to his friends, may yet prove to be the team’s key to unlocking new Mexican investment but a commitment to turning him into a Formula One winner is the immediate focus for his new employers. Regarded as quick but still decidedly unpolished, Perez’s commercial opportunities outside his McLaren commitments will likely be limited as per team policy. He will, though, be integrated into the campaigns of longstanding McLaren sponsors such as Mobil 1, Tag Heuer and Hugo Boss over the coming years, ensuring his profile, in Mexico and beyond, continues to grow. DC

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espite not quite breaking through and becoming the Grand Slam winner she initially seemed to be, Caroline Wozniacki has established herself as one of the undoubted stars of the WTA Tour.

While her form has dipped alarmingly at times – she is generally considered good but not great although she retains every chance of winning a Slam at some point, such is the unpredictability at the top of women’s tennis – her profile has gone in the other direction. Better known by some observers as the girlfriend of Rory McIlroy – the pair were global sport’s undoubted power couple until Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn announced their own love match earlier this year – Wozniacki’s positive demeanour, undeniable glamour and down-

to-earth attitude have made her something of a magnet for corporate partners. A deal with Adidas by Stella McCartney complements her passion for fashion, while other brands such as Danske Invest, Oriflame, Turkish Airlines and e-Boks, an e-document storage supplier, have all moved

to align themselves with the Dane in recent years, steered carefully in her direction by her management at Lagardère Unlimited Tennis. Further evidence of her broadening appeal came last year when Wozniacki went into a new partnership with JBS, Denmark’s leading underwear manufacturer, putting her name to a collection. The accompanying photo shoot crashed her website. DC

Think you can’t afford to sponsor these athletes…?

Think again.

www.airtonrisk.com Rod O’Callaghan: Tel: +353 1 902 1309 - Email: rocallaghan@airtonrisk.com David Lyons: Tel: +353 1 902 1303 - Email: dlyons@airtonrisk.com Airton Risk Management is a division of Paddy Power plc

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Carmelo Anthony American, 28, Basketball (42)

ix-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony is an established NBA idol. Third pick in the 2003 draft, his talent has never been in doubt. But when he moved from Denver to New York in 2011, the bubble of buzz that had built around him was soon deflated by a series of stuttering performances and a lack of on-court cohesion with team-mates that saw the Knicks do what they always do: underachieve. The Knicks are one of the biggest teams in the league by any measure but one: staggeringly, they have won just two NBA championships in their history, and those in the early 1970s. But 2012/13 has felt like a turning point. Inspired by Anthony, who became the first Knick to take the league scoring title since Bernard King in 1985, the team took their first division title since 1994 and head into the play-offs, for once, full of confidence. The New York market can make or break an athlete. Conquer it and you conquer a nation, if not the world; don’t and you end up simply saving a spot for someone who can. If ‘Melo’ can spur the Knicks to their first title in 40 years, and that now at least looks possible, New York will happily consider itself conquered. If that should happen within the next three years, any brand already with Anthony – the likes of Nike, Boost Mobile and coconut water energy drink PowerCoco – will be laughing. JE

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Vincent Kompany Belgian, 27, Soccer

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here is something disingenuous about the term ‘brand ambassador’, bestowing nobility on a transactional relationship, but Vincent Kompany very nearly lives up to the billing. Articulate and thoughtful, the Manchester City captain is as universally well regarded as a top soccer player is likely to be and almost uniquely equipped for the demands of the digital age. The 27-year-old, who signed a long-term deal with emerging apparel brand Warrior in February, has been singled out by Twitter’s UK head of sport Lewis Wiltshire as the best user of the service in the Premier League.

In Belgium, he has been highly praised for his contribution to a

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joint social media effort designed to bring the national team closer to its supporters. The ‘Belgian Red Devils’ campaign has brought together the Royal Belgian Football Association (KBVB), broadcaster VRT and the Boondoggle agency, and the former’s business director Bob Madou described his captain as “not only intelligent but visionary in certain ways” at the Soccerex European Forum in April. It helps, too, that Kompany ranks among European soccer’s most accomplished defenders, should lift a cabinet’s worth of major trophies for his well-heeled employers, and is leading the finest set of Belgian players in 30 years towards next year’s Fifa World Cup and Uefa Euro 2016 in France. EC

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Missy Franklin American, 17, Swimming

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wo narratives ran in parallel lanes at London’s new Aquatics Centre last summer. One was the abdication of Michael Phelps, who was afforded a regal send-off from the pool despite interjections from Ryan Lochte and Chad le Clos. The other was the emergence of a gaggle of teenage stars led by the remarkable Missy Franklin, the 6ft 1in daughter of a Canadian Football League player. The 17-year-old won four gold medals and a silver in Stratford – confirming the potential she showed in taking three golds, a silver and a bronze at the 2011 world championships – and claimed the hearts of millions of Americans in the process. Her achievements also earned her the 2012 James E. Sullivan Award for the year’s top US amateur athlete and the FINA bauble for World Female Swimmer of the Year, all while still at high school in Colorado. From there, she has committed herself to swimming for the University of California, Berkeley next year and, to do so, will hold off turning professional and signing endorsement deals until 2015. Still, with NBC set to ramp up its coverage of Olympic sports and a nation looking to a new generation of sporting stars, plenty will try to tempt her away from her studies, or at least proffer business cards as bookmarks. Outside the pool, Franklin leads the life of a fairly normal teenager – albeit one with 375,000 followers on Twitter who makes occasional appearances on ABC drama series Pretty Little Liars. EC

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Alex Ovechkin Russian, 27, Ice Hockey (13)

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n the next 12 months Alex Ovechkin has the chance to go from Russian national hero to Olympic legend.

Before all that, though, the 27-year old Washington Capital has a spot of business to attend to in the US, where his resurgence in form post-lockout has revitalised an NHL team that has come to rely on his brilliance in front of the net.

His return to Washington came after the Great Eight, or Ovi8 if you prefer, played 31 games for Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) team Dynamo Moscow during the lockout, simultaneously keeping his eye in and reminding his home nation of what they can expect in Sochi next February. He was handsomely rewarded for his Russian stint, too, reportedly earning US$5.7 million to add to income generated by endorsement deals with the likes of Bauer, Nike and Gillette. Marshalled by IMG’s David Abrutyn, Ovechkin has also recently starred in a Coca Cola campaign in Russia to advertise the 2014 Olympic torch relay, but Abrutyn insists his client is “very selective” about endorsements, adding: “We turn down an awful lot of things that come our way.” Ovechkin, who is engaged to tennis starlet Maria Kirilenko, is on the record as saying he will play for Russia in Russia next year regardless of the NHL’s official position on releasing its athletes for the Olympics. After he helped his country win gold in last year’s world championships, the Sochi hockey tournament could end up being his Sidney Crosby moment. DC

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Andy Murray British, 25, Tennis (36)

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he 12 months of 2012 were nothing less than transformative for Andy Murray. Viewed as taciturn and bratty throughout his career, his tears in defeat to Roger Federer in his first Wimbledon final softened him in the public eye. On his return to centre court just over a month later for the Olympic final, those tears ensured that it wasn’t just the vociferous home fans behind him. When he duly delivered another Team GB gold, the monkey scrambling off his back was almost visible. Murray’s US Open win confirmed his promotion from nearly man to bona fide contender, his emerging rivalry with world number one Novak Djokovic suddenly a genuine one and one with a genuine chance of matching Federer versus Nadal. Away from the court, things have changed too. Earlier this year Murray signed with a marketing firm that had been built around him, a joint venture between Simon Fuller’s XIX and Indian doubles player Mahesh Bhupati’s Globosport agency. Bhupati wants a portfolio of five endorsers for the Scot. Murray’s scramble to find his Rado watch before accepting the trophy at Flushing Meadows might not have been elegant, but certainly showed he cares about his current sponsors, who are believed to have paid him almost UK£6.5 million last year. Experts say he can expect a threefold increase to that now that he has ‘Grand Slam winner’ attached to his name. But if the feverish anticipation that accompanies his annual attempt to become the first British winner of Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936 should be fulfilled, such an increase would seem piffling. JE

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Alan Oliveira Brazilian, 21, Para-athletics

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here was a sense among many – confirmed by the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) commercial success in recent months – that London 2012 marked a watershed moment for disability sport. At no point was that more keenly felt than in the seconds it took for Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira to overhaul Oscar Pistorius and take gold in the T44 200m final in the Olympic Stadium. Even before February’s tragic events there was perhaps a need for the Paralympic movement to look beyond the achievements of its biggest star in Olympic competition and foster new rivalries within. Oliveira, alongside the likes of Britain’s gregarious Jonnie Peacock, is part of what might be the most competitive and broadcaster-friendly section of Paralympic sport. In Brazil, the sprinter’s star has not risen as high as it has, say, in the UK. That is not altogether surprising – excitement around the Paralympics tends to build most intensely in the host city, as Londoners will no doubt attest. Rio will be no different. This time, in fact, with the IPC converting the momentum of last year’s event into a more coherent para-athletics calendar, there will be a greater opportunity to create global interest. Closer to home, Caixa Econômica Federal will put 120 million reals (US$60.6 million) towards Brazil’s Paralympic ambitions over the next four years. The country has other Paralympic heroes to rally around in that time – the highly decorated swimmer Daniel de Faria Dias chief among them – but it is the image of this 21-year-old Paranese wrapped in the Bando do Brasil that sponsors may find most appealing. EC

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Maria Sharapova Russian, 26, Tennis (18)

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ever mind that her grating mix of on-court grace and grunting has the ability to both compel and repel, or that the launch of her Sugarpova confectionery brand has led to accusations of irresponsible marketing; Maria Sharapova’s appeal is unquestionable.

Continuing her post-injury resurgence of 2011, last year the Russian enjoyed her best 12 months on the court since 2006, winning the French Open to complete her career Grand Slam on the way to amassing an eye-watering, endorsement-fuelled US$27 million and confirming her status as the world’s highest-paid female athlete for the eighth year running. Today, there is little room in her personal portfolio to take on further sponsorship commitments, although Porsche found some with a new deal in April, but as one of the most recognisable faces in all of sport Sharapova was always the standout candidate to front the WTA’s new 40 Love marketing campaign in 2013. In a year in which the organisation celebrates its 40th anniversary, Sharapova has come to epitomise the growth of her sport and the commercial opportunities on offer to today’s stars. ML

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Victoria Azarenka Belarusian, 23, Tennis (35)

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fter landing her first Grand Slam at last year’s Australian Open, Victoria Azarenka went on to set a new record for single-season prize money in 2012, earning US$7.9 million in a year that included six WTA titles and two Olympic medals for the 23-year-old. Although interrupted by the occasional injury, that level of consistency has continued into 2013, with the Belarusian returning to Melbourne in January to successfully defend her title before overcoming Serena Williams in February’s Qatar Open final. While there can be no doubting her staying power on the court, off it Vika adds to the thrill and glamour of the women’s game, as comfortable in the media spotlight as she is under the arena floodlights. Though at times an opinion splitter, her outspoken and friendly nature is an undoubted draw for sponsors – just ask Nike, Citizen Watches, American Express and her most recent sponsor Red Bull, who named her its first tennis endorser in January. What’s more, alongside Williams and Maria Sharapova, Azarenka is now one third of a much-hankered for ‘trivalry’ in the women’s game and is thus, unquestionably, among an elite category of female tennis stars whose marketing potential extends worldwide. ML

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LeBron James American, 28, Basketball (19)

hey were talking about someone else, but one of LeBron James’ sponsors said something this year about winning solving everything. It doesn’t, obviously, but it has dispelled much of the negativity that had gathered around the 21st century’s greatest basketball player after the self-aggrandisement of that infamous decision and an underwhelming first season with the Miami Heat. A first NBA title in 2012 vindicated his move from Cleveland; an MVP title justified a lifetime of expectation. Brands see LeBron not so much as an athlete as a modern American phenomenon. His website is less a sportsman’s homepage than a lifestyle hub. But what is more significant is that fans and pundits appreciate again what they have in their midst: a true one-off.

A TV spot for the Samsung Galaxy smartphone sought to capture this in October. Following him from the breakfast table to the barbershop and the basketball court, it saw him interact with family, friends, fans and former players, cruising through Miami to the strains of The Impressions. “I know it wasn’t on the level of an injury or an addiction, but it was something I had to recover from,” he told Sports Illustrated, who named him Sportsman of the Year in December 2012, about the fallout from The Decision. “I had to become a better person, a better player, a better father, a better friend, a better mentor and a better leader. I’ve changed, and I think people have started to understand who I really am.” EC

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Virat Kohli Indian, 24, Cricket

achin Tendulkar bats on and on, MS Dhoni still shoulders the hopes of a devoted nation, but when they are gone, it now seems a 24-year-old from Delhi will step into the breach. Virat Kohli confirmed his potential in all three forms of cricket in 2012, winning the ICC ODI World Player of the Year Award, outscoring his India team-mates in Tests, and batting consistently well in Twenty20 internationals and the Indian Premier League. He has almost grown up in the latter competition, debuting at 19 for UB Group-owned glamour team Royal Challengers Bangalore and graduating to the captaincy this year. Athletic, spiky, and collected under pressure, he is an advertisement for the league of which its founders would approve. It has also been a defining year for Kohli commercially. Indian reports in March suggested he had joined Dhoni and Tendulkar in the Rs100 crore (US$18.5 million) club for annual earnings, reaped from deals with the likes of Nike, Pepsi, Royal Challenge and Toyota. His representatives at Cornerstone Sports and Entertainment already manage a portfolio of 15 brands in all. A study by TAM AdEx India found that advertisements featuring Kohli – or his unremarkable, Nestlé Munch-loving alter ego Balakrishnan Vaali – now feature more frequently on Indian television than Dhoni’s. He is closing, too, on the million-follower mark on Twitter. A likely India captain, this might be cricket’s next global star. EC

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Sebastian Vettel German, 25 , Motorsport (8)

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t just 25 years of age, Sebastian Vettel is already gunning for his fourth Formula One world championship after showing the way to the field in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Sixth in the all-time list of Grand Prix winners already, his has been a meteoric rise to dominance and one fuelled by his Red Bull Racing team. Superbly talented, mediafriendly and, as he proved during March’s Malaysian Grand Prix by brazenly defying team instructions, utterly ruthless, Vettel is the all-round package and still has time on his side.

Although commercially tied to Red Bull, for whom he is a poster boy both for its young driver programme and its wider sports marketing empire, the German is now spreading his wings a little. He is a global ambassador for Infiniti, his team’s title sponsor, and is likely to be used increasingly as a marketing tool when the luxury car manufacturer rolls out new products. Rumours, meanwhile, still bubble up from time to time of a switch to Ferrari. Vettel routinely swats aside such speculation and has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2014, by which time the prospect of a tantalising move to the sport’s most famous team may have greater allure. DC

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Tiger Woods American, 37, Golf (47)

ike’s ‘Winning Takes Care of Everything’ campaign, rolled out earlier this year after Tiger Woods’ retook the world number one spot, received a decidedly mixed reaction, but that it was even conceived is an indication that commercial confidence is growing again in one of the greatest players the sport has produced. Woods is back at the top of his game, a needle-mover for US TV networks who have longed for him to return to form and favour, and for those, like EA Sports, Fuse Science, Rolex and NetJets, who have invested many marketing dollars in him over the years. That he hasn’t won a Major since 2008 only adds to the narrative. Woods will always be tainted in the eyes of some but the numbers don’t tend to lie: when he is winning, so is golf. The Woods brand is being revitalised in other ways, too; ones which fall outside the control of his long-time agent Mark Steinberg. His new relationship with Lindsey Vonn is a dream for gossip columnists in the US and beyond, while the arrival of Rory McIlroy on Nike’s books has added a new dimension to Woods’ long association with the sportswear giant’s golf division. The friendly rivalry between the pair has already been highlighted in a well-received initial campaign, likely to be the first of many. Around the world, the reconstructed Tiger Woods remains right at the top of any list of recognisable faces.

Win or lose, he has remained a draw wherever he plays. DC

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Blake Griffin American, 24, Basketball (6)

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he Los Angeles Clippers might still be the city’s other NBA team, but they are certainly a franchise on the rise. Much of that is down to a 24-yearold from Oklahoma. Blake Griffin burst into the NBA a year later than anticipated, thanks to injury, but the delay only served to heighten the sense of excitement around a man with a stellar college record. When he arrived, he didn’t disappoint – Rookie of the Year in 2010/11 and an All-Star three years on the bounce. A power forward with personality, he has made a name for himself in a sport not short on characters and been described as a better pitchman than either LeBron or Kobe; amusing spots promoting Kia cars and video game Rage – in which he dunks over a tiger, no less – are well worth seeking out. Since making the top ten of this list 12 months ago, Griffin has signed a contract extension tying him to the Clippers for a further five years. Analysis suggests the deal could be worth up to US$95 million, with Griffin’s selection for January’s All-Star game worth nearly US$16 million alone to him under the terms of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. He is also the new headline endorser of the Nike-owned Jordan brand. Griffin cannot yet be considered the NBA’s best player, but his all-round package of potential, points and personality makes him a very worthy representative of the league in this year’s top ten. DC

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Sloane Stephens American, 20, Tennis

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t was the changing of the guard moment that US tennis had been waiting for. When Sloane Stephens, a 19-year-old from Florida, defeated Serena Williams in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January, she immediately cast herself as the next great American tennis hope. Stephens was herself defeated in the next round, losing in controversial fashion to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka, but the tournament showed she has the shots required to follow in the footsteps of Serena and Venus and become one of the WTA Tour’s star turns. Stephens’ fresh-faced appeal to sponsors, meanwhile, was highlighted before she even left the court after beating Serena as she excitedly considered the effect victory might have on her Twitter followers – for the record, the count stood at a little over 61,000 in April – checked her phone for texts and pledged to buy herself a pair of Jimmy Choos. Part of Lagardère Unlimited’s tennis stable, Stephens currently has contracts with the likes of Under Armour, Head and Usana Health Sciences.

The potential there is as great as it is on the court; indeed, she has already smilingly suggested Ford and Rolex as compatible future partners. In tennis terms, despite a difficult postAustralian Open run, few expect her to be ranked 16th in the world for long. Commercially, the possibilities seem endless: the

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Sloane Stephens bandwagon has only just started rolling, hence her inclusion as the highest new entry in this year’s list. DC

Cristiano Ronaldo Portuguese, 28, Soccer (5)

peculation lingers that Cristiano Ronaldo, unsettled after an occasionally fractious season in the Spanish capital, might be eyeing a move away from Real Madrid, with his old club Manchester United tipped as one

potential suitor.

Should it happen it would probably be a revitalising career move for the brilliant Portuguese string-puller. One of the most famous sportsmen on the planet over the past decade, ‘CR7’ is admired but not universally loved – much to his irritation. His great rival Lionel Messi, the man he has so often found himself compared to and in the shadow of, has managed to melt away the tribal tendencies of soccer fans, a trick Ronaldo has not managed to pull off in a sparkling career to date.

Nonetheless, Ronaldo’s talent, allied to his sex symbol status, continues to make him a magnet for brands:

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Nike has him front and centre of its talent roster, although it is understandably frustrated that he plays for an Adidas-backed team, and he remains the face of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer.

Those are but two of a plethora of current deals, to which he added a gig as the face of Jacob & Co watches in April. Ronaldo’s huge appeal will be a factor in any move to a new club for as long as this perennial Ballon D’Or contender keeps delivering on the pitch. Next year’s World Cup might offer him a final crack at knocking Messi off his perch as the undisputed world number one in the world’s number one sport. DC

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Lewis Hamilton British, 28, Motorsport (12)

ewis Hamilton has a new lease of life from both a sporting and commercial perspective this year. The 28-year-old, the world champion in 2008, has just begun his seventh season in Formula One and his first with his new team, Mercedes. The early indications are that a heart-wrenching move from McLaren, which guided him into Formula One and moulded him into a superstar, has paid off – Hamilton scored two podiums and one pole position in his first three races. A man who always wears his heart on his sleeve also appears visibly happier in his new surroundings. His commercial portfolio has changed, too, with Mercedes partners such as Petronas and BlackBerry replacing the likes of Tag Heuer and Vodafone. Enshrined in his contract, negotiated by Hamilton’s management at XIX, is greater commercial freedom, potentially opening the way for the Briton to attach himself to new brands. He installed XIX veteran Tom Shine as his new day-to-day manager prior to the start of the Formula One season in March, perhaps to do just that. Hamilton is not unanimously popular and there are still moments of immaturity on and off the track but that one of the world’s fastest drivers, not to mention one of the sport’s biggest draws, now has a far greater say in his own commercial destiny makes his rise in this year’s list something of an inevitability. DC

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Novak Djokovic Serbian, 25, Tennis (7)

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till the king of the court. Though he couldn’t quite match his dominance in 2011, Novak Djokovic ended last year as the world number one in men’s tennis and picked up 2013’s first major when he won his fourth Australian Open title, his sixth Grand Slam in all. Some pulverising encounters with Andy Murray have seemed to herald a generational shift, which was replicated off the court when the Serb filled a Roger Federer-shaped hole at IMG in December. The group’s chairman and chief executive, Michael Dolan, admitted at February’s SpoBiS conference in Düsseldorf that the departure of the more expensive Swiss had cleared room for his anointed heir. The long-anticipated termination of a troublesome apparel deal with Sergio Tacchini was confirmed last May but the identity of its replacement – Japanese high-street clothing retailer Uniqlo – was a surprise. ‘The Djoker’ is the kind of man who can believably, if falsely, be reported to have bought the world’s supply of donkey cheese, but any eccentricity apparent in this deal is only superficial. He will be shouldering a new brand’s march into the sports industry, while Uniqlo will take him deeper into the Asian market. Djokovic counts Head and Audemars Piguet among his sponsors but given his achievements and appeal, he remains underused compared to his peers. At 25, he will know that whatever assault he makes on history will need to happen in the next few years.

Brands would be well advised to join him on that campaign. EC

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Usain Bolt Jamaican, 26, Athletics (4)

here are days when Londoners look back at the 2012 Olympics and ask themselves if it all really could have happened. One day, the same question might be asked of the career of Usain St Leo Bolt. Just the one world record in Stratford for the Jamaican – as part of the victorious sprint relay team – but more history as he became the first man to defend both the 100m and 200m titles, more evidence of his unparalleled charisma, more awards and adulation. Not many more superlatives left. Samsung joined a sponsorship portfolio including Puma, Digicel, Hublot, Virgin Media and Gatorade in March, reportedly for the same fee they had previously paid the IAAF as title sponsor of the Diamond League. His return to London and its Olympic Stadium for July’s Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games – a 75-minute sell-out – was ensured by a line in the UK budget exempting high-earning visiting athletes from income tax. His agent Ricky Simms and Pace Sports Management have as hard a time as ever to manage his commercial, charitable and sporting commitments. Bolt has a world 100m crown to reclaim in Moscow this year and no doubt defend in two years’ time in Beijing, where he first thrilled a global audience in 2008. There may be more remarkable achievements ahead. In a sense, though,

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that matters less now that so much of his legend has been written. A lifetime as a global figure is assured; a journey from Trelawny, as he might say, ‘To Di World’. EC

Robert Griffin III American, 23, Football (31)

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obert Griffin III joined the National Football League (NFL) last year as the number two draft pick, but he ended it as undoubtedly the most marketable player in the world’s richest league, with sales of his number ten Washington Redskins jersey setting a new single-season NFL record. One of the most commercially active rookies the NFL has seen – he has deals with the likes of Subway and Evoshield – Griffin III’s debut season was full of positives, with the Redskins making it to the play-offs led by their young buck of a quarterback. That his first year ended with a serious knee injury has merely added another marketing layer to the growing ‘RGIII’ brand: he’s about to become the comeback kid, possibly in time for the new season. Off the field, RGIII already has a keen sense of his own value, creating his own company, Thr3escompany, in 2012 and successfully trademarking a variety of phrases, including ‘RGIII’ and ‘RG3’.

“He was interested in marketing from day one,” his manager, Mark Heligman of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), told the Washington Times last year. “He always wanted to ensure that any partnership was authentic and something that he truly believed in and something he had genuine interest in pursuing.”

Assuming his knee holds, the sky is RGIII’s limit. DC

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Rory McIlroy British, 23, Golf

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olf, with its higher-end demographic, worldwide reach and opportunities for promotional work, continues to be the leader in the value sponsors can get from their investment. In Rory McIlroy, who is widely tipped to be at the forefront of the sport for many years to come, companies can bank on a guaranteed return. Clean-cut, eloquent and with a high-profile girlfriend to boot, McIlroy certainly ticked all the right boxes for Nike Golf, whose chief Cindy Davis described his long-awaited signing in January as “one of the most important events” in the history of the brand. Nike splashed out a reported US$250 million for exclusive rights to McIlroy’s clubs, balls, footwear, gloves, apparel, headwear and accessories, but regardless of the comprehensive and therefore limiting nature of that agreement McIlroy and his agent at Dublin-based Horizon Sports Management, Conor Ridge, have had little trouble finding and filling further inventory. Audio specialists Bose and watchmaker Omega have both signed the world number two to seven-figure endorsements since his tie-up with the American sportswear giant. On the course, McIlroy’s pursuit of more Majors – both green jacket and claret jug remain elusive – alongside Tiger Woods’ parallel quest is undoubtedly one of the most compelling strands of golf’s coming narrative. ML

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Lionel Messi Argentinian, 25, Soccer (3)

t felt as though something spiritual had happened,’ wrote the Manchester United defender turned pundit and Daily Mail columnist Gary Neville of Lionel Messi’s arrival as a half-fit substitute in an April Champions League quarter-final with Paris SaintGermain. Religion is something of a leitmotif in the Barcelona man’s career. Fans in the Camp Nou greet him with a gesture of worship. Japanese jeweller Ginza Tanaka has created a US$5.3 million solid gold replica of his bare left foot. The new Pope may be Argentinian but Messi is no god – as his recent travails in Munich amply demonstrated. What he is, in the truest sense, is an icon: instantly recognisable not only for who he is but what he represents. On the surface, this four-time Ballon d’Or winner is almost parodically unassuming; the quiet little man with the scruffy hair and the ball, as The Guardian’s Sid Lowe once memorably put it, running alongside him ‘like a faithful dog’. But his achievements and captivating play precede him worldwide, even in the commercial sphere. He can lark about with Kobe Bryant in first class on

Turkish Airlines or play cricket – with a deeply suspect bowling action – in an Indian campaign for Herbalife and still be arresting. Adidas is sure to push hard ahead of next year’s World Cup, where victory for Argentina might end the argument about history’s greatest soccer player. Dolce and Gabbana, Audemars Piguet and many other sponsors will, too. Late converts to the Church of Messi should be advised that the tithes may be beyond them after that. EC

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Neymar Brazilian, 21, Soccer (1)

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ome would say that Neymar, the first athlete ever to retain this title, is living the life of some kind of comic book hero. They would more or less be right: in April, Panini unveiled a series based on the life of Neymarzinho, a little white-shirted goalscorer with spiky hair and a cheeky grin. Much-loved cartoonist Maurício de Souza will have plenty of material for his newest character, even if the 2012-inspired storylines could be titled ‘Our Hero’s Doubters Gather’. Every silver lining had a cloud for Brazilians at London 2012 as the men’s soccer team fell in the Olympic final at Wembley, while Neymar has rarely brought his domestic form on tour with him for his country’s glamorous European friendlies. Nevertheless, the 21-year-old held on to the South American Footballer of the Year award and the upcoming home Fifa Confederations Cup and World Cup are more pertinent tests of his undoubted talent. The Neymarzinho strips are not the only evidence of the Neymar phenomenon radiating through the Brazilian mainstream. In February, he signed a deal with L’Oréal to endorse a personalised line of Drakkar Noir fragrances. Gulliver has manufactured a Neymar range of children’s toys.

Neymar is a 21st century model of sporting superstardom, shaping one of the world’s most important emerging markets in wholly unexpected ways. He was described by his employer, Santos president Luis Alvaro Ribeiro, as a “genius at communication” in an August interview with SportsPro, and it is sponsorship appeal that has kept the 9ine client in Brazil so long. In a groundbreaking arrangement club partners like Panasonic, Claro, Lupo and Volkswagen effectively top up the striker’s salary to European levels.

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A 2014 move to soccer’s richest continent remains inevitable, though, with Barcelona still the most commonly mooted destination.

If it happens with the Seleção newly crowned as world champions, local brands will applaud the young man’s patience as their global colleagues await the biggest South American star in a generation. EC

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