Who is/was Ireland's most famous sports star?

TomasMacR

jmayo wrote: »

Most people in Ireland would not have realised a few years ago he was one of the best paid Irish sportsmen.

That's because he wouldn't be, not even close to it. Not going by that link I've put up. Even the championship players, top Irish jockeys would trump that. And if you are including those that are still involved in sport but not playing damian duff, etc then he wouldn't even feature. his net worth is 4million apparently.

jmayo

TomasMacR wrote: »

That's because he wouldn't be, not even close to it. Not going by that link I've put up. Even the championship players, top Irish jockeys would trump that. And if you are including those that are still involved in sport but not playing damian duff, etc then he wouldn't even feature. his net worth is 4million apparently.

I am not talking net worth but best paid, as in how much annual salary is.
Average salary for championship player is less than £400,000 as far as I know.
Now some will be on more, but how many top players did we have in England in premiership or championship ?

Of course those like Mcilroy, mcgregor are way ahead of the rest, but £900,000 is not bad.
How many Irish rugby players (the best paid indigenous sportsmen) are on over 1million euro ?
Top couple of jockeys would probably be on a fair whack, likewise the Aidan O'Briens, but 1million a year would still be a fair whack to make out of racing.

EDIT: forgot Irish FAI salaries in that list

Marcus Rashford

Re the Eoin Morgan point, a reasonable comparison would be 7s and Test rugby. I wouldn’t begrudge someone wanting to play for (say) Wales if (say) Ireland only played 7s (which we don’t).

The fact that it’s England is clouding people’s views I believe.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

The number of results on Google is probably a good proxy for how famous someone is.

Conor McGregor: 53,200,000 results
Rory McIlroy: 8,110,000 results
George Best: 3,410,000 results
Roy Keane: 2,000,000 results
Pádraig Harrington: 831,000 results
Brian O'Driscoll: 686,000 results
Alex Higgins: 447,000 results
Sonia O'Sullivan: 194,000 results

So it's McGregor by a huge margin, according to that metric.

TomasMacR

jmayo wrote: »

I am not talking net worth but best paid, as in how much annual salary is.
Average salary for championship player is less than £400,000 as far as I know.
Now some will be on more, but how many top players did we have in England in premiership or championship ?

Of course those like Mcilroy, mcgregor are way ahead of the rest, but £900,000 is not bad.
How many Irish rugby players (the best paid indigenous sportsmen) are on over 1million euro ?
Top couple of jockeys would probably be on a fair whack, likewise the Aidan O'Briens, but 1million a year would still be a fair whack to make out of racing.

EDIT: forgot Irish FAI salaries in that list

Darren randolph, john egan, darren lenihan, conor hourihane, richard keogh, james mcclean, o dowda...to name a few, all championship and on a lot more than morgan. some of them on multiples of what he is on. That's just one league in one sport.

my point was never that eoin morgan wasn't on good money, it was that he is not one of the best paid Irish sportsmen.

odyssey06

Alexis Lazy Cellist wrote: »

The number of results on Google is probably a good proxy for how famous someone is.

Conor McGregor: 53,200,000 results
Rory McIlroy: 8,110,000 results
George Best: 3,410,000 results
Roy Keane: 2,000,000 results
Pádraig Harrington: 831,000 results
Brian O'Driscoll: 686,000 results
Alex Higgins: 447,000 results
Sonia O'Sullivan: 194,000 results

Interesting list.

For what it's worth Robbie Keane has 1,200,000 results & Katie Taylor has 1,450,000.

Given that Best has been famous for six decades (and was more famous in the past) and is still getting that much attention, in my book that would put him ahead of McIlroy - though McIlroy likely has a long career ahead of him.

Google became the number one search engine after 2002, so Roy Keane would likely be higher otherwise.

Doc07

My 2Cs

Just back from meeting in germany. (Medical and science geeks, not usual pub sports fans)
Had dinner with some delegates from central& Eastern Europe and Russia. McGregor was well known, they knew more about him than me.
Similar experience in USA.

IMO he is an order of magnitude more famous than Keane, O’Driscol, Harrington(my favorite).

George Best might be next.

Morrison J

Doc07 wrote: »

My 2Cs

Just back from meeting in germany. (Medical and science geeks, not usual pub sports fans)
Had dinner with some delegates from central& Eastern Europe and Russia. McGregor was well known, they knew more about him than me.
Similar experience in USA.

IMO he is an order of magnitude more famous than Keane, O’Driscoll, Harrington(my favorite).

George Best might be next.

O'Driscoll isn't anywhere near the rest. Rugby literally played on one and a half continents. Be a total unknown in Asia and Africa which takes up 75% of the worlds population.

Rugby has extremely little relevance on a global scale.

Marcus Rashford

What about Sheamus?

salmocab

Morrison J wrote: »

O'Driscoll isn't anywhere near the rest. Rugby literally played on one and a half continents. Be a total unknown in Asia and Africa which takes up 75% of the worlds population.

Rugby has extremely little relevance on a global scale.

I’d say a few people in Africa have heard of him

odyssey06

Marcus Rashford wrote: »

What about Sheamus?

Coleman?

Never played in a World Cup or Champions League campaign... Google says 600,000.

partyguinness

Alexis Lazy Cellist wrote: »

The number of results on Google is probably a good proxy for how famous someone is.

Conor McGregor: 53,200,000 results
Rory McIlroy: 8,110,000 results
George Best: 3,410,000 results
Roy Keane: 2,000,000 results
Pádraig Harrington: 831,000 results
Brian O'Driscoll: 686,000 results
Alex Higgins: 447,000 results
Sonia O'Sullivan: 194,000 results

So it's McGregor by a huge margin, according to that metric.

Are those figures to do with Anglo centric Google or worldwide Google?

Marcus Rashford

odyssey06 wrote: »

Marcus Rashford wrote: »

What about Sheamus?

Coleman?

Never played in a World Cup or Champions League campaign... Google says 600,000.

No, WWE Superstar Sheamus.

On a more serious note, Ronnie Delaney won the Olympics’ blue ribband event at that time.

The Google stuff, whilst interesting, has a bias towards present day.

It can also be skewed; for example, if a high profile sportsperson ended up murdering someone else, he or she would probably fly up the rankings.

In terms of stature within an actual sport, I think McIlroy is No 1, albeit he is not “Irish” in the ROI sense of the word.

Morrison J

salmocab wrote: »

I’d say a few people in Africa have heard of him

A tiny percentage though really.

Population of Africa is 1.2 billion.
Population of South Africa is 56.72 million. 40% of South Africa is lower class.

Don't think BOD would have many issues walking through Cape Town tbh.

_Brian

“Famous” is a stupid measure for a sportsperson.

The don’t become elite athletes to be “famous”.

partyguinness

Morrison J wrote: »

.

Don't think BOD would have many issues walking through Cape Town tbh.

I'd think he'd have a lot of issues walking through Cape Town especially at night time and it ain't his autograph he'd be handing over.:D

odyssey06

Marcus Rashford wrote: »

The Google stuff, whilst interesting, has a bias towards present day.
It can also be skewed; for example, if a high profile sportsperson ended up murdering someone else, he or she would probably fly up the rankings.

Yes I was only using Google results for an indicative comparison of contemporary (non-murdering!) sportspersons. Totally unreliable for pre-2002, and not sure how reliable it is for India & China.

BailMeOut

Alexis Lazy Cellist wrote: »

The number of results on Google is probably a good proxy for how famous someone is.

Conor McGregor: 53,200,000 results
Rory McIlroy: 8,110,000 results
George Best: 3,410,000 results
Roy Keane: 2,000,000 results
Pádraig Harrington: 831,000 results
Brian O'Driscoll: 686,000 results
Alex Higgins: 447,000 results
Sonia O'Sullivan: 194,000 results

So it's McGregor by a huge margin, according to that metric.

Baidu (Chinese Google)

Conor McGregor: 1,120,000 results
Rory McIlroy: 1,050,000 results
George Best: 8,400,000 results
Roy Keane: 1,320,000 results
Pádraig Harrington: 206,000 results
Brian O'Driscoll: 621,000 results
Alex Higgins: 23,700 results
Sonia O'Sullivan: 528,000 results

Katie Taylor: 7,560,000

Deebles McBeebles

Wow that's a lot of George Best searches in China!

salmocab

Morrison J wrote: »

A tiny percentage though really.

Population of Africa is 1.2 billion.
Population of South Africa is 56.72 million. 40% of South Africa is lower class.

Don't think BOD would have many issues walking through Cape Town tbh.

Well I don’t think BOD is as well known as others mentioned but you said he would be unknown in Africa and I was just pointing out that he wouldn’t, the problem with this discussion is people have their own bias about certain people and sports resulting in broad statements.
Even you had to go and google the populations of Africa and South Africa after making a sweeping statement.

B_ecke_r

McGregor then Roy Keane

upinsmoke

A kid from Dublin with more than a dream
He knew one day he'd be the king of the UFC
With a group of fighting Irish not to be pushed over
Not here take part they were here to take over
From the start John Kavanagh by his side whoever though they'd be known worldwide
After 60g's baby and a contracts to sign leaving his old life and the social welfare behind
And after two years came the featherweight champion of the world
And Conor said he's make him look like a little girl it only took ten seconds to show his talk wasn't cheap
As he connected with the left, and put Also to sleep
There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather
So Floyd watch out 'cause the Irish are coming
You can talk all you want, buy you'll do nothin'
There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather
So Floyd watch out 'cause the Irish are coming
You can talk all you want, buy you'll do nothin'
The lightweight belt was next in store
To do what no other fighter had ever done before
Became the first same time double champ in history
And took the chance to apologize to absolutely nobody
And came from working on a building site to getting million dollar pay cheque
From Dana White and his money, his cars and his clothes he flaunts
'Cause the double Champ does what the **** he wants
Mayweather, your old and your small and the is that you'll do feck all
'Cause precision beats power and timing beats speed
Why have you got a school bag Floyd you can't even read
There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather
So Floyd watch out 'cause the Irish are coming
You can talk all you want, buy you'll do nothin'
There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather
So Floyd watch out 'cause the Irish are coming
You can talk all you want, buy you'll do nothin'
Well he dress to kill, buys Lamborghinis at will
Can get inside your head like he was Dr. Phil
And if you call him out, have a good reason why
Or he'll turn around and say who the **** is that guy
And on the twenty-six of August we're taking over Vegas
The Irish invasion you can't mistake us
Singing songs day and night 'til our voices are sore
Because when one of us goes, we all go to war
There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather
So Floyd watch out 'cause the Irish are coming
You can talk all you want, buy you'll do nothin'
There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather
So Floyd watch out 'cause the Irish are coming
You can talk all you want, buy you'll do nothin'
You'll do ****in' nothin'

B_ecke_r

upinsmoke wrote: »

'

There's only one Conor McGregor, and there's no fighter better
And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather

He lost, mate.

upinsmoke

B_ecke_r wrote: »

He lost, mate.

He'll always be a winner in my book Hun xx

partyguinness

Does anyone over the age of 21 follow UFC?

DavyD_83

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Three most famous by a long distance are
(i) McGregor
(ii) McIlroy
(iii) Eoin Morgan.

No-one else comes close to these.

I genuinely don't know who Eoin Morgan is

partyguinness

DavyD_83 wrote: »

I genuinely don't know who Eoin Morgan is

An English cricket player.

odyssey06

DavyD_83 wrote: »

I genuinely don't know who Eoin Morgan is

Morrison J

salmocab wrote: »

Well I don’t think BOD is as well known as others mentioned but you said he would be unknown in Africa and I was just pointing out that he wouldn’t, the problem with this discussion is people have their own bias about certain people and sports resulting in broad statements.
Even you had to go and google the populations of Africa and South Africa after making a sweeping statement.

He's definitely unknown in Africa as a whole. I think if only .005 of the population (number would be even lower if you include class) are into rugby then "unknown" is more than fair. Hardly a sweeping statement when the numbers do back it up either.

salmocab

Morrison J wrote: »

He's definitely unknown in Africa as a whole. I think if only .005 of the population (number would be even lower if you include class) are into rugby then "unknown" is more than fair. Hardly a sweeping statement when the numbers do back it up either.

But if your just going off % of the population that knows who someone is then almost everyone being talked about here is unknown.