Originally Posted by Itse
There's been some studies on the subject, with various levels of credibility. Couldn't find any of the more credible ones, but I seem to remember that in the nineties the top two were Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson. Jesus is a more complicated character, since even though many theologists/historians consider him to have been "most likely" a real person, the way he is depicted these days varies enough to make his picture unrecognizable over cultural borders.
Pele is up there no question, and Muhammed Ali most likely too.
The current pope hasn't been in business long enough I'd say, although he has a pretty recognizable face.
As of footballers, Zinedine Zidane will propably still be among the most famous for quite a while.
Queen Elizabeths face is calculated to be the most often reproduced face ever (after Jesus, but I already explained why that doesn't really count), so that would most propably also make her one of the most recognized faces. Her face is on millions of pictures, stamps, coins, bills and she is regurarly displayed in the media in every continent, and has been for a very long time.
Britney Spears is also up there for sure.
Dont' forget Michael Schumacher either. Oh, and Carl Lewis.
As another note, yeah sure, just about anybody can play some kind of football (that's one of the reasons it's so popular), but to be one of those guys who make the really big bucks you have to be amazingly talented, practise essentially every waking hour of your life and have unhuman levels of dedication to stay fit and focused enough to beat the hundred million other kids who dream of making it (most of whom live in the slums in some corner of the world, where football is the only way out).
Despite it's problems, it's the best sport in the world. And as to the amount of "diving", it's waa-yy overblown in USA/Canada, mostly because most people don't know what they're talking about. When you're running at full speed, it only really takes very little contact on either foot to make you fall down, simply because when one feet doesn't land where it's supposed to fast enough, down you go. (It's totally different from American football, where you're not allowed to go for the legs.)
The field makes for a very hard landing and there's essentially no protection. Then again you rarely break anything as long as you remember to roll or slide when you land. If you do neither, you'll increase your chance of getting hurt tremendously.
I've been there and tried it; a small knock on one foot and I down I go, rolling on the ground. The parts that took most of the fall hurt like hell and I'm out of wind completely for a few seconds, and a little later adrenaline kicks in, the brain realizes that nothing was broken, I get up, and ten seconds later I don't even remember it. It's just how it works.
Really, you have to play it to understand how it works.
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