Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list of European as well as the world’s most marketable football players, accoring to a study by Repucom. In terms of overall marketability, globally, Ronaldo leaves the other European players in his wake. This is largely driven by his worldwide fame, where 83% of people know who he is. Globally, 85% of all men and 80% of all women have heard of the Portuguese player. While identifying the overall marketability and public awareness levels can provide an invaluable measure to brands in selecting endorsers, identifying aspects such as player appeal and public aspiration compared on a national versus global basis can prove to be just as important. For example, in his native Spain, 99% of the population know of World Cup winner Andrés Iniesta. Globally, of the 48% of people that know of Iniesta, he commands the highest perception scores of any of the other top 10 players for both public aspiration (80%) and trust (71%). The national awareness in the U.K. of Wayne Rooney is 95% and awareness among Italians of Andrea Pirlo is 97%. For all players, the percentage of people that know of them in their native markets far exceeds the percentage that know of them globally. Repucom Global Dir Enterprise Services Andrew Walsh said, "Sponsors shouldn’t just look at the most famous players to market their brands but actually at how perceptions shift between countries and population demographics to ensure the biggest return on their investment. Take appeal as another defining criteria of public perception. Globally, of the percentage of people that know of [Mario] Götze (39%), [Robin] Van Persie (46%) and Ronaldo (83%), more women than men say that they actually like these players. This makes them especially effective brand endorsers for products aimed at this target group" (Repucom).
