Cristiano Ronaldo is the most talked about sports star online for 2021 with almost 196,000 articles published online in the last year. Onlinegambling.ca used Buzzsumo’s database to discover the top 30 athletes featured most in the news for 2021.
Laker’s LeBron James ranked in fourth position with over 81,500 articles about him. Only three other basketball players feature on the top 30 list – Kevin Durant (18), Russell Westbrook (27) and Stephen Curry (28).
See the full rankings with number of articles published online and total engagements across social media below.
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | Number of Articles | Engagements |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Soccer | 195,976 | 112,932,160 |
| 2 | Neymar Jr | Soccer | 171,222 | 50,954,362 |
| 3 | Lionel Messi | Soccer | 131,080 | 60,643,960 |
| 4 | LeBron James | Basketball | 81,551 | 47,545,199 |
| 5 | Virat Kohli | Cricket | 66,913 | 14,794,662 |
| 6 | Tom Brady | Football | 60,473 | 23,887,639 |
| 7 | Conor McGregor | Mixed Martial Arts | 53,652 | 14,233,358 |
| 8 | Sergio Ramos | Soccer | 46,002 | 13,985,465 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | Formula One | 43,305 | 9,014,060 |
| 10 | Novak Djokovic | Tennis | 41,264 | 4,756,810 |
| 11 | Simone Biles | Athletics | 41,130 | 27,730,770 |
| 12 | Aaron Rodgers | Football | 40,195 | 16,103,219 |
| 13 | Harry Kane | Soccer | 36,245 | 15,344,720 |
| 14 | Tiger Woods | Golf | 35,960 | 6,331,065 |
| 15 | Tyson Fury | Boxing | 35,742 | 11,023,103 |
| 16 | Roger Federer | Tennis | 32,644 | 4,912,543 |
| 17 | Naomi Osaka | Tennis | 32,576 | 11,364,117 |
| 18 | Kevin Durant | Basketball | 29,154 | 4,852,720 |
| 19 | Floyd Mayweather | Boxing | 26,963 | 8,305,264 |
| 20 | Mike Tyson | Boxing | 26,251 | 7,860,428 |
| 21 | Serena Williams | Tennis | 26,166 | 9,608,725 |
| 22 | Rafael Nadal | Tennis | 25,602 | 3,643,111 |
| 23 | John Cena | Wrestling | 25,460 | 4,472,115 |
| 24 | MS Dhoni | Cricket | 25,167 | 7,930,980 |
| 25 | Anthony Joshua | Boxing | 24,692 | 8,683,726 |
| 26 | Russell Westbrook | Basketball | 22,867 | 3,598,110 |
| 27 | Paul Pogba | Soccer | 22,420 | 20,070,677 |
| 28 | Stephen Curry | Basketball | 19,729 | 6,945,634 |
| 29 | Kylian Mbappe | Soccer | 17,926 | 10,850,258 |
| 30 | Patrick Mahomes | Football | 17,778 | 9,619,211 |
The top female athlete on the list is gymnast Simone Biles, who is ranked number eleven after a winning year at the Olympics. Her speech at the Larry Nassar trial also made international news. The only other two female athletes are tennis stars Naomi Osaka (17) and Serena Williams (21).
The list also comprises of seven soccer players, five tennis players, four boxers, three football players, two cricketers and one athlete each from the world of athletics, Formula One, golf, MMA and wresting.
