Irish UFC star Conor McGregor was among the most-talked about sports stars of 2021, with over 56,000 articles published online about the Dubliner.
That's according to Onlinegambling.ca, who used Buzzsumo’s database to discover the top 30 athletes featured most in the news for 2021.
The first three positions were occupied by football superstars Ronaldo, Neymar and Lionel Messi, who all had over 130,000 articles written about them.
Basketball's LeBron James followed in fourth place, while cricketer Virat Kohli was behind him in fifth place.
The only other athlete to rank ahead of McGregor was the NFL quarterback Tom Brady, who was the sixth most discussed sports star with 60,473 published about him.
McGregor hit the headlines this year after breaking his leg and losing to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
The former champion also turned many heads when he got into a bust-up with rapper Machine Gun Kelly at the VMA Awards in September.
Landing in seventh position in this list meant McGregor finished ahead of sports stars such as football's Sergio Ramos, seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton and tennis ace Novak Djokovic.
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