Lionel Messi has beaten long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo to be named as 2020's most marketable athlete.
The study was carried out by SportsPro and draws on social media data to generate an Athlete Influencer Score based on four factors: relevance, reach, return and resonance.
It found that six-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi edged out Juventus star Ronaldo to take this year's crown, with American basketball player LeBron James making up the top three.
Three other football players made the top ten, with PSG's Neymar, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Paulo Dybala of Juventus also included.
Also on the list were cricket players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, tennis player Bianca Andreescu and MMA star Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Messi has a huge 167m followers on Instagram, although it is not as many as Ronaldo, who has a staggering 238m.
Both players are paid eyewatering sums of money to post sponsored content on their accounts, while they both have lucrative marketing partnerships with a number of companies.
Speaking about the results, SportsPro's Editorial Director Michael Long said: "With marketing budgets being tightened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, spending on sports sponsorship is being more scrutinised than ever.
"Now, with the richer data sets and deeper insights provided by this year’s 50MM rankings, marketers working across all sports can easily identify where the real value lies in order to justify their spending decisions and maximise return on investment.”
There was no place on the list for last year's winner Naomi Osaka, while British stars Raheem Sterling and Dina Asher-Smith also missed out after making the top 10 last time out.
World’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes powered by Nielsen - the top ten:
- Lionel Messi
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- LeBron James
- Virat Kohli
- Bianca Andreescu
- Neymar Jr
- Khabib Nurmagomedov
- Rohit Sharma
- Mohamed Salah
- Paulo Dybala
