Ronaldo Tops Soccer Shopping, Donovan & Altidore Make Strong Showing for U.S.

Written by Andy Kazeniac (contact - e-mail) -- August 12th, 2009 | Share - Save - E-mail

I’m a Manchester United fan and my coworker, Marko, is a Liverpool supporter. The debate about which team is better is pretty simple (especially because United won the league this season) because it’s settled on the field. FIFA passes out a Player of the Year award every year, but that argument is a bit more subjective. Popularity isn’t necessarily proportional to talent, but they are closely related and although we may not be able to crown the best player in the world here, we can take a look at who is the most popular in the U.S. (based on visitors to popular soccer retailers online).

Andy Says: Although Man Utd. can’t officially claim Ronaldo anymore, a lot of his popularity was built while playing for the Red Devils, so I’ll count it as a win, adding Most Popular Player to the list of trophies he has brought to the team (many would argue that he brought “Most Hated Player” too).

Marko Says: It should be noted that Ronaldo was never part of Man U F.C. but rather the Manchester diving team that trains across the street. If you want to talk about proper footballers who have command of their weak side as well as respect the game, just trim that diva of an outlier off the top.

Andy Says: Now that he has officially left Manchester United anyway, I’ll refrain from defending Ronaldo (as it looked like so many opposing defenses did last season). Speaking of defending… when the U.S. defense was gift-wrapping goals in the Confederations Cup, how did Liverpool golden boy, and 6th on this list, Fernando Torres manage to get shut down?

Marko Says: I have to give it to the U.S. national team on this one. They shut down the Spanish team which had not lost a game in their previous 35 matches! Well done gents, well done Tim Howard. Although the Confederations Cup is not the most prestigious of all competitions, America and the world took notice.

It will be interesting to see if that strong showing and the interest in the big match against Mexico today will push U.S. players higher on this list than Landon Donovan at 13th and Jozy Altidore at 20th. We’ll keep an eye on the rankings leading up to next summer’s World Cup. Good luck to the U.S. today!

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Comments

1. Gigger
   August 12th, 2009 at 9:48 pm

   I’m surprised Ronaldo has such a big lead, he’s an excellent player but I thought too many people hated him to be that far ahead.

2. Online Gift Accessories
   August 13th, 2009 at 6:46 am

   Shop online and save your money and time too…Its a new trend……..and its very fantastic to shop online. accessories and gifta items …………Nice POst……

3. information
   August 13th, 2009 at 7:04 am

   Im really waiting for the worldcup to commence in south africa.. Ronaldo will be playing an important part in that world cup……….. Brazil will be the world champions

4. Kelly Abbott
   August 13th, 2009 at 11:08 am

   It’s hard for talented players in second tier football markets to get respect. That explains why Torres and Gerrard are not more popular, I feel. But it doesn’t explain why C. Ronaldo is so much more popular than Leo Messi. Relatively equal in stats, equal market size potential, and clearly the posterboys for their organizations — what truly makes them different?

   If you ask my wife who the hottest player in the game is, she can’t help herself: Ronaldo with his shirt off. No competition for that.

   What else? The ManU kit is so much more wearable. Who wants to walk around in Barcelona blaugrana stripes? Only the dedicated.

   If it were up to me, and it clearly is not, Dirk Kuyt would be in this top 20. His agent must be comatose.

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