Solely 10 plain superstars might stand on this mountain.
And Tom Brady barely made it close to the highest.
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Patrick Mahomes, Caitlin Clark, LeBron James and Jake Paul created headline after headline in 2024.
With solely 10 names masking a various number of sports activities, energy gamers and private manufacturers, a few of the largest stars on the planet needed to be disregarded.
Stephen Curry nearly made this record.
However the Golden State Warriors are in decline and Curry not drives NBA chatter like he used to.
WNBA star Angel Reese is seemingly in every single place, however the Chicago Sky ahead did not end her rookie season attributable to damage and solely shot 39.1 % from the sphere.
Workforce USA observe speedster Noah Lyles and new North Carolina head coach Invoice Belichick had been among the many largest talkers in US sports activities in 2024.
However they weren’t sturdy sufficient for this high 10, which additionally noticed Coco Gauff, Lamar Jackson and Dana White find yourself on the reducing room flooring.
This is talkSPORT’s rating of the ten largest energy gamers in US sports activities.
10. Tom Brady, Tremendous Bowl champion and NFL on FOX TV analyst
It has been some time because the NFL’s GOAT threw an actual cross.
However Brady was unattainable to overlook final 12 months, whether or not he was studying the ropes as a rookie announcer or shopping for into the Las Vegas Raiders’ rebuild.
The seven-time Tremendous Bowl champ had a controversial sit-down interview with Mahomes and rapidly regretted a fiery roast.
For somebody who’s presupposed to be retired, Brady clearly enjoys the highlight and including to his estimated internet price of $300 million.
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9. Travis Kelce, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish
Kelce the soccer star is slowing down.
Kelce as a global famous person is simply starting.
He is extra than simply Taylor Swift’s boyfriend or the co-host of a podcast that creates weekly headlines.
One of many biggest tight ends in NFL historical past has turn out to be one of many largest names in US sports activities.
Not dangerous for a jock who as soon as was kicked off his faculty soccer staff as a result of he refused to comply with the principles.
Kelce was denied a historic Tremendous Bowl three-peat by Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles in February’s large sport.
After weighing up retirement, the Completely happy Gilmore 2 star will likely be returning to KC for one final dance.
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8. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys proprietor
Jones cannot purchase a Tremendous Bowl trophy.
However Uncle Jerry should buy nearly the whole lot else.
The person who constructed AT&T Stadium possesses essentially the most priceless sports activities franchise on the planet.
Even when the Cowboys are crammed with inner drama, and at a tense standoff with star cross rusher Micah Parsons, they’re nonetheless price $10 billion and valued greater than Manchester United.
Throw in his must-watch postgame interviews and fondness for consuming squirrels, and an 82-year-old price greater than $16 billion is sort of as large because the NFL.
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7. Jake Paul, boxer and YouTube star
Love him or hate him, it does not matter.
It is Paul’s fashionable world and we’re all simply residing in it.
He beat Mike Tyson, teased different buzz-filled fights, has 28.5 million followers on Instagram, and was on the heart of the most-streamed world sporting occasion in historical past.
Not even Netflix’s annoying buffering issues received in Paul’s means.
It is nonetheless debatable whether or not ‘The Downside Little one’ is nice or horrible for boxing’s future, however be continues to win, win, and win once more contained in the ring, together with a current victory over former middleweight boxing champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
What’s sure is that Paul turned larger than ever in 2025 and past.
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6. Juan Soto, New York Mets outfielder
The one Main League Baseball participant on this record needed to be on this record.
Soto burned the cross-town New York Yankees and immediately turned the most important Mets star in staff historical past.
Money and flash
Estimated internet price
Jerry Jones $16 billion
LeBron James $1.2 billion
Juan Soto $865 million
Lionel Messi $850 million
Tom Brady $300 million
Patrick Mahomes $90 million
Jake Paul $80 million
Travis Kelce $50 million
Simone Biles $25 million
Caitlin Clark $4 million
He additionally made Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the World Sequence-winning Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be a hardball discount.
If Soto trades his record-setting $765 million deal for the Mets’ first world championship since 1986, he’ll remind sports activities followers throughout the globe why baseball was America’s pastime.
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5. Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever guard
In a number of years, Clark might be No. 1.
That is how magnetic and influential the WNBA famous person has turn out to be.
Clark modified girls’s faculty basketball, then lastly took the professional sport to the subsequent degree, together with a rivalry for the ages alongside Angel Reese.
Throw in a Rookie of the 12 months award, carrying the Indiana Fever to the playoffs and being daring sufficient to say no to the start-up Unmatched league, and Clark was a every day speaking level in US sports activities in 2024 and 2025.
If she will be able to win a number of championships, she will be able to rise from a 23-year-old girls’s basketball sensation right into a US sports activities icon.
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4. Lionel Messi, Inter Miami ahead
Primarily based off his current MLS finishes, Messi does not need to be on this record.
Primarily based off the whole lot he is meant to MLS and the way his identify rings out in America, the 38-year-old residing legend might be even greater.
Messi is singlehandedly pointing the USA to the 2026 World Cup, displaying soccer (and soccer) followers in every single place how beautiful the attractive sport actually is.
Whether or not he’s nonetheless commanding the pitch in 2026 is one other query.
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3. Simone Biles, Workforce USA gymnast
The star of the 2024 Summer season Olympics dominated Paris and TVs throughout the globe.
Biles is greater than Brady, Clark and the Cowboys’ proprietor.
She impressed thousands and thousands together with her public honesty coping with psychological well being.
She has 11 Olympic medals and might be again for extra in Los Angeles in 2028.
In a US sports activities world dominated by NFL stars, a gymnast from Spring, Texas is a real sport-changing GOAT.
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2. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers ahead
The King of many issues.
James was the basketball star of the 2024 Olympics, then turned the primary father in NBA historical past to play together with his son, Bronny, on the identical staff.
“Hollywood couldn’t write a greater script so we helped them write it and introduced it to them,” James posted.
The league’s all-time main scorer turned 40 on December 30.
He is simply getting began on the subject of media domination and being an influence participant on a worldwide stage.
With greater than $1 billion in internet price, The Chosen One might simply be No. 1.
However the NFL towers above the NBA in the USA, and James has fallen out of the minute-by-minute sports activities dialog.
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1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback
The generational QB is so large that he deserved his personal talkSPORT Christmas countdown record.
Mahomes is the yard gunslinger who has changed Brady because the face of the NFL.
He is additionally stayed true to his baseball origins whereas embracing the whole lot from MLB and the NBA to the NWSL and Formulation One.
James can drive a social dialog with a single tweet, however The King has had a number of missteps through the years.
Mahomes has turn out to be the nice unifier whereas approaching $100 million in internet price.
Sunday after Sunday, NFL followers the world over tune in to see what he and his reigning-champion Chiefs will do on the sphere of play.
A very powerful athlete in America’s largest sport has additionally turn out to be the most important energy participant.
Mahomes additionally has the Swifties on his facet.
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