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Who have they been over your lifetime?

I'll get it started.


Roger Federer
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Jansher Khan
Tatyana Lebedeva
Michael Johnson
Adam Nelson
Kyrie Irving
Jonty Rhodes

Stars I really like but had to study and watch in hindsight:

Muhammad Ali
Ayrton Senna
Johann Cruyff

Current sports stars I find particularly intriguing:

Joe Root (especially now that he's captain of the England test team)
Lewis Hamilton
Keith Thurman
Gennady Golovkin
Vasyl Lomachenko
Nafi Thiem
Michael Van Gerwen
Wayde van Niekerk
Cristiano Ronaldo

Best of the aforementioned athletes/sportspersons:

Ali and Federer



...


...


Then Senna and Cruyff.


Then the rest.

Do chess players count? I did mention Van Gerwen after all.

In which case...

Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So interest me a lot right now. From the past, I like Tal's wildly tactical and combinative style.

Formula 1:
I got into the sport in late 1996 because of Damon Hill.
Being Scottish, I had some BS nationalism behind supporting DC for years. But I also just quite like DC.
Pedro De La Rosa - not sure why really, but I really liked Super Pedro.
I don't really have any favourites in the sport anymore.

Rally:
Marcus Gronholm - I love the guy. I liked his attitude. He's definitely one of my favourite favourites.

Football:
Gazza - He's done some bad things and had a lot of bad things happen. Even as a Scot, that goal against my lot in Euro 96 is just poetic. As a player to watch and, frankly, as an interesting story to follow. As a Glaswegian, he was always entertaining especially at Rangers (not a rangers fan).

NFL:
Quite a few guys I really like. Mostly recent guys as I've been a fan under 10 years.
Matt Cassel is my boy. He QB'd the game I saw at Wembley and that is a fond memory.
I'm quite partial to a few other guys - especially those who don't showboat too much and avoid smack talking (someone like Richard Sherman I respect as a player but I don't like his style). JJ Watt seems like a really nice bloke off the field too. Derek Carr is my kind of player in that he's very good and he's a team motivator without being a dick at any point. Conor Barwin earned a place in my heart after I saw a documentary about some community stuff he does. I like guys who give back.

Snooker:
Alex Higgins (though I have only seen him in documentaries), John Higgins (I gloss over that match fixing stuff), Stephen Hendry - the time I watched the most snooker was when he was smashing it.

Tennis:
Federer - Above almost any other, I think he was just astounding. Never been a fan of Murray, though I don't dislike him at all either.

If you wanted to count Poker, which isn't really a sport by any regular definition, I really like Dan Negreanu.

I only really follow F1 and NFL. I'll watch the snooker and tennis at World Championships/Wimbledon. I don't follow rally at all anymore.

Fully idolize:
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson

More broadly (in order of from birth to adulthood):

Football
Dariusz Dziekanowski (Although I think I just loved his name)
Paul McStay
Eric Cantona
Xavi
Leo Messi

F1:
Jacques Villeneuve
David Coulthard (I also seemed to become a general McLaren fan around this time - so a bit of Hakkinen etc by extension)

Tennis
Pete Sampras
Andy Murray

Golf
Colin Montgomerie

Snooker
Stephen Hendry
John Higgins

Boxing
Mike Tyson
Vitali Klitchko

MMA
Anderson Silva
Jon Jones
Conor McGregor

No prizes for guessing my nationality

Pride of Scotland.



I started following NFL properly during the 2016/17 season and think it's an amazing game. I mainly watch the Giants and Cowboys game. Given I've only just got into it, I'm allowed to support both teams.

Odell Beckham is the guy I'm most excited to watch.

Quite a few:

Mark Lewis-Francis, Marlon Devonish, Jason Gardner, Darren Campbell
Sally Pearson
Ronaldo (the big toothed Brazilian legend)
Ato Boldon
Vince Carter
Nastia Liukin
Simone Biles
Marta
Frankie Fredericks
Kim Collins
Jean Alesi
Antti Autti
Anthony Joshua.

F1
Nigel Mansell
David Coulthard
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton
Paul Di Resta

Football
Being A Hearts (Heart of Midlothian Fc) supporter
Rudi Skacel we only won 5.1 - John Robertson the Hammer of Hibs.
Kenny Dalglish-Davie Cooper- Paolo Rossi - Wayne Rooney- Keven Keegan - Messi - Thierry Henry

Other sports
Andy Murray(Tennis) - Anthony Joshua (Boxing) - Martina Hingus (Tennis) - Gary Player (Golf) - Alan Wells (Athletics) - Dario Franchitti (Indy Car) - Greg Laidlaw and Andy Irvine (Rugby) Sir Chris Hoye and Chris Froome (Cycling) etc

F1
Jim Clark
Jacky Ickx
James Hunt

Other Motorsport
Gerry Marshall
Henri Pescarolo
Derek Bell

Football
Ronaldinho
Gerd Muller
Franz Beckenbauer
Paulo Maldini
Kenny Dalglish

Motorbikes
Phil Read
Barry Sheene

Rugby (both codes)
Adrian Morley
Jason Robinson
Gareth Edwards

Cricket
David Gower
Shane Warne

American Football
Steve Atwater
Dennis Smith
Shannon Sharpe
Barry Sanders

Tom Brady
Julian Edelman
Alexander Gustafsson
Daniel Ricciardo
Eden Hazard
Zlatan Ibrahimovich (Not his clubs)

Missing from all the lists above = Tanny Gray (Thompson).

I only know Gary Player in hindsight but try and catch all his interviews. He's one of the most interesting and inspiring people I've ever heard - not just in sports but in life.

As far as Shannon Sharpe goes, he sure is entertaining on Undisputed FS1.

Historically:

F1:

Ayrton Senna
Alan Jones
Gilles Villeneuve

Cricket:

Dennis Lillee
David Gower
Ian Botham
Doug Walters
Richard Hadlee
Martin Crowe
Rodney Marsh
Imran Khan
Ian Chappell
Take your pick of any of the great West Indies players from the late 70's to late 80's including the great one, Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander "Viv" Richards.

Boxing:

Muhammad Ali
Sugar Ray Leonard
Marvellous Marvin Hagler
Tommy Hearns
Roberto Duran
Mike Tyson

Basketball:

Magic Johnson
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Michael Jordan

Golf:

Greg Norman
Jack Nicklaus
Nick Faldo
Seve Ballesteros
Gary Player
Bernard Langer

Tennis:

John McEnroe
Bjorn Borg
Ivan Lendl
Jimmy Connors
Stefan Edberg
Goran Ivanisevic

Rugby League:

Bob McCarthy
Hazim El Masri
Mal Meninga
Wally Lewis
Steve Mortimer
Gene Miles
Terry Lamb
Greg Brentnall

Soccer:

Pat Jennings
Ray Clemence
Glen Hoddle
Craig Johnson
Kevin Keegan

There's probably more. Looking at this list I can't help but think the mid 70's through to the late 80's were, for me anyway, truly the golden years in sport.

Mohammad Ali
Martina Navratilova
Bryan Robson

As the topic is favorite as opposed to best, some of my choices may not register with many of you. Some of them because I really followed them as an avid fan, some because they made me more aware of their sport (ie Pele), and some just because they were so damned good at what they did:

Racing
Dan Gurney
Bobby Unser
Stirling Moss
Bill Elliott
Richard Petty
Mika Hakkenin
Filepe Massa
Marcos Ambrose
Steve Kinser

Baseball
Ken Boyer
Stan Musial
Ozzie Smith
Yadier Molina
Roberto Clemente
Larry Walker

American Football (college & Pros)
John Elway
Steve Atwater
Tommy Frazier
Brook Berringer
Roger Craig
Peyton Manning

NBA basketball
Alex English
Dan Issel
David Thompson
Larry Bird
David Robinson

Olympics & other sports
Penny Heynes - swimming
Dara Torres - swimming
Dan Gable - wrestling
Alberto Tomba - skiing
Tina Maze - skiing
Nadia Comaneci - gymnastics
Peggy Fleming - skating
Edwin Moses - track & field - hurdles
Roger Federer - Tennis
Stan Smith - tennis
Muhammed Ali - boxing
Jack Nicklaus - golf
Pele - soccer/football