If you are asking about Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, the latest winner is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Sports Illustrated selected the Oklahoma City Thunder star as its 2025 Sportsperson of the Year, with the award announced in January 2026. Gilgeous-Alexander earned the honor after an extraordinary 2025 season. He won the NBA Most Valuable Player…
If you mean the highest-paid sports player in the world, the answer is Cristiano Ronaldo. As of 2026, Forbes ranks the Portuguese soccer star as the world’s highest-paid athlete. Forbes estimates that Ronaldo earned more than $200 million annually from his Al-Nassr compensation, while his total earnings also include substantial off-field income from endorsements and…
There is no single scientific ranking that determines which sports players are the “most athletic.” Athleticism can mean different things, including speed, strength, endurance, agility, balance, coordination, explosiveness, reaction time, and the ability to perform several of those qualities at once. If the question is about all-around athletic ability, decathletes have one of the strongest…
There is no single sport whose players are guaranteed to live the longest, but research suggests that athletes in endurance and mixed sports often have better long-term survival than athletes in some power-based sports. Among Olympic athletes, studies have found particularly favorable longevity patterns in sports such as athletics, rowing, fencing, cross-country skiing, sailing, and…
The sports player with the highest current overall earnings is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese soccer star who plays for Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr. Forbes’ 2026 rankings list Ronaldo as the world’s highest-paid athlete, with estimated earnings of about $300 million over the 12 months covered by the ranking. However, there is an important distinction between…
When people ask what sports player has the most kids, there is no single universally verified answer. The difficulty is that athletes’ family lives are not always completely public, and historical records can be incomplete, especially for athletes who had children with multiple partners or lived before modern record-keeping. Among well-documented famous athletes, some have…
Yes. Premier Sports has been available through Sky in the UK and Ireland, but the exact way you access Premier Sports can depend on your Sky service, location, and current subscription arrangements. Premier Sports is a sports television broadcaster that has carried rights to various live sporting events. Its availability through Sky has changed over…
Sports players have agents because professional athletes often need help managing the business side of their careers. An agent can negotiate contracts, communicate with teams, review opportunities, help with endorsements, and advise an athlete about important career decisions. For a professional athlete, playing the sport may be only one part of the job. Contracts can…
Yes, there are sports players who have publicly disclosed that they are autistic. They have competed in professional, college, Paralympic, and other high-level sports. Because autism is personal medical information, it is important to distinguish between athletes who have publicly confirmed a diagnosis and athletes who are merely rumored to be autistic. A person’s behavior,…
Sports players have numbers mainly to make it easy for officials, teammates, commentators, and fans to identify them during a game. A number can distinguish one player from another, especially when several athletes are wearing the same team uniform. Player numbers also serve other purposes. In many sports, numbers are connected to positions, traditions, team…