Latest Site News

[PeteFromLeeds]

Welcome to the World Cup of Sportspeople! With the Women's Football World Cup in full swing just finished and the Men's World Cup being a resounding success last year, we'll be following on with a tournament, not of countries, but of the sports-men and women themselves. This contest is designed to select the greatest sportspeople from each continent through a number of rounds, selecting the best of the best, and pitting them together to show who we really think is the best sportsperson of them all!

30 of our Finalists have been decided - that means there's 20 more sports up for grabs. The remaining 40 sportspeople will contest for these by going head-to-head in the Playoffs. Here are the details.

- You must choose one sportsperson from each pair listed. You can do this however you want but please make your choice clear
- Each sportsperson has been given a short description of their major achievements to make it easier for you to make up your mind. There is also a list of the pairs in the first post without the descriptions/flags
- The winners of each head-to-head will advance through to the Final, whilst the losers will be eliminated.

Part 1

Zinedine Zidane (France - Football - Won World Cup and Euros with France, won 1998 Ballon d'Or)
vs.
Rod Laver (Australia - Tennis - Won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, 200 Career titles)


Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil - Motor Racing - Won two championships, 14 Grand Prix wins)
vs.
David Rudisha (Kenya - Athletics - 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion, two time World Champion and World Record holder in the 800m)


Chris Evert (USA - Tennis - Won 18 Grand Slam titles, 157 career titles)
vs.
Andy Murray (Scotland - Tennis - Won three Grand Slam tournaments, 45 career titles)


George Best (Northern Ireland - Football - Scored 207 goals in 586 games, regarded as one of the greatest players of all time)
vs.
Ben Ainslie (England - Sailing - 4 Olympic Golds, 8 World Championship Golds)


Chris Hoy (Scotland - Cycling - 6 Olympic golds, 11 World Championship golds)
vs.
Billie Jean King (USA - Tennis - Won 12 Grand Slam titles, 129 career titles)


Margaret Court (Australia - Tennis - Won 24 Grand Slam titles, 129 career titles)
vs.
Carl Lewis (USA - Athletics - 9 Olympic golds, 8 World Championship golds)


Bobby Charlton (England - Football - Held record for England's most capped player, held record for England's all-time top scorer)
vs.
Roy Emerson (Australia - Tennis - Won 12 Grand Slam titles, 110 career titles)


Jack Nicklaus (USA - Golf - Won 18 Major Championships, 73 PGA Tour wins)
vs.
Mark Waugh (Australia - Cricket - First batsman to score three centuries in the Cricket World Cup, 1999 leading Australian runscorer)


Paolo Maldini (Italy - Football - Won 26 trophies with AC Milan, captained Italy for 8 years)
vs.
Ronaldinho (Brazil - Football - Won Player of the Year twice and Ballon d'Or once, won La Liga twice and Champions' League once with Barcelona)


Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia - Athletics - 5000m outdoors World Record holder, won three Olympic golds and five World Championship golds)
vs.
Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentina - Motor Racing - Won 5 championships, 24 Grand Prix wins)