Cristiano Ronaldo beats Messi, Rooney, others to clinch World’s Most Marketable footballer + See top 10 list

Football star of the moment, Cristiano Ronaldo who helped Real Madrid win the La Decima this season has been named the world’s most marketable footballer by global sports market research experts ‘Repucom’. Taking second place on the list is Lionel Messi, who until recently was named world’s best player while Gerard Pique of Barcelona surprisingly, clinched the third spot on the list. The list also had had Chelsea frontman , Fernando Torres ranking as fourth although he has struggled for form at Stamford Bridge following his £50million transfer from Liverpool in January 2011. Manchester United star, Wayne Rooney made the last of the top 5, having 20million Facebook fans and will be England’s best-known player at this summer’s World Cup. Repucom’s list was based on the the perceptions of 16-69 year olds in 13 markets including Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US, representing the views of more than 1.5 billion people. The players made the marketable list by evaluating eight contributing attributes including the awareness, appeal, breakthrough, trendsetter influence, trust, endorsement and aspiration of and for the celebrity. See list below: