Stephen A. Smith Wylin

jape said:
messi is extremely popular in the USA.
not sure where you got that from

this was from 2013 so it's not even in question now

Lionel Messi's nine seasons as a professional have been notched by eye-popping achievement, be it the record-breaking 324 goals he has netted for Barcelona, the 91 goals struck for club and country in 2012, or the four Ballons d'Or landed along the way. Yet the Argentinian star's most recent accomplishment may prove to be among his most astonishing: The 26-year-old has just become the first international footballer to break into the top-10 list of America's favorite athletes, according to the vast ESPN Sports Poll (October 2012-September 2013.)

"It is a staggering statistic" said Seth Ader, ESPN's senior director of marketing who oversees the company's soccer-related World Cup marketing strategy. "It is the first time in the history of this poll that a soccer player has shown up inside the top 10 for entire year."

Messi's achievement is even more seismic when viewed through the lens of the 12- to 24-year-old demographic, who proclaim the Barcelona star to be the fourth-favorite athlete in the United States (the study tracks the fan base sizes and demographic trends for all major sports through a monthly telephone survey of 1,500 Americans ages 12 and over).
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Ronaldo is more popular here because he speaks English.

Where would Messi be if he could conduct interviews and sell cleats in English?

Speaking English isn’t mandatory it just helps if you’re gonna do business here.

There was a lot of speculation as to why Time Magazine put messi onits covers for Europe and Asia but left him off the US cover for the same issue:
813353FE-1691-448C-81DF-BFA37D01971F.jpeg


Not saying his lack of English speaking is the only reason but it is a factor. You guys can disagree all you want but it doesn’t change the facts.
 
Last edited:
Kinfolk said:
If he wants to do Pepsi ads here that require more than holding up a can and smiling- English required

If he wants to do an MLB ad here that consists of any dialogue- English required.

The argument here isn’t “who will want to watch that?” It’s will baseballs core demographic be able to relate to him beyond just enjoying his play on the field.

Stop trying to make this something that it isn’t.

If he wants to go the same route Mike Trout went which is “hey I don’t want to be involved, leave me alone and let me collect my $340M in relative anonymity” that’s alright.

BUT THE QUESTION WAS IS OHTANI BAD FOR BASEBALL AS FAR AS NOT BEING ABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND THE ANSWER REMAINS YES!

Now if you want to debate whether that reflects poorly on American society that’s an entirely different discussion.

Nawzlew Nawzlew there’s other examples besides Messi… musiscians, other athletes etc. 🤡 if you want to do more than just passive aggressively take shots I got time.
Click to expand...
You have zero facts associating English speaking and not being able to “help the sport”. To top things off, he actually DOES SPEAK ENGLISH. A lot of your arguments went right into the garbage.
 
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guy thinks ronaldo is more popular because he speaks english

bruh if you follow these two dudes careers its easy to see messi is more introverted and private. marketable, but maybe not as marketable as someone like ronaldo
 
because in 2013 soccer was the 30th most popular sport in america behind lacrosse
 
Doesn’t that mean all you’re going to be able to do is speculate?
 
Nawzlew said:
guy thinks ronaldo is more popular because he speaks english

bruh if you follow these two dudes careers its easy to see messi is more introverted and private. marketable, but maybe not as marketable as someone like ronaldo
Click to expand...

Ronaldo is also a narcissistic jerk. But if you’re gonna sit there and deny that endearing yourself to the people you’re peddling products and services to by speaking their language I doesn’t matter at all then I don’t know what to tell you.
 
Can someone quantify this for me? Like give an actual tangible example of how not speaking english is holding him back or hurting the MLB?

I remember when Bryce Harper hit the scene in HS and they were calling him the Lebron of Baseball and saying he was the star with the facecard that the MLB desperately needed. He speaks english and seems to check off every other box of what a "baseball star" looks and sounds like. He's got endorsements out the ***, which includes a 10+ year shoe deal. Has it mattered? Bryce Harper cleats flying off shelves? Did his brash personality, "good pure American looks", and bat flips "bring the sport back"?

Could there perhaps be....a BIGGER issue at hand than player marketability?
 
Kinfolk said:
Ronaldo is more popular here because he speaks English.

Where would Messi be if he could conduct interviews and sell cleats in English?

Speaking English isn’t mandatory it just helps if you’re gonna do business here.

There was a lot of speculation as to why Time Magazine put messi onits covers for Europe and Asia but left him off the US cover for the same issue:
813353FE-1691-448C-81DF-BFA37D01971F.jpeg


Not saying his lack of English speaking is the only reason but it is a factor. You guys can disagree all you want but it doesn’t change the facts.
Click to expand...

How many Time Magazine covers--US edition or international--does CR7 have?

And if we're using US magazine covers as a metric for popularity, how come Sports Illustrated (which used to have the same ownership as Time) has more covers w/ Messi than with CR7, despite CR7's purported advantage in marketability bc of his language skills that you're claiming?
 
VARNELL HILL said:
Can someone quantify this for me? Like give an actual tangible example of how not speaking english is holding him back or hurting the MLB?

I remember when Bryce Harper hit the scene in HS and they were calling him the Lebron of Baseball and saying he was the star with the facecard that the MLB desperately needed. He speaks english and seems to check off every other box of what a "baseball star" looks and sounds like. He's got endorsements out the ***, which includes a 10+ year shoe deal. Has it mattered? Bryce Harper cleats flying off shelves? Did his brash personality, "good pure American looks", and bat flips "bring the sport back"?

Could there perhaps be....a BIGGER issue at hand than player marketability?
Click to expand...

Yeah.

Ty Cobb is still held in high regard in the baseball record books.

That’s just the tip of the ice berg of this bigger issue…
 
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