Mariota ranked 39th among world’s most marketable athletes
This is Macus Mariota giving the shaka sign next to his food sculpture made from Subway ingredients. Jim Victor and his wife Marie Pelton were the food sculpture artists.
The world is beginning to take notice of Marcus Mariota and his potential.
The Saint Louis School and University of Oregon product and current Tennessee Titans quarterback was ranked the 39th most marketable athlete in the world, according to Sports Pro, a sports industry magazine.
Mariota was rated ahead of such prominent and established stars as Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers (ranked 41st) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (42nd).
Sports Pro focuses on finance, business and sponsorship news for the world’s sports. It ranked athletes from across the world for their marketing potential over a three-year period from this summer and published a list of the 50 athletes you should be investing in over the next three years.
The criteria included value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal. The average age of the 156 athletes measured decreased from 26.58 in 2010 to 24.84 in 2015. Mariota is 21.
Mariota already has sponsorship deals with Nike, Subway, Beats by Dre and First Hawaiian Bank.
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Mariota was selected No. 2 overall by the Titans in the NFL Draft after a stellar career at Oregon, where he became the first from Hawaii to win the Heisman Trophy. He also led the Ducks to the national championship.
Among the top 30 most marketable are five tennis players, five soccer players, four golfers, as well as a cricket player. The top 30 only featured two NBA players — Stephen Curry (7th) and James Harden (26) — one NFL player — Marshawn Lynch (24th) — and one major-league player — Mike Trout (20th).
There was only one surfer (Gabriel Medina, 29th) among the top 30.
The magazine’s top-ranked most marketable is Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard.
Rounding out the top five are soccer player Neymar, golfer Jordan Spieth, swimmer Missy Franklin, auto racer Lewis Hamilton.
