Not Lionel Messi, not Diego Maradona: He is the most mentioned sportsman in songs

Songs naming athletes have been quite common in the last years. It has been more common with soccer, with Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi being the most cited in that sport. Outside soccer, Michael Jordan had an interesting number of mentions as well. But the numbers were checked and none of them is the most named.

The British website TopRatedCasinos.co.uk made a study and after analyzing another website, the lyrics page Lyrics.com, the researchers found out Diego Maradona had 270 mentions. Over him is Lionel Messi, with 553 citations, a bit more than the double. But just as Maradona, Messi's number is near the half of the athlete above in the list.

The most cited athlete in songs ever is Kobe Bryant. The former Los Angeles Lakers player reached the incredible number of 1147 times his name or any other reference to him appeared in a song. And as a curious fact, 24 songs were dedicated directly to him. Yes, 24, the number he was known with.

Kobe died at 41 years old on January 26th of this year, when his helicopter fell and crashed. His daughter Gianna was aboard with him, and she could not either survive. His death, devastating for basketball, was an inspiration for many artists to write songs to honor him, especially rappers.

The ones who honored Kobe: 

Out of all the post mortem tributes to Kobe, Lil Wayne (released a song with his name), Kendrick Lamar (Mamba forever), Juicy J, (Who da neighbours) and Bad Bunny (6 rings), among many others have been the most famous. They made sure the legacy of Bryant will be around forever.

But going back to soccer, Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona had more variety about music genres. Both had reggaes, cumbias, tangos and rock songs. Anyway, Diego Maradona related songs are the most famous, while the other ones about Lio did not go too far.