ESPN just released their ‘World Fame 100’ list, which recognises the biggest names in sport, and only one South African managed to crack the nod.

Of course the list is littered with Americans, but that’s to be expected, really.

Last chance to have a guess about which athlete it is before the big reveal.

Right, you asked for it – all hail the freakishly talented AB de Villiers, who just scraped into the top 100.

Here’s Sport24:

The American sports publication rounded up the Top 100 athletes in the world based on a formula that took into account ‘three fame factors’: Google Trend score, social media following and endorsement dollars.

According to ESPN, to find the 100 most famous athletes in the world, they started with 600 of the biggest names in sports, drawn from 67 countries.

De Villiers is arguably one of the biggest sports personalities that the country has ever produced and slotted in at No 99 on the list.

The 34-year-old had a Google Trend score of 4, social media following of 5.7m and endorsements up to the value of $4.5m (R56 million).

Number 99, but I guess we’ll take it. He really is a special person.

Here’s a quick look at the top 20:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

2. LeBron James (United States of America)

3. Lionel Messi (Argentina)

4. Neymar (Brazil)

5. Roger Federer (Switzerland)

6. Tiger Woods (United States of America)

7. Kevin Durant (United States of America)

8. Rafael Nadal (Spain)

9. Stephan Curry (United States of America)

10. Phil Mickelson (United States of America)

11. Virat Kohli (India)

12. Serena Williams (United States of America)

13. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

14. Floyd Mayweather (United States of America)

15. Rory McIlory (Northern Ireland)

16. Jordan Spieth (United States of America)

17. Sun Yang (China)

18. Conor McGregor (Ireland)

19. Gareth Bale (Wales)

20. MS Dhoni (India)

AB is in decent company, then.

Click on the image below and you can read all about the top 100.

[sources:sport24&espn]