After a rollercoaster year in 2020, pro sports are back up and running with a vengeance as fans flock back to their TV screens and stadiums to soak up all the athletic action.
What this means is that many up-and-coming sports stars are busy growing their social media presence as they look to maximize the impact of any major gains that they make in their respective sporting fields in the second half of 2021.
With that in mind, we thought we would pick out just some of the sporting highflyers whose social media profiles could be about to go through the roof, making them targets of huge brands and companies who want to harness their unique pulling power.
Max Verstappen
For a long time now, Lewis Hamilton has been the dominant force in F1, having won no less than seven F1 driver’s championships. However, 2021 has seen his dominance challenged by the young upstart that is Max Verstappen.
Despite only being 23-years of age, at the time of writing the Belgian star is leading Hamilton in the driver’s standings and has a Red Bull car that looks as though it could enable him to stay ahead of the field for the duration of the season.
If he can hold off the likes of Hamilton and Bottas and become the latest F1 champion, then his currently impressive social media following should flourish even further, especially with the Red Bull brand pushing his name more than it already does.
Red Bull Racing have long threatened to take over in F1 and now with Max Verstappen leading their charge they might just be able to wrest the championship from Mercedes
Jadon Sancho
He has been overshadowed at Euro 2020 by the likes of Phil Foden and even his Borussia Dortmund teammate Jude Bellingham, but a huge, mooted transfer to Man Utd could see Sancho quickly go from being one of the biggest prospects in the game to one of the most well-recognized faces in sport.
There seems to be no doubt amongst odds makers and betting tipsters about Sancho being bound for the Premier League, whose fans around the world will no doubt be backing him with sportsbook offers from comparison sites, as well as liking and following his various social media feeds. He already has a whopping 5.7m Instagram followers and people can bet on that rising exponentially with the might of Man Utd’s PR and marketing teams behind him. This is all as long as he lives up to the hype, and delivers goals and assists for those online pundits and sports bettors who backed him at the outset of his Old Trafford career.
Sky Brown
A horrific crash had threatened to derail the prospects of UK skate sensation Sky Brown heading to the Tokyo Olympics, but a few weeks ago she managed to finally qualify for the massive showcase.
This is especially important for Brown, as it will be the first time that her sport has ever featured at the Olympics and the event’s success will ultimately dictate whether the sport will retain its Olympic status in the future. The event will also be particularly special for Brown because she has Japanese heritage, meaning she can garner fans from the Far East and back home in Britain. She currently has less than 1m Instagram followers, but that number will skyrocket if she manages to land a medal in Tokyo’s Olympic skate park.
Novak Djokovic
Okay, so most sports fans already know about the world’s current number 1 tennis player, but he makes it onto this list because the rest of 2021 could see him finally surpass Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the undisputed best male tennis player of all time.
Before this summer’s Wimbledon championship, Djokovic was just one grand slam triumph behind the Swiss and the Spaniard. Having claimed the 2021 French Open with a dominant display, he will fancy himself to go on and be victorious on London’s grass courts as well as at the US Open that follows in early September.
If he does manage to overtake both Federer and Nadal then his rather small 8.5m Instagram following will balloon, as big brands rush to be affiliated with the man who can legitimately lay claim to being the sport’s all-time greatest.
Djokovic will be crowned the best male tennis player ever if he makes a clean sweep of all this summer’s grand slam events, which could make him more popular than icons like Nadal and Federer
Carissa Moore
If Sky Brown is the darling of the skate world, then Carissa Moore is the undoubted queen of surfing; another sport that is due to make its maiden Olympic journey this summer.
Moore’s unique brand of power and grace out in the ocean will be aided by the fact that the event will take place at a natural break rather than in an artificial wave pool. Because surfing is such a niche sport, Moore currently has less than half a million Instagram followers, but nothing boosts those numbers quite like a gold medal won on behalf of Team USA.
Claressa Shields
This female fighter from Flint, Michigan, has been breaking down barriers her entire career and she did something that almost no boxer, male or female, has dared to do; stepping into an MMA octagon to compete against a bona fide MMA pro. Despite having to endure some torrid moments in her bout against Brittney Elkin, she eventually toughed it out to stop her opponent in the third round.
This all comes atop of a boxing resume that is unsurpassed in the sport, with Shields having been the undisputed champion in two weight classes as well as holding world titles in others as well. She has only made the move to MMA because lucrative fights were not coming her way in boxing. It is perhaps only a matter of time before the UFC’s Dana White opens his purse strings to bring her onto his premier platform. If that happens you can expect Shields to become the biggest female name in combat sports bar none.
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