The first 5 teams that entered my mind:
- Yankees
- Manchester United
- Cowboys
- Lakers
- Red Sox
MLB doesn’t get the kind of love in Europe like the NBA does. But MLB is pretty big in Japan and Korea (not sure about China).
Heh, kind of funny because Dan played for the Miami Dolphins. 
The Cowboys were helped a lot in the '80s when the TV show Dallas was the biggest world wide show and showed an overhead of Texas Stadium in the opening credits.
I teach at a high school near Oslo, Norway. I see lots of boys wearing Yankees baseball caps. They do not wear them because they are Yankees fans. They wear them because 1. they think the logo looks cool, 2. rappers and other musicians who they regard as cool wear Yankees stuff, and 3. they’re aware it has something to do with New York City, and New York City is about as cool as it gets. Some of them are only vaguely aware that the Yankees are a sports team of some sort; few have seen a single inning of a baseball game. I think you will find this is not uncommon among young people wearing Yankees caps and such in most countries outside the US.
Really? Heh.
Using the metric of a random housewife in Dublin/Rome/ or Morocco, I would still wager that if you asked them to name an American football team, they would say “Dallas Cowboys”. I have no idea why, I just doubt they have ever heard of the Patriots or the Steelers.
I’m sorry dude, but:
made me laugh, most people outside of the US wouldnt even know what sports these teams are playing; if they had ever heard of the teams themselves.
Get out and breathe some fresh air.
I think the OPer is showing his American-centric attitude with his US-only list. Because the first team that came to my mind was Manchester United. And I don’t even routinely follow any sport except tennis.
I think Man U and the Yankees have to be cemented into the top 2. From there the list gets rather fluid, IMO.
Real Madrid probably has a place, since I’m American and not a soccer fan, and I know of them. (Not all Americans are as ignorant as Rondembo, in case you were wondering.:))
A few people mentioned the Bulls. I’m from Chicago and I wouldn’t have thought to put them on the list. So it’s extremely tough to gauge what’s “famous” to the rest of the world.
Just to take a stab:
Manchester United
New York Yankees
Real Madrid
Dallas Cowboys
Ferrari, I guess (I wouldn’t have thought of them as a “sports team” without having read this thread, but a good argument has been made.)
Hello fellow Beijing resident! If it weren’t for the NBA, most people here would have never heard of my home state of New Jersey (Nets).
Major League Baseball is quite popular in Taiwan (province of China ;)). On the mainland, you see some Yankees caps, but it’s probably just seen as a brand, and I would be surprised if many of them watch baseball.
Awww. All of you mean posters with your “facts” and “evidence” seem to have driven poor Rondembo back under his “Rock of Ignorance.” Shame on you all!
“Lakers” recognized world-wide? Dude, they aren’t even recognized in Orange County!
A much more reasonable list. For all the Europeans posting soccer teams like “Real” Madrid and Barcelona, I bet most of the world has heard of the Cowboys and Lakers way way more than those little soccer teams. Seriously, when did ESPN ever feature a segment on “Real” Madrid?
Threadshitting is the surest way out here. Especially when it’s your own thread to start with.
- Harlem Globetrotters
- New York Yankees
- Dallas Cowboys
- L.A. Lakers
- Some soccer team…Manchester United, I guess.
Are you aware that ESPN, despite its claim to be “The Worldwide Leader in Sports”, is not a global sports network? It’s US-based, and while ESPN owns networks in a few other countries (Brazil and Australia, for example), the programming that you see on ESPN here in the U.S. is not the same programming which they run in other countries. I imagine that few sports fans in Europe watch ESPN (I doubt that many of them could even watch it if they wanted).
Heh. There was a recent reference on a BBC Radio 4 show to the Harlem Globetrotters…as “the famous American **baseball **team”. Oops.
I stopped paying attention when it became clear the OP was being deliberately obtuse. I just wanted to point out that this isn’t a list of the most followed teams in the world, but the most famous. I couldn’t name more than one player on either ManU or Real Madrid, but I know they’re dominant football teams in the English and Spanish leagues respectively.
That’s value, not popularity. The Cowboys, Redskins, Patriots are all more valuable than Real Madrid, but do you really think more people know who the Redskin’s are?
Don’t know if you are joking or not Oakminster but such a US-centric list would not be produced elsewhere in the world. And seeing that that is the question being asked would you like to reconsider?
Probably not in Ireland, but perhaps in Switzerland or Russia. Then again, Russians and people from neighbouring countries may be most familiar with Russian hockey teams (Moscow Dynamo perhaps? Does that still exist?)
I’d agree that on a worldwide basis the popularity of hockey pales compared to other sports.
I have another word for it.
Why do you hate America Novelty Bobble?
Hmm, never though of the Globe Trotters, but you might be on to something. Basketball is the most watched sport in the world and as the name indicates, the Globetrotters are famous all over the world because they travel and play exhibitions everywhere. I would still put them below the Yankees, Cowboys and Lakers (all household names globally and multibillion dollar enterprises), but definitely above Manchester United.
I don’t mean to be obtuse, but no way is Manchester United more famous outside of Europe than the Lakers or Cowboys are more famous outside the USA.
Who do you think your avarage Chinese or Indian person has heard of: Manchester United (I assume its fans are mostly English) or the Lakers (whose star Kobe is one of the most famous athletes in China).