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Sports stars are adored by their followers for life.

Their fame does not end on the pitch, it accompanies them through death.

They are legends that last forever.

And that's why the greats of the sports business often appear in the lyrics of well-known artists.

Some athletes are even sung about particularly often, as a survey has shown.

If one were to sort by type of sport, soccer players would be the clear front runner with a total of 2738 mentions in music texts.

This is followed by basketball players (2123) and boxers (729), with Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali alone having 643 quotes.

According to a study by TopRatedCasinos, the former basketball player Kobe Bryant is the undisputed number one among the most frequently mentioned athletes in songs.

The Los Angeles Lakers player who died in a helicopter accident at the age of 41 at the beginning of the year appears in 1,147 songs, mostly from the rap scene.

The Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi ranks behind him with 553 mentions, 273 more than Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo and basketball legend Michael Jordan with 439 mentions in pieces of music.

Justin Bieber, for example, raves about Messi's skilful left hook in his song “Holy”, while rappers like Drake and Jay-Z sing about Jordan for all kinds of things.

"Step on the gas, Michael Schumacher, step on the gas"

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Incidentally, Germans do not appear in the ranking of the 20 most mentioned athletes.

That can be determined, however, and WELT has done it.

In other countries besides the USA, the most sung favorites are soccer players: this is not only the case with the Argentines and Portuguese, but also with the English (George Best), French (Zinedine Zidane) and Brazilians (Neymar).

It's different in Germany.

The most popular German athlete is Michael Schumacher, who appears by name in 41 songs, although the Formula 1 stars are not particularly popular in song lyrics around the world, they only get 96 mentions in total.

World champion Lewis Hamilton made it into twelve texts so far.

Schumacher is also abbreviated to “Schumi” in most of the songs, especially in Spanish, Italian and French, and there are a few of them.

The “Doctors” sang in “My friend Michael”: “Give gas, Michael Schumacher, step on the gas.” US rapper Jay-Z adored him in his own way: “I am the Michael Schumacher of the Roc Roster.” The former Canadian Ice hockey player Bob Bissonnette, who published several albums in addition to his own athletic career, sang in one of his songs: “Je pourrais être Michael Schumacher, qu'est”, which translates as: “I could be Michael Schumacher, or.” Dramatic: Shortly afterwards Bissonnette died in a helicopter accident at the age of 35.

And why is Günter Netzer being sung about now?

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Behind Schumacher, tennis legend Boris Becker ranks second with 26 mentions.

It appears predominantly in German-language texts and is usually pulled through the cocoa in abundance there, whether by Sammy Deluxe or Stefan Raab.

Sportfreunde Stiller is the friendliest with the tennis legend.

In "Björn Borg's hairstyle" they sing:

I was around my headdress

Really not to be envied

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So I immediately went to have my hair cut

Perhaps the-die-curls of Valderrama

Del Hay's mat would be likely

No drama either

But my hairdresser said I was the checker

With the hairstyle of Boris Becker

Basketball superstar Dirk Nowitzki comes third among the most popular German athletes.

In a song by the US rapper Dabby, also known under the name DaBaby, he is celebrated for his “fadeaway”, one of his most successful litters.

In "Peep Hole" Dabby sings translated:

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I'll always be a pimp, I'm not a gamer, I know

I wipe all the bitches off my radar, no Kizzy (Kirk)

I'm always on the charts like Drizzy (Dirk)

I'll shoot you with a fadeaway like Nowitzki

By the way, the most sung German footballer is Günter Netzer, which he owes mainly to his hairstyle, followed by Rudi Völler and Lothar Matthäus.

But also honorary captain Uwe Seeler appears in some songs, mostly in relation to Hamburg or the Reeperbahn.

A song about Günter Netzer deals neither with his hairstyle nor his great football art.

Instead it says:

After such a

shaky day

I

just asked myself

As Günter Netzer's middle name is probably called

Here is the answer: Theodore.