Dhoni, Mary Kom among world's most marketable athletes

Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and five-time world champion boxer MC Mary Kom have been rated as the 16th and 38th most marketable athletes in the world by a monthly British magazine that reports on the business and financial aspects of sport.

SportsPro has ranked athletes from the across the world on the basis of their marketing potential over the next three years and after considering factors like age, home market, charisma, crossover appeal and value for money.

Mary Kom, who is the lone Indian female boxer to qualify for the London Olympics, is the only athlete from the country other than Dhoni to feature in the list that has been topped by Brazilian football sensation Neymar.

"I thank SportsPro for considering me among the top 50 marketable athletes in the world, which is such an illustrious list containing the names of so many of the world's most notable sportspeople," said Mary, who is currently training in Pune for the London Games.

"I am going to continue to focus on the Olympic gold and will wait to see if the potential that SportPro has identified can be made to come to fruition after the Olympics," he added.

The list also includes some of the world's best athletes such as Lionel Messi (3), Usain Bolt (4), Christiano Ronaldo (5), Rory McIlroy (2), Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton and many more.

IOS Sports & Entertainment, a sports management groups, holds the exclusive marketing and management rights for Mary and is responsible for coordinating all of her endorsements and public relations.

Speaking on the article, Managing Director and CEO of IOS Neerav Tomar said: "We are delighted that the world is sitting up to take notice of Mary and her incredible achievements and her ranking in SportsPro will go a long way in catching the attention of brands in India as well.

"She is the perfect brand ambassador and we can only hope that brands will look beyond cricket and Bollywood after the Olympics," he added.