Torres is fans' No1 worldwide

Fernando Torres: head and shoulders above the rest / Fotosports.com


SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT / Sports Features Communications

LONDON, Dec 16: Fernando Torres has been voted the world’s favourite footballer in the Barclays Premier League according to the sponsor’s 2008 Global Fan Report, a survey of the views of 32,000 fans from 185 countries.

The Liverpool centre forward collected 38 per cent of all votes ahead of club-mate Steven Gerrard with Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo in third place.

The former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry was the all-time favourite player on 34pc followed by Gerrard and ex-Manchester United star Eric Cantona. Henry’s Barcelona team-mate Leo Messi was voted the star most fans (54pc) would like to see in the Premier League.

Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson was both the current (26pc) and all-time favourite manager (32pc).

A remarkable 81pc of fans highlighted football as their most regular topic of conversation, ahead of relationships, family and the economy while 49pc said that football was the most important thing in their lives ahead of everything, even family and partners.

Kevin Wall from Barclays, said: “This was the biggest survey of its type ever undertaken. As a topic of conversation football is twice as popular as all other sports combined, three times more popular than TV and four times more popular than politics. It's a great unifying force and it proves that football really is the world's game and the Barclays Premier League is its favourite competition."

The Barclays survey ran in October and November 2008 and the results were compiled by TNS Media Intelligence. Premier matches are broadcast to 611m homes in 211 countries, reaching a cumulative global audience of 4.77bn.