by Neha Aggarwal

According to the most marketable report published by SportsPro, the criteria for evaluation for athletes across the world in various sports was their marketing potential for a three year period starting from the summer of 2017. An athletes’ value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal was evaluated.

The 2016 Olympic Games champion and twice World Champion Ma Long is ranked 48th amongst some of the most glamorous athletes in the world including superstars like Stephen Curry (Basketball), Paul Pogba (Soccer), Neymar (Soccer), Simone Biles (Gymnastics), Virat Kohli (Cricket), Alex Morgan (Soccer), Lewis Hamilton (Motorsport), Katie Ledecky (Swimming), Rory Mcllory (Golf) and many more.

The 28 year old Grand Slam Champion has over three million followers on Chinese microblogging website Sina Weibo and enjoys nothing less than a celebrity life back in China. He has basically won every major international table tennis competition on earth, being crowned the 2016 Olympic Champion, twice World Champion (2017, 2015) and winning 24 ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles titles and five ITTF World Tour Grand Finals titles.

If his table tennis achievements were not enough to amaze you, talk about his education. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a degree in Economics and Management in June this year!

The superstar has done advertisements for Audi in 2016 and 2017, shoot for Harper’s Bazar China and was part of the Kiehl’s Charity Ambassador for child care project amongst many.

He was also awarded the 2016 CCTV Best Male Sports Personality award, 2016 ITTF Male Table Tennis Star Award and Esquire Magazine’s Athlete of the Year 2016 .

With his uber impressive resume, and charm, Ma Long could be one of the best choices for global brands that are looking to step into the Asian market within the next three years.