Sport News Africa (SNA), the media of reference for African sports news, has published a first-of-its-kind study on "The 100 most influential African athletes on Twitter." This Top-100 offers a ranking of athletes of African nationality who competed or have recently competed in Africa or elsewhere, while contributing to the influence of the continent on a daily basis.
The study was conducted with Smart Data Power, a French company specializing in data, which uses the official Twitter API to collect, enrich and analyze these data. Unsurprisingly, South Africa, represented by 35% of the athletes in the ranking, is taking a lion's share of top athletes. And the continent's master discipline – soccer – monopolizes the ranking with 56%, followed well behind by cricket and rugby.
This Top-100 is not intended to be exhaustive. It is a snapshot at Instant T of African sportsmen and women. They have been selected for their influence on Twitter, defined by the size of their community but also by the impact of their influence.
Sport at the heart of development in Africa
Sports represent 2% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and 0.5% of the GDP in the African continent. It has always been a major development issue. On a continent in continuous vibrancy such as Africa, sports is a source of undeniable dynamics, a source of rallying and cohesion.
"Our finding on the importance of sports in Africa is the starting point for the study and even for the media project Sport News Africa, which seeks to rigorously value and document continental dynamics that are still largely under-explored by the international media and research institutes," says SNA CEO Séné Ossebi.
South Africa (35%), Egypt (10%), Nigeria (9%), Côte d'Ivoire (7%) and Kenya (6%) are the five most represented countries in the ranking, with a large English-speaking dominance. Five sports occupy 95% of the Top-100: soccer (56%), cricket (12%), rugby (10%), basketball (9%) and athletics (8%).
The study also highlights less visible sport categories in Africa. This is the case for women's sports, which are growing rapidly on the continent with a real commitment of national federations, as demonstrated by the emergence of globally influential figures such as the South African runner Caster Semenya, the Nigerian footballer Asisat Oshoala and the Egyptian swimmer Farida Osman.
Increasingly influential African athletes
The study also promotes the involvement of a growing proportion of the continent's most closely followed athletes. In addition to being sponsored by brands or starting their own business, 14% of the athletes in our ranking develop a militant or humanitarian activity, such as the Cameroonian footballer Samuel Eto'o - 11th in the ranking - who launched the Samuel Eto'o Foundation in 2006 and is piloting the Fundesport project for the development of youths through sports in Cameroon and Gabon, or the Senegalese basketball player Gorgui Dieng - 66th - who acts through his foundation for health programs in Senegal.
Seventy-two percent of these committed athletes are between 30 and 40 years old, most often at the peak of their careers or recently retired from sports competitions with large audiences and a foothold in their home countries.
African athletes have a growing influence on social media networks, including on non-sporting topics. The frequency of their activity on social media has increased dramatically in recent years and their communities have continued to grow, as shown by the Top-3: Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah with 13.8 million subscribers; South African cricketer AB de Villiers with 7.4 million; and Egyptian Mohamed Elneny with 4.7 million. To discover the rest of the rankings, visit SNA's website at https://sportnewsafrica.com
Press Contact
Goudet Abalé
E-mail: ga@35nord.com
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About Sport News Africa
Sport News Africa (SNA) is a pan-African media of reference on African sports news thanks to a network of correspondent journalists in 16 African countries. Sport News Africa provides exclusive content to its readers by highlighting athletes and actors of African culture on the continent and around the world through more than 80 publications written per week and audiovisual productions (interviews, video chronicles, reports). Sport News Africa enjoys a large community on social networks, with nearly 200,000 cumulative subscribers, notably on Facebook and Instagram.
About Smart Data Power
Smart Data Power is a French data analysis company that makes the mass of information present on Twitter intelligent and intelligible, in particular by cross-referencing it with demographic, economic, environmental Open Data, and so on. Unlike Big Data, Smart Data Power focuses on the quality, accuracy and verification of the information contained in biographies as well as in tweets or retweets. This enables the identification and invitation of highly qualified profiles, from middle to top influencers, for any account, and increases its visibility to enable it to successfully communicate its influence. In other words, to take, or regain Power over Data.
