As we approach Christmas and New Year, we can look back on another incredible year of sport and individual sporting achievement. This time of year is all about spending time with family and friends. Of getting around the dinner table, serving incredible food and sharing bottles of wine, or whatever else tipples your fancy. As we do so, conversation will flow, debate will be had and opinions will be both shared and shattered.
So whilst you’re enjoying downtime with your friends or family, why not throw a deeply thought provoking and highly subjective question to the group for debate:
Who were the Top 10 sports people in the world in 2025?
Well we here at Gameline Sports have been asking ourselves that exact question, and we’ve come up with 10 names that I confidently and assuredly believe to be the objectively correct answer.
Well, maybe not objective, or assured, but we have an answer and we’ll stick to our guns until someone comes and convinces us that we’ve left out another great athlete who absolutely deserves this recognition.
Before we get into the list though, it’s important to lay out some criteria and add some explanation as to how we’ve made our choices.
Firstly, this is about what these athletes have achieved in 2025 primarily. However continued dominance in their sport certainly helps an athlete’s case as it shows their achievements aren’t a fluke, but part of a wider trend of greatness.
Other elements to consider are the level of competition and how their achievements stack up in a historical context. Athletes who compete in sports with timed world records are the easiest to judge for this. For example, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won the 100m world title this year, but what is perhaps more impressive is that in that race, she ran the 4th fastest time ever by a woman.
Another thing we consider, without trying to be too controversial, is which sport an athlete competes in. Some sports just deserve a higher weighting in this exercise than others. For example, to me, the ultimate sport is sprinting. There is nothing quite like being the fastest man or woman on the planet. Then I think you go to the major sports, that are played and watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The more people that play a sport, the more impressive it is to reach the pinnacle of it.
The other thing I would throw out there is a question of challenge. I’m not sure you can compare playing darts, as much as it’s fun to watch, to playing in the NBA or taking punches in the boxing ring. Athletes that compete in sports that challenge their physical, mental and skillset more, naturally deserve slightly more credit.
What you’re seeing is that this is highly subjective. Although hopefully with this brief explanation of how we’ve decided to tackle this conundrum, you’ll understand why we made the picks we did.
But before we dive into the top 10, let’s see some honourable mentions:
Carlos Alcaraz
2025 Achievements: Won the French and US Opens, as well as 6 other tournaments. Ended the year as the number 1 ranked men’s player.
Shared the spoils this year with rival Jannick Sinner, who also deserves an honourable mention. Although there is something magnetic about the athleticism and style of the young Spaniard that makes him must-watch TV. Alcaraz coming back from 2 sets down against Sinner to win the French Open was a particular highlight of the sporting year.
Rory Mclroy
2025 Achievements: Won the Masters, becoming just the 6th player ever to clinch a career Grand Slam of all 4 majors. Instrumental in Team Europe winning the Ryder Cup, their first win in the US since 2012. Won BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Won 3 additional tournaments.
The Northern-Irish golfer was so close to making the top 10. An incredible season to compliment a remarkable list of career achievements. All capped off with a very well-deserved BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Now let’s get into the top 10:
10. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
2025 Achievements: Won the NBA title with Oklahoma City Thunder. Became just the 4th player ever to win the NBA MVP, Finals MVP and NBA scoring title in the same season. Also won the Western Conference Finals MVP.
I don’t know what goals Shai Gilgeous-Alexander set for himself at the start of last season, but I would find it hard to believe if there were any that remain unachieved. The Canadian basketball star won pretty much everything in 2025. He won the MVP of the league, as the leader on the team with the best record. He also claimed the scoring title after averaging 32.7 points per game.
Then, when the playoffs came around, he led the number 1 seeded Oklahoma City Thunder to the franchise’s first title since relocating to Oklahoma. Throughout the playoffs he was insatiable, seeming almost impossible to stop at times. He was the best player, winning both the Western Conference Finals and NBA Finals MVP awards along the way. To put his masterful collection of accolades into context, only 4 players have ever won the NBA MVP, Finals MVP and scoring title in the same season: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Michael Jordan; Shaquille O’Neal; and now SGA. Pretty illustrious company to be in.
It wasn’t just last season that SGA has dominated, so far this season his OKC Thunder hold a league best record of 26-3 and look to be the favourites to repeat their triumphs of last season.
SGA isn’t necessarily regarded as the best basketball player in the world at the moment, with Nikola Jokic widely considered to hold that title, and that affects his ranking on this list. However, his astonishing list of achievements means he simply has to have a place on here. Plus, basketball is a properly elite sport. The NBA arguably has the best athletes of any sports competition on the planet playing in it, and this past year none of them have been able to stop Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
9. Max Verstappen
2025 Achievements: 8 Grand Prix victories and 8 pole positions. 15 podium finishes and 2 sprint race wins. 2nd in the F1 Drivers Championship
So I understand that Max Verstappen didn’t win the F1 title this year, losing out by just 2 points to Lando Norris, despite being 104 points behind at one point. But the fact that he was so close when his car was so much worse than his opponents’ is astonishing. He was helped of course by mistakes on the McLaren side, but that does in a way emphasise his brilliance. This year we really saw the difference between very good drivers (Norris and Piastri) and a truly great driver (Verstappen). He is unquestionably the best driver in the world and there is no doubt the 4-time world champion is in the top 5 drivers of all-time. Despite not winning the title, this was arguably one of, if not the best season of Max’s career. In terms of brilliance within his sport, in both a current and historical context, it’s hard to argue that Verstappen isn’t one of the greatest sportspeople on the planet right now.
F1 drivers are always at the mercy of their car. For the last few years, Verstappen has been the best driver in the best car and he has absolutely dominated the sport. This year his opportunities for victories were more sparse, although any time he was given a sniff, the Dutchman made it count. His ability to consistently win and maximise the potential of his car is what separates him from others. When the pressure is really on, and he needed to win to give himself a chance at the title, Verstappen pulled off 3 victories in a row to end out the season. I remember listening to a sports psychologist talking about Max a couple years ago and saying he refused to work with him because his mentality was already so perfect that all a psychologist could do was harm it. You see it every week. He’s a machine and he’ll dominate F1 for as long as he wants to.
8. Terrence Crawford
2025 Achievements: Beat Canelo Alvarez by unanimous decision to become Undisputed Super Middleweight World Champion. First man in the 4-belt era to become Undisputed World Champion at 3 weight divisions. Because a 5-weight world champion. Retired undefeated with a perfect 42-0 record.
Only the one fight for Crawford this year but it was such a big one, and capped off a career of such incredible achievements that he has to have a place on this list. In boxing we love to talk about pound for pound rankings. It’s a way for us to compare the best boxers who are too different in size to ever fight each other. It’s always challenging though because you can never really know who’s best. However when a fighter keeps jumping up weight divisions and keeps winning world titles, comfortably beating everyone they face, that’s when the pound for pound debate stops becoming hypothetical and is actually real. Two years ago Crawford schooled the exceptional Errol Spence to become undisputed champion at welterweight. This year he jumped 3 divisions higher to super middleweight to beat one of the all-time greats, Saul Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed title. When you can jump up weight divisions and beat the best fighters, despite them being naturally bigger than you, that’s true pound-for-pound greatness.
Boxing is one of the purest sports. It’s a gladiatorial contest of skill, speed, power and toughness. Two blokes stepping into a ring and fighting each other. Crawford has cemented himself as one of the greatest boxers in history. Having recently announced his retirement, he will leave the sport with an unbeaten record and one of the most decorated trophy cabinets of any fighter. In a sport where your opponent always has a punchers chance, Crawford has never faltered. Over the course of his illustrious career, he’s beaten some of the sport’s greats. Terence Crawford is truly one of the best boxers of this century.
7. Armand Duplantis
2025 Achievements: Broke his own world record 4 times. Won his 3rd consecutive World title and 5th consecutive Diamond League title. Won World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year and remained undefeated for a 2nd year running.
Armand Duplantis is the pole vault GOAT. Whenever he turns up for a meet, he’s not competing with anyone else there. He’ll win that. He’s just competing with himself at this point. Seeing how far he can push up his world record. In 2020, Mondo Duplantis broke his first world record, clearing 6.17m. Since then he has systematically increased it by 1cm increments, with it now standing at 6.30m.
Why only go up in 1cm increments you ask? It’s not because he can’t break it by more, but because athletes get bonuses for breaking world records by meet organisers and their sponsors. Duplantis is so dominant in his sport, with no one beating him for 2 years, that he is currently running a scheme to maximise his earnings as he redefines what is humanly possible with a pair of spikes and a long bendy pole.
Honestly, I could very easily put Duplantis at number 1 on this list. The only reason I haven’t is because, with all due respect to it, pole vaulting is a somewhat niche sport. How many people have ever attempted it compared to say football or cricket? That doesn’t take away from anything that Mondo is achieving, and he’s doing all this with a swagger and personality that makes his box office watching. We’ve almost become so used to his greatness that we take it for granted.
This year he broke his world record 4 times. Now we must wonder how many times he’ll break it again next year. I don’t know the answer to that one but I’m pretty sure it won’t be none.
6. Myles Garrett
2025 Achievements: On pace to beat the NFL single season sack record, currently with 22 sacks through 15 games. Almost certainly will win NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Myles Garrett is one of the most freakish athletes in the world. When Myles Garrett attended the NFL combine back in 2017 he measured at 6’4” and 272lbs (123kg) and proceeded to run the 40 yard dash in 4.64 seconds, did 33 reps of 225lbs on the bench press and scored a 41” vertical jump. All that put him in the top 0.1% of NFL players ever at his position. I would say that if Garrett was to do the combine again now, he’d be even bigger, even stronger and even faster.
Unfortunately, despite being a top 5 player in the NFL for the last 5 years, Garrett doesn’t always get a huge amount of attention in the wider media because he plays for a smaller market Cleveland Browns team that hasn’t been particularly competitive. However this season his performances and statistics have been so outrageous that there’s no risk of him flying under the radar. Through 15 games this season, the Browns’ pass rusher has 22 sacks, half a sack short of the single season record with 2 games left to terrorise opposing QBs. There’s a good chance Garrett doesn’t just beat the record, but smashes it. Even though opponents know they have to look out for number 95, no one has been able to stop the game wrecking force of the former number 1 draft pick. He’s been incredible to watch this season. The combo of speed, power and skill is off the charts. Garrett is one of the most insane athletes in the world and his production on the football field has been historic. If only he was playing in a good team he could be an NFL MVP candidate.
5. Sydney McClaughlin-Levrone
2025 Achievements: Won the World Athletics Women’s Athlete of the Year, after winning gold in the 400m and 400m hurdles at the World Championships, first athlete to win both. Ran the 2nd fastest 400m ever, the fastest in 40 years.
Sydney McClaughlin-Levrone is the greatest 400m hurdler of all-time, and it’s not even close. But we all knew that. This year was about taking on new challenges for the American track star. After smashing the 400m hurdles world record, McClaughlin-Levrone set her sights on the 400m flat record, one which has stood since 1985. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to beat it this year, although after posting the 2nd fastest time ever, you’d back her to break the record soon. Transitioning to different events and continuing to dominate the global competition highlights just how historically special the 26-year-old is. She even took on the challenge of running the 100m hurdles at events this year. Although she didn’t win those races, it’s amazing to see an athlete push the boundaries. She’s clearly the best ever at running 400m with or without hurdles, so now we’re just watching to see how unbeatable she’s going to make her records. At the World Championships she continued her dominance over the global field and she’s still only getting better. Truly elite athlete.
4. Summer McIntosh
2025 Achievements: Broke 3 individual world records at the same meet: 400m freestyle, 200m and 400m medleys. Won 4 gold medals and a bronze at the World Aquatics Championships.
Swimming is one of the few sports where you really can compare across generations, not just who’s in the pool at the time. Times don’t lie, conditions are pretty consistent, and comparisons across eras are about as fair as sport gets. Which is what makes Summer McIntosh’s 2025 season so historically brilliant.
At the Canadian Trials, McIntosh broke three individual world records at the same meet, across three different events. You have to go back almost 2 decades to when Michael Phelps was the last swimmer to achieve that. To do it in both freestyle and medley events highlights the versatility she has to beat swimmers that specialise.
Breaking records across both 200m and 400m medleys shows her ability to dominate in both endurance and shorter swims, as well as across the four strokes. And one of the craziest things about it, is she’s doing all this at just 18 years old.
Summer McIntosh is performing like an all-time great in the prime of her career. The fact that her career is still in its infancy is frightening for her competitors.
3. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
2025 Achievements: Won the World Championships sprint triple, with golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Became the 4th fastest woman in history.
When it comes to ranking the best athletes on the planet, some sports just have a higher weighting than others. The most athletically gifted people in the world are so good at sports that they could probably play multiple sports at a high level. What if LeBron hadn’t liked basketball, would he be an All Pro NFL tight end? Or a Premier League striker that’s an absolute menace when a cross comes in? What if Usain Bolt wanted to be a cricketer? Would he have spent the last 2 decades bowling 95mph spells? If all the world’s best athletes played rugby, would Antoine Dupont still be the best player in the world?
There is one sport that has no “what ifs” and that’s sprinting. Anyone who’s naturally very quick will have tried competitive sprinting at some point, until eventually there’s a race they can’t win. To win the 100m or 200m world championships you have to be the fastest man or woman on the planet. In many ways, they are competing with the 4 billion people that share their gender, not just the few dozen elite sprinters that make it to the world stage.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is the fastest woman in the world, and as of the World Championships in Tokyo in September, the 4th fastest woman ever recorded. This year she absolutely blew away the field, winning the 100m and 200m World Championships with room to spare, before completing the triple as part of team USA’s relay victory.
At only 24, she still has room to get even faster. Perhaps next year she could move even higher up this list.
2. Shohei Ohtani
2025 Achievements: Unanimously won his 4th MVP award, leading the Dodgers to a back-to-back World Series title, hitting 55 home runs, and pitching a dominant 2.87 ERA. Won AP Male Athlete of the Year.
The Japanese superstar has introduced American baseball fans to a new concept – the all-rounder. I do find it amusing watching American minds get blown by something that cricket has had forever. Although it’s incredibly rare in cricket for a truly great one to come along, and that’s what Ohtani is, a truly great all-rounder.
This was a historically dominant year on both sides of the ball for Ohtani. 55 home runs alone would put a hitter firmly in MVP territory. A sub-3.00 ERA alone would make a pitcher one of the most valuable players in the league. Ohtani did both, at the same time, while leading the Dodgers to another World Series title.
In an era of hyper-specialisation, minute workload management and endless data optimisation, he is doing something the sport effectively evolved away from. What elevates Ohtani’s 2025 season into truly historic territory is sustainability. This isn’t a one-off spike. It’s a continuation of excellence at a level that forces the sport to rethink what is possible. Baseball didn’t just crown its best player again this year. It continued to witness something it may never see again.
1. Tadej Pogačar
2025 Achievements: 20 race wins, including 3 Monument Classics, World and European Championships and won his 4th Tour de France, winning the yellow and polkadot jerseys.
And now we get to our number 1 sports person on the planet. This season the conversation around Tadej Pogačar has been less about whether he’ll win races, or grand tours, and more about whether we can now call him the GOAT of cycling. He’s firmly in the top tier of all-time cyclists and is achieving things so beyond the realms of what we thought was possible that only the great Eddy Merckx can compare. At cycling’s biggest race, Le Tour de France, Pogačar was about as dominant as any winner in recent memory. He won his 4th Tour de France by over 4 minutes and collected 4 stage wins and the polkadot jersey along the way. He even came a remarkable 2nd in the green points jersey, something he probably could have won had he not felt compassionate enough to leave something for the other riders. It wasn’t just the famous Grand Tour he won, in the one day classics he was equally impressive. Of the 5 moment races, Pogačar won 3 and finished 2nd and 3rd in the other two. He then capped off the season by successfully defending his title as World Champion and won the European championship as well. In one of the world’s toughest and most competitive sports, Tadej Pogačar is redefining what we thought humanly possible. His combination of endurance and power is insane. He wins in the mountains and in the hills, and he’s pretty competitive on the flats. He’s had possibly the greatest season ever by a cyclist and has done it in style. For that reason, Tadej Pogačar is Gameline Sport’s Top Athlete of 2025.