British media insist James Rodriguez and other footballers are more famous than Tom Brady

The status of American sports on the world stage has been discussed once more, with some sections of the media arguing that football dwarfs its stateside equivalent in terms of reputation.

In a controversial list from 2018, FOX Sports ranked Tom Brady as the most famous athlete in the world, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were just fifth and sixth respectively.

After Brady won his seventh Super Bowl title in Tampa, British media outlet HITC reignited this debate about sporting fame.

As part of their argument, the website sounded out the social media followings of football's biggest stars, compared to that of Brady.

"Everton can boast a player with millions more followers than the NFL's greatest," HITC said in their report, referring to James Rodriguez's 46.5 million Instagram followers compared to Brady's 9.2 million.

As for Ronaldo and Messi, they boast a total Instagram following of 444 million people.

"Congratulations to Tom Brady on being the most popular athlete in the second most popular football," HITC finished up by saying.