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Dhoni, Kohli among ESPN's top 100 most famous athletes

Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images

Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh have all been included in ESPN's list of the top 100 most famous athletes on the planet. Kohli and Dhoni had both made the list last year as well, but Sania Mirza, the other Indian entrant in 2016, missed out on a spot in 2017.

Kohli, who was ranked eighth last year, dropped five places to 13th; with over 60 million followers on social media and $17.4 million made from endorsements, he is still the highest ranked Indian on the list.

Dhoni, India's former captain, follows Kohli closely at 15th - one place lower than his rank in 2016. A huge social media following aside, Dhoni made the list on the back of a year which saw the release of the Bollywood biopic "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story", released in 61 countries and one of the highest grossing films of 2016.

Yuvraj made the cut at No. 90, while Raina, who became the first Indian cricketer to complete 6000 T20 runs last year, rounded off the list, ranked 95th.

The rankings for current sportspersons are based on a formula devised by Ben Alamar, ESPN's director of sports analytics; it combines salary and endorsements with social media following and Google search popularity.

For the second year in a row, Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list, with a fan following of over 250 million on social media, and endorsements to the tune of $32 million. American basketball star LeBron James, Barcelona's Lionel Messi, tennis legend Roger Federer, and golfer Phil Mickelson complete the top five.

Click here for the full list of ESPN's Fame 100.