Most Famous Italian Athletes

Italy has produced 1,338 notable athletes throughout history, led by Mario Balotelli. Rankings are drawn from a cross-verified academic dataset of 152,953 people.

Category All
Citizenship All
MB
Mario Balotelli Italian Football Born 1990
# 1,560
AP
Andrea Pirlo Italian Football Born 1979
# 1,667
RM
Reinhold Messner Italian Mountaineer Born 1944
# 1,874
GB
Gianluigi Buffon Italian Football Born 1978
# 2,043
RB
Roberto Baggio Italian Football Born 1967
# 2,631
AD
Alessandro Del Piero Italian Football Born 1974
# 3,213
CA
Carlo Ancelotti Italian Football Born 1959
# 3,703
GB
Gino Bartali Italian Sport 1914 – 2000
# 5,593
FC
Fausto Coppi Italian Sport 1919 – 1960
# 6,064
AC
Antonio Cassano Italian Football Born 1982
# 6,149
PC
Primo Carnera Italian Boxer 1906 – 1967
# 8,252
AG
Alberto Gilardino Italian Football Born 1982
# 8,336
PM
Pietro Mennea Italian Sprint 1952 – 2013
# 8,490
AC
Antonio Conte Italian Football Born 1969
# 8,738
GG
Gennaro Gattuso Italian Football Born 1978
# 8,845
DZ
Dino Zoff Italian Football Born 1942
# 9,477
SE
Stephan El Shaarawy Italian Football Born 1992
# 10,462
FC
Fabio Capello Italian Football Born 1946
# 10,710
GF
Giacinto Facchetti Italian Football 1942 – 2006
# 11,328
LT
Luca Toni Italian Football Born 1977
# 12,328