You’d think that Ireland would just be searching for “John O’Shea late equaliser” ad nauseam since mid-October but you’d be wrong.
It’s in fact “The Notorious” who Ireland was more infatuated with as UFC featherweight sensation Conor McGregor was named as the athlete with the second highest amount of Irish searches, just behind Michael Schumacher (who suffered that terrible skiing accident towards the end of last year).
Roy Keane just about makes the top ten, surprising when you consider how often he was in the news with his book, his Villa departure and the incident at the Ireland hotel.
In terms of the sports teams in whom Ireland was interested, there’s something of a surprise at top spot with Arsenal being the most searched for.
All-Ireland winning Kerry and Kilkenny are both represented and, somehow, Leeds beat out both Real Madrid and Chelsea in terms of searches.
The pair of top-tens look like this:
Sports personalities
1. Michael Schumacher
2. Conor McGregor
3. Oscar Pistorius
4. Rory McIlroy
5. Lionel Messi
6. Cristiano Ronaldo
7. Luis Suarez
8. Neymar
9. David Moyes
10. Roy Keane
Sports teams
1. Arsenal
2. Liverpool
3. Man Utd
4. Leinster Rugby
5. Leeds United
6. Real Madrid
7. Tottenham
8. Kilkenny GAA
9. Kerry GAA
10. Chelsea FC
