Talent, Past Consumption and/or Popularity - Are German Soccer Celebrities Rosen or Adler Stars?

Based on the competing theories of superstar formation proposed by Rosen (1981) and Adler (1985) it is controversial if firsthand observable talent or other factors like past consumption and popularity influence stardom. This article investigates the emergence of superstars in German soccer. We use data on market values and individual player performance and publicity data to differentiate between Rosen’s and Adler’s theory of superstar formation. Running quantile regression we find evidence that Adler’s theory applies to German soccer stars.