These sartorial game-changers are demonstrating how to win in style .

Darts players aside, professional sportsmen are invariably well-honed specimens in peak physical condition, so it stands to reason that they should be good clotheshorses. In reality, this is often far from the case. The well-dressed tend to be outnumbered by those scoring spectacular sartorial own goals (we won’t mention any names – you know who they are). It just goes to show how easily even the most coordinated athletes can trip up.

What follows is the product of a ridiculously long email chain among the MR PORTER editorial team to consider which sports stars should be on the team sheet when it comes to style. We immediately discounted several of the usual suspects – Messrs Pep Guardiola, Andrea Pirlo, Victor Cruz – in order to look beyond the obvious. From an understated Premier League manager to a high-fashion NBA player, here are five MVPs of style who separate the champs from the chumps.

When “The Tinkerman” returned to the Premier League last summer, expectations were low. Mr Claudio Ranieri arrived at Leicester City, a club that had just narrowly avoided relegation, with an underwhelming reputation as a perennial journeyman. He had just been fired from his previous job and was odds-on favourite to be the first manager of the season to be sacked. Leicester were 5,000-1 against to win the Premiership. That they have now done so – and let’s be clear, this is the greatest sporting upset of all time – is thanks in large part to the 64-year-old Italian, who has been a class act all the way, winning friends with his humility and humour. Far from constantly tinkering with his team this time, he stuck to a winning formula. And he has done much the same with his wardrobe, which is a study in understated Italian cool. This ensemble is a good example: his trademark glasses, a cashmere tie with a perfect dimple knotted into an ice-blue shirt and soft-shouldered tailoring layered with a fine-gauge merino cardigan. This is how to win in style. Perfetto!

If professional sport is in the midst of a style renaissance, then the NBA is its most fashion-forward league, and Mr Russell Westbrook is leading the charge. The 27-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder point guard is the peacock of the sport and a front-row stalwart at Fashion Week. Having turned the post-game press conference into his own personal catwalk, Mr Westbrook has become as well known for his distinctive dress sense as his aggressive hoop shooting. Though his bleeding-edge style is not to everyone’s taste – animal prints, geometric patterns, statement block colour and neon accents often feature, as well as tone-on-tone-on-tone ensembles – he has become an entrepreneurial creative force in his own right and has worked on collaborations with brands such as Public School, Nike, Byredo and Globe-Trotter. Still not sure about those signature lensless specs, though.

It has taken longer than expected for Mr Nico Rosberg to find his racing line in Formula 1, but now he is at Mercedes, the 30-year-old German is finally fulfilling his potential. At the time of writing he has won the past seven Grands Prix and leads this year’s drivers’ championship ahead of teammate Mr Lewis Hamilton. Mr Rosberg also competes with his teammate in the style stakes. He describes his off-duty look as “sporty elegant” – think quilted or suede bomber jackets and slim-fit Acne jeans with well-coiffed blonde hair and three-day stubble. But he also appreciates soft-shouldered tailoring. “I have this incredible old Italian tailor – a real ancient granddad with a family tradition for suit-making – in Bologna,” he told The Daily Telegraph last year. Mr Rosberg’s refined, classic taste is summed up by the Mercedes he drives away from the race track: a 1970 280SL Pagoda, one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

The 34-year-old Spanish midfielder’s winning style off the pitch echoes his winning style on it: understated, commanding and elegant. According to Spanish sports newspaper Marca, he’s so graceful on the ball, “he could even play in a suit and tie”. The only footballer bling Mr Xabi Alonso possesses is in his trophy cabinet. He has won the World Cup and two European Championships with Spain as well as two Champions Leagues and two domestic league titles in a varied club career with Liverpool, Real Madrid and now Bayern Munich. “I don’t wear earrings or necklaces,” he says. “The only piece of jewellery I wear is a watch.” He has quite a collection, too, which includes models from brands such as IWC and Audemars Piguet. Mr Alonso’s facial hair inspired the celebrated writer Mr Manuel Jabois to opine that “the fields of Faulkner grow in his red beard”. A passionate metaphor indeed, and while we don’t know for sure what it means, the gist of it seems to be that there is nothing shabby about Xabi.

When you think of stylish polo players, the mind jumps first to the tall, dark and impossibly handsome Mr Nacho Figueras, the instantly recognisable face of Ralph Lauren and Polo fragrances. But one man who better combines both sporting talent and good looks is Mr Nic Roldan, the top-ranked polo player in the US – and he’s not afraid to say as much. “Nacho is more of a model, and he loves the sport of polo, but to me, I’m a polo player,” he told The New York Times in 2012. Mr Roldan is a well-dressed regular on the party circuit and favours washed-out linens and relaxed tailoring. A bon viveur who mixes in rarefied circles, he has captained Prince Harry on the polo field and in his youth was known for playing the field with a succession of high-society heiresses. These days the 33-year-old is dating The Boss’s daughter. By which we mean he is going out with Ms Jessica Springsteen.

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