Star athlete ambassadors of sport for development and peace Mariann Bardocz-Bencsik a *, Marko Begović b , Tamás Dóczi c a Doctoral School, University of Physical Education, Budapest, Hungary; b Institute of Sport History / Olympic Studies Centre, German Sport University, Cologne, Germany; c Department of Social Sciences, University of Physical Education, Budapest, Hungary Abstract It is not uncommon for star athletes to be involved in sport for development and peace (SDP) initiatives as role models, be it a long-term ambassadorship or a short-term commitment. As the SDP sector has been continuously growing in the past two decades, scientific interest in the field has developed as well. Nonetheless, there are still gaps in the literature regarding high-profile athlete endorsed SDP initiatives. This article explores high-profile athletes’ involvement in SDP, and its purpose is to identify the characteristics these athletes need to have in order to be successful as ambassadors in SDP. Nine semi-structured interviews with SDP practitioners on athlete-ambassadorship are analysed, through the lens of Goodman and Barnes’ ‘development celebrity’ and ‘star/poverty space’ concepts. The responses from the interviews revealed that celebrities used in SDP programmes need to be popular not only on a global level, but specifically in the local context, among the beneficiaries as well. These