Word similar to stigma, but without negative connotation [duplicate]

I'm trying to describe the way in which generally, ignorant football fans will talk highly of players without having any sense or proper understanding of football or that player.

When it comes to the awarding of "Man of the Match" awards, I am trying to say there is a "stigma" around certain players wherein they will almost automatically receive such awards just because they are "stigmatised" to be deserving of the award, even if they don't perform particularly well.

What would the word be to replace "stigma"/"stigmatised"? Thanks.

Solution 1:

This is often called the "halo effect." From Wikipedia:

The term "halo" is used in analogy with the religious concept: a glowing circle crowning the heads of saints in countless medieval and Renaissance paintings, bathing the saint's face in heavenly light. The observer may be subject to overestimating the worth of the observed by the presence of a quality that adds light on the whole like a halo. In other words, observers tend to bend their judgement according to one patent characteristic of the person (the "halo"), generalizing towards a judgement of that person's character (e.g., in the literal hagiologic case, "entirely good and worthy").