London, Nov 20 Apart from hard work, grit and, raw talent, there is another trait of the most accomplished jocks - a handsome face, says a new research.

A research team led by Justin Park at the University of Bristol, UK, has concluded that the better an American football player, the more attractive he is.

Park's team had women rate the attractiveness of National Football League (NFL) quarterbacks: all were elite players, but the best were rated as more desirable.

Meanwhile, a survey of more than a thousand New Scientist Twitter followers revealed a similar trend for professional men's tennis players.

Neither Park nor New Scientist argue that good looks promote good play. Rather, the same genetic variations could influence both traits.

"Athletic prowess may be a sexually selected trait that signals genetic quality," New Scientist quoted Park as saying.

So the same genetic factors that contribute to a handsome mug may also offer a slight competitive advantage to professional athletes.

This is not to say that the best athletes are always the best looking, either. The correlations uncovered by Park and New Scientist explain only a small amount of the differences in athletic performance.

The study has been published in the Journal Personality and Individual Differences. (ANI)