Cristiano Ronaldo might not be playing football in the Champions League any more, but he still reigns supreme as the most popular athlete on social media.
The online influence of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has not dwindled since his high profile move to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr, in fact the opposite, as according to a new report, Ronaldo gained a whopping 144 million new followers across his social media platforms during the past year.
The Portuguese star continues to be the most popular footballer on social media and has also gained the most new fans during the past year. According to the numbers presented by SafeBettingSites.com, Ronaldo gained a whopping 144 million new followers during the past year. That takes the Portuguese striker’s total count to 888 million followers.
According to the social media data on Football Benchmark, The analysis covered popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Weibo (during a year period ending on 3rd September).
When it comes to footballers, Lionel Messi takes the silver medal on the list, with 138 million new followers during the same time period. The Argentinean, who is currently bamboozling football fans in MLS, has a total following of 611.2m. It must be noted that Messi doesn’t have a presence on Twitter (X), which accounts for 109.5m followers of Ronaldo.
Fellow Saudi Pro League striker, Neymar is third on the list with an overall social media following of 410.5m – with Al Hilal’s Brazilian striker adding 76.2 million followers in the past year.
Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar have arguably been the three most popular footballers for more than a decade now. Despite none of the trio playing football in Europe any more, it is interesting to note that they are still attracting far greater numbers on social media than the younger stars.
Kylian Mbappe is the most popular footballer among the new age of footballers. He attracted 42.1m new followers to his tally during the past year, taking his overall tally to 139.4m followers
