Lionel Messi lost to Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of most prominent football player on Instagram.
Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed Lionel Messi to take the title of a footballer with the greatest influence on Instagram ahead of the 2019 FIFA World Cup. Based on Nielsen’s analysis of total followers, follower growth, engagement rate, and average brand value for each Instagram post, the rankings have been determined. Messi comes in second with 360 million followers to the Manchester United attacker’s 480 million. It is noteworthy that Messi experienced a 38% gain over the previous 12 months, generating 2.6 million in media value each post.
Additionally, Messi just made history when he scored for PSG against Maccabi Haifa in their Champions League Matchday 2 game. The Argentina captain overtook Ronaldo, who had scored against 38 different clubs, to become the first player to score against 39 different teams in the championship as PSG ultimately won 3-1.
It was also Messi’s 126th Champions League goal, although he still behind Ronaldo, who has 141 goals overall and is the tournament’s all-time leading scorer. It was Messi’s 158th appearance in the competition when he scored, becoming him the first player in Champions League history to score in 18 straight seasons.
Real Madrid’s Vinicius had the largest growth of any player among the top 10 most influential players, increasing by 90%. In the Champions League final versus Liverpool, the Brazilian scored the game-winning goal for Real Madrid.
Here are the 10 most influential football players on Instagram:
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (480m followers)
2. Lionel Messi (360m followers)
3. Neymar (178m followers)
4. Kylian Mbappe (72.5m followers)
5. Vinicius Junior (23m followers)
6. Karim Benzema (58m followers)
7. Paulo Dybala (49m followers)
8. N’Golo Kante (14m followers)
9. Paul Pogba (55m followers)
10. Sergio Ramos (53m followers)
