Cristiano Ronaldo has been selected as the most powerful football player on the social media platform "Instagram" ahead of this year's World Cup in Qatar. The British newspaper "Daily Mail" reported that Ronaldo's recognition as the strongest football player on "Instagram" is attributed to his 481 million followers, more than any other player participating in the World Cup this year.
The analysis was conducted by Nielsen Sports, which evaluated the total number of followers, the growth in followers over the past year, engagement rate on posts, and the average brand value of each post on Instagram. Ronaldo's followers increased by nearly 47% over the past year, with an engagement rate of 2.25% on his posts, and each post is valued at approximately £3.1 million.
The Portuguese star outperformed his long-time rival, Argentine Lionel Messi, who has 360 million followers, with the value of a single post at £2.3 million. Brazilian Neymar Jr., from Paris Saint-Germain, ranked third with 178 million followers, followed by his teammate French Kylian Mbappé in fourth place with 72.5 million followers, with their single post values slightly over £1 million.
Additionally, Spanish national team and Barcelona midfielder Gavi was chosen as the most outstanding young player expected to appear in the World Cup at the age of 18, with 6.2 million followers on Instagram, marking a 5165% increase from last year. The world champion team, the French national team, was identified as the most popular account, with 11.7 million followers, including players like Mbappé, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kanté, and Paul Pogba, who are among the top 10 most followed players on Instagram.
