The most followed footballers on Twitter

Footballers are on Twitter these days and use it as a form of expressing themselves and sharing interesting happenings from the world around them.

The Twitter followers keep increasing just like their salaries and their success on the pitch and sometimes even much afterwards. Here’s a list of the footballers on Twitter with the largest number of followers.

Carles Puyol (Spain/Barcelona – 5.6 million followers) [@ Carles5puyol]

The hard-man from Catalonia who has played for Barcelona all his life tweets regularly on his workouts and other things related to football. He is never shy either of lending his two cents to matters pertaining to the national political scene.

He also happens to be dating Vanesa Lorenzo, a top Spanish model and hence there are the frequent retweets of updates from Lorenzo’s page.

Xabi Alonso (Spain/Real Madrid – 5.7 million followers) [@XabiAlonso]

The Spanish midfielder is one of the classiest operators around in the game. And he brings that sense of assuredness and class to the Twitter world as well.

Alonso regularly tweets on music, tv shows and movies and also in general about football even when it does not involve Real Madrid or Spain. His love for great footballing moments and history is quite something and it shows Alonso’s deep-seated love for the game.

Cesc Fabregas (Spain/Barcelona – 5.8 million followers) [@cesc4official]

The boy who joined Arsenal from Barca, became captain and grew into one of the best midfielders in the world, moved back to the Catalan giants in 2011. He may not be the main man there, like he was at Arsenal, but still continues to come up with crucial goals and assists for his club side as well as the Spanish national team.

Under new coach ‘Tata’ Martino, Fabregas is seeing more playing time and like his assists his tweets too never stop coming. Always around and engaging, he tweets post match, before the match and even general messages to friends and family.

Gerard Pique (Spain/Barcelona – 7.1 million) [@3gerardpique]

He may have lost some of his pace and skills on the pitch, which makes it easy for forwards to go past him, but he certainly hasn’t lost his charm on Twitter.

From updates and snippets from games, and his takes on football games around Europe, Pique is there. He also never hesitates in wishing his followers a ‘Happy Day’ and expressing his love for Catalonia from time to time.

Andres Iniesta (Spain/Barcelona – 7.2 million) [@andresiniesta8]

The Barcelona and Spain bandwagon continues with the midfield dynamo that is Andres Iniesta. They say that stopping Messi is equivalent to stopping Barcelona, but the experts will tell you that stopping Iniesta is keen to stopping both Barca and Spain.

If there was ever a clutch player in football, Iniesta defines it. Though not as frequent a tweeter as Pique, Iniesta still has more followers and generally posts updates on his club and national side after every game and in the lead up to them.

Wayne Rooney (England/Manchester United – 7.3 million) [@WayneRooney]

The only Englishman in the list and the only non-Spanish European footballer on this list. Rooney is enjoying a renewed season so far under new manager David Moyes, but sadly his team on the whole seems to be marooned on a distant island.

Rooney frequently engages his fans (not all of them are friendly; remember the challenge to a fight?). He also presents plenty of unsolicited opinions on happenings in the world of sport and is a big fan of video games and posts updates every time he’s gaming with friends. There’s also the sponsor plug every now and then for Nike.

Ronaldinho (Brazil/Atletico Mineiro – 7.6 million) [@10Ronaldinho]

Ronaldinho may have left European shores, but it is quite impossible to keep a man of his talents away from the spotlight. His spell at Atletico Mineiro since joining last year has been nothing short of terrific with some magnificent goals and assists along the way.

The buck-toothed forward who always plays with a smile has endeared himself to fans all over the world, in particular those back home in Brazil, where he has a god-like following.

R[one] is not there every day with a quick tweet, but is always sharing photos and other great moments and like on the pitch, once he gets into a groove, there is no stopping him. Amongst the greatest players of his generation, Ronaldinho delights his fans and followers in the digital world as well.

He is the most followed South American athlete not named Neymar.

Neymar (Brazil/Barcelona – 8.7 million) [@Njr92]

The double B combination of Brazil and Barcelona is enough to catapult a 21-year-old talented footballer into a podium finish in the Twitter sweepstakes.

Named the most marketable athlete in the world, Neymar was already a sensation in Brazil with Santos and then made the switch to Barcelona this summer after a fantastic spell with the Selecao where he inspired them to the Confederations Cup title beating world champions Spain in the final.

He regularly tweets on his fellow Brazilian brothers and idols such as Robinho and Kaka and also as with Brazilian footballers, his religious connections.

Kaka (Brazil/AC Milan – 17.08 million) [@KAKA]

Surprised? Don’t be.

Kaka carries three things that are an instant mix for footballer fan following – he’s Brazilian, is extremely talented (that’s above the normal Brazilian talent which comes in-built) and used to play for Real Madrid (amongst the most supported club sides).

Now that he’s moved on to AC Milan, he may see more playing time than what he got at the Bernabeu. On Twitter though, he is admired by millions.

Also, he tweets and engages with fans in three languages – Portuguese, Spanish and English – which makes him an instant hit. He tweets photos of himself and other footballers and also takes time out to respond to some of his fans and followers.

Now you see where all the love comes from!

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid – 22.05 million) [@Cristiano]

One of the best players in the world and also an ardent tweeter; at least his PR team is. The tweets are primarily about football, but with the array of sponsors surrounding him, CR7 also does announce contests and sweepstakes.

And, of course, there’s the fake PR-managed modesty! C’mon Cristiano, you surely didn’t expect us to not see through that. But that doesn’t matter, there’s no harm in admitting how good you are, especially when the whole watching world knows it.

On the field, Cristiano just goes out and does it, exactly as his fans and sponsors would want him to.