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#3 Neymar - Paris Saint-Germain
Total followers - 251.1 million
Neymar is a player that is widely known for his propensity for luxury and partying as much as he is renowned for his performances on the pitch. The Brazilian forward became the world's most expensive player in 2017 but even before that, he was a full-fledged celebrity having enjoyed a fruitful spell with Barcelona.
The player has a whopping 4800 posts on his Instagram, thus we know that he loves to share almost everything with his 142 million followers. He had a very good season with PSG in the 2019-20 campaign, leading the club to their first-ever UEFA Champions League final.
Here's how his 251.1 million fans are distributed across social media -
Facebook - 59.7 million likes
Twitter - 49.4 million followers
Instagram - 142 million followers
#2 Lionel Messi - Barcelona
Total followers - 256.5 million
Lionel Messi, arguably the best footballer in the world at the moment has more followers on Instagram alone than fourth-placed David Beckham. He has gradually dethroned his former teammate Neymar from the second spot over the year, despite not having an official Twitter account. Adidas runs a handle called Team Messi and is the closest things to Messi's twitter account right now.
The Barcelona captain is known to be a reserved person and lets his performance on the pitch do all the talking and this reflects in his social media activity as well. Most of his posts are his team related, awareness videos or sponsorship ones and he rarely shares details of his personal life online.
Here's how his 256.5 million fans are distributed across social media -
Facebook - 90.5 million likes
Instagram - 166 million followers
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo - Juventus
Total followers - 447.9 million followers
When it comes to social media presence there's only one king in football and that is Cristiano Ronaldo, who leads second-placed Messi by almost 200 million. He is the most liked person on Facebook, the most followed person on Instagram and fifth-most followed person on Twitter, and also the only sports personality in the top 10.
The 35-year-old has been at the pinnacle of world football for more than a decade and his association with some of the biggest names in the game - Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Juventus have helped him build a fanbase that is about to cross the half a billion mark by the end of the year.
As per a report published last year he earns more money from his sponsorship deals on Instagram than in wages with Juventus. His posts have a healthy mix of personal photos, professional photos and paid content.
Since April he has added close to 30 million followers to his fanbase and the number is only expected to grow as the player is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Here's how his 447.9 million fans are distributed across social media -
Facebook - 123.1 million likes
Twitter - 87.8 million followers
Instagram - 237 million followers
Also See: 5 players with the highest release clauses in world football currently
