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ISL team Kerala Blasters have been adjudged as having the sixth-fastest growing Instagram account in the football world.
According to data published by Transfermarkt, the Blasters' account on Instagram grew by 42% in 2020 to reach 1.8 million followers.
With that, Kerala Blasters have the joint-fastest growing football-related Instagram account in Asia and Malaysian giants Johor Darul Ta'zim. The latter are no strangers to watchers of Indian Football, given their trysts in the AFC Cup with Kerala Blasters' big rivals, Bengaluru FC.
Kerala Blasters are the only Indian club in the top 10 of the rankings, and along with Johor Darul Ta'zim, the only Asian sides in the top 10.
The fastest-growing football account was that of Tanzanian Football Club Simba SC, followed by that of Transfermarkt.
Bayer Leverkusen and Inter Milan rounded off the top four, before the two Asian teams took their place in the rankings.
Kerala Blasters have the fourth-best Instagram interaction rate
In terms of interaction rate, the Blasters' account ranked even better at fourth place worldwide. However, the Kerala Blasters were only the second-ranked Asian side, behind Indonesian giants Persebaya Surabaya.
The Blasters, with their 1.8 million followers, were found to have an engagement of 3.9%, which was roughly the same as the Indonesian side Persebaya Surabaya.
The top two spots in this ranking were taken by Turkish giants Fenerbahce and Besiktas.
Kerala Blasters were founded in 2014 to play in the first-ever edition of the Indian Super League. Since then, they have had some reputed players represent them, such as David James, Wes Brown, and Dimitar Berbatov.
More recently, Gary Hooper, who once played in the Premier League, also donned the Blasters jersey.
Indian superstars such as Sandesh Jhingan and Sahal Abdul Samad have also become household names during their association with the Kerala Blasters.
However, despite some success in the first three years after their formation, the Kerala Blasters have found on-field success difficult to come by recently. They made it to two finals in the first three editions of the ISL and lost both to Atletico de Kolkata, now known as ATK.
However, since then, the Kerala Blasters have failed to reach the playoffs in any of the following three editions of the competition.
This season, under coach Kibu Vicuna, they are struggling in 10 spot after playing eight games and are facing an uphill battle to make the playoffs.
