Former Real Madrid and current Juventus FC superstar soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has hit incredible numbers on Instagram. The five-time Ballon D’or awards winner now has 250 million followers on the Facebook-owned app—and that is massive.
Ronaldo’s milestone achievement is almost a 100 million followers ahead of his closest soccer rival Lionel Messi. The Argentine who got the whole world rattled when he announced last year his intention to exit Barcelona, has 174 million followers.
Per ESPN, the Portuguese hold the record of being the first human to reach that milestone. Cristiano has broken a lot of records on and off the soccer pitch, and at 35, continues to dominate world and European soccer.
Per Forbes, Ronaldo earns nearly $1 million per paid post on Instagram. He also has the second-highest income from Instagram-related revenue at $23.3 million. In 2020, the Juventus forward became the first human to hit 200 million followers on Instagram. What that means is that he has added some 50 million followers in the last one year.
On Twitter, Ronaldo enjoys a huge followership—the Portuguese captain boasts some 90.2 million followers. His figures on the social media including Facebook are scary, and no wonder is regarded as one of the most influential sports personality on earth.
In 2018, HopperHQ published the list of top celebrity influencers on Instagram—and names of popular sports [soccer] personalities made the cut. Top on the list was Cristiano Ronaldo who switched club from Real Madrid in Spain to Juventus in Italy the same year.
Ronaldo, then 33, had featured in the last FIFA World Cup in Russia topped the list, earning a staggering $750,000 per post made by brands on his Instagram page. At the time, he had 133 million followers on Instagram.
Ronaldo’s top of the spot ranking did not come as a surprise actually, but same cannot be said for Neymar da Silva Santos Junior popularly known as Neymar—the Brazilian who plays for PSG of France edged out Barcelona’s Messi to take the second spot. Neymar with 101 million followers on the picture-sharing app, came second earning $600,000 per post on his official Instagram page.
Lionel Messi, one of soccer’s most enigmatic figure came third on the list of sports celebrity influencers earning $500,000 per post. The Argentine skipper has close to 96 million followers on the platform.
Former England forward and ex Real Madrid Galatico David Beckham takes the 4th position on the list with $300,000 per post and with close to 48 million followers.
