Lionel Messi's Followers On Social Media Is Fantastic, More Than South America Population

Lionel Messi (Instagram @leomessi)

JAKARTA - Argentina national team star Lionel Messi has a fantastic record of the number of followers on social media. In fact, when compared to the population of a country, the number is greater than the population of South America.

Quoted from Marca on Sunday, November 20, the number of Messi's followers on social media is 476 million people thanks to his popularity and achievements on the field. If seen specifically, the number of followers is ten times more than Argentina's population of 45.8 million people.

Sources also say that Messi's followers are still 300 million more than the total of the three countries he has defended. Messi was recorded as appearing for Argentina (45.8 million people), Spain (47.3 million people), and France (67.5 million people), which in total only amounted to 160.6 million people.

Apart from Messi, sources say that Paulo Dybala is also a footballer who has many followers. The AS Roma player has 68.9 million followers which makes him eighth on the list of the 10 most popular players at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Meanwhile, the player with the most followers on social media is Cristiano Ronaldo. He became the most popular footballer at the 2022 Qatar World Cup with 747.1 million followers.

With that record, Ronaldo's followers are 4.5 times bigger than those of the England national team with 164 million followers. In addition, Ronaldo's followers are also more than the total population in all countries where he plays.

Call it England with a population of 55.9 million people, Italy with 59 million, Spain with 47.3 million, and Portugal with 10.1 million people. If the total population of these four countries is combined, the number is only 172.3 million people, still fewer than Ronaldo's supporters on social media.

The number of Ronaldo's followers is also automatically an advantage for the Portugal national team. With the charm of the star, the Portugal national team has become the most followed team at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. With 826 million followers, Portugal precedes Brazil with 678 million and Argentina with 619 million followers on social media.

On the other hand, the charm of the Portuguese star clearly surpasses Messi in second place with 476 million followers and Neymar in third place with 337.5 million followers.

Apart from the names above, other footballers such as Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Kylian Mbappe, Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann and Robert Lewandowski are also included in the list of the ten players with the most followers. This is based on the results of research by the digital and football agency, PMPR Excellence, to analyze the influence of social media on the final rounds of the 2022 World Cup.