As the biggest showcase in football, the Fifa World Cup kicks off on Sunday, fans will be enjoying the talent on display and all the thrills that the tournament will have to offer.
As the game has evolved, so too have fans, especially with the different ways they are able to connect to their favourite players.
With the introduction of VAR a few years ago and modernising the game, social media has also had a massive impact on the football fraternity.
Ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup, bettingexpert.com collected the Instagram followers of all of the squad players participating in the tournament.
Collectively, players have 2.5 billion followers on Instagram, which translates to potential earnings of $25 million per post.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) is the most followed player, with 496.5 million followers, translating to a potential earning of nearly $5 million per post.
Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Neymar (Brazil) are the second and third most followed players, with 373 million (potential earnings: $3.73 million) & 181.9 million followers ($1.81 million), respectively.
Their respective teams are also the most followed when all of the players’ followings are combined (1. Portugal, 2. Argentina, 3. Brazil), but if players with over 50 million followers are excluded, Brazil (196 million) is the most followed team with Argentina (115 million) and Spain (106 million) in second and third place, respectively.
Take a look at the lists of the top ten most followed football stars on Instagram at the Fifa World Cup 2022 as well as their potential earnings per post below:
Below are the players that followed the top ten:
Take a look at the countries participating at the World Cup with the most Instagram followers below:
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