Messi gains 21m more Instagram followers
World Cup winner Lionel Messi’s Instagram following soared 20 million as stars in Qatar picked up an extra 210m in total.
But despite his problems at club and international level, Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo remains the king online, boosted by a near 19m rise to 519m.
Kylian Mbappe’s final hat-trick for beaten France against Argentina helped his following rise from 73.5m to 83m.
And Richarlison led a series of big increases for Premier League players.
Brazil’s Tottenham striker saw his backing swell from 17.3m to 19.6m. And Manchester United’s Brazilian winger Anthony went from 6.2m to 9.3m.
But as a World Cup winner, Aston Villa’s Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez might be disappointed to ‘only’ jump from 4.3m to 7.5m
Ace Odds compiled the list, with spectacular percentage leaps coming from South Korea’s Cho Gue-Sung (8773%), Richarlison (167%) and Argentina duo Julian Alvarez (136%) and Enzo Fernandez (353%)
An extra million followers pulls in £3,000 in social media post sponsorships, so Messi’s heroics earned him an additional £63,000 from the tournament. The PSG attacker, 35, can now demand £1,194,707 in fees for just one Instagram post.