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As of January 2023, the most followed soccer player on Facebook was Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo with almost 122.3 million fans on the social network. The captain of the Portugal national team is also the most-followed person on Instagram.

Athletes and social media

Popular athletes are often celebrities in their own right with millions of fans worldwide. In terms of soccer players, doing well for your respective league or national team can also earn you the attention of prestigious sponsors, who are of course keen to be associated with popular athletes. Such is the nature of sponsorship and it is only a small step from sponsorship to promotional content on athletes’ personal social media profiles. The average media value per social media post of the most-followed athletes on Instagram can reach staggering heights: in January 2020, the average media value of an Instagram post by Cristiano Ronaldo was 985,441 U.S. dollars.

Sponsor profile: Nike

One of the most prolific sporting equipment and athletic apparel providers worldwide is Nike. Much of Nike's success can be attributed to the brand’s global marketing and promotional campaigns which employs sponsorship agreements with college athletic programs, professional sports teams and celebrity athletes to use their products for the promotion of their products. Top soccer players sponsored by Nike are Ronaldo (Portuguese national team), Neymar (Brazilian national team) and Kylian Mbappé (French national team). Other notable athletes with a Nike sponsorship are tennis players Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, gymnast Simone Biles and figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva. The brand is also the official sponsor of the NBA and WNBA in the United States.