Cristiano Ronaldo is the most social footballer of 2021

Cristiano Ronaldo has secured another record, but this time it is not on the pitch but on social networks. According to Talkwalker's annual monitoring, the Portuguese athlete has reached 2.1 billion social interactions worldwide, of which 340 million on Facebook, 1.7 billion on Instagram and 28 million on Twitter. In second place is his eternal rival, the latest winner of the disputed Ballon d'Or, Lionel Messi, with 1.1 billion interactions, split between Facebook, where he had 192 million interactions, and Instagram, around 972 million. Another great talent, Neymar, closes the podium. The Argentine's teammate is a long way behind the two, the Brazilian having only - so to speak - 751 million interactions in 2021. To find an Italian in this special ranking curated by the multinational company that monitors and measures daily interactions on social networks we have to scroll down to 51st position where we find Leonardo Bonucci. It's a different story for coaches, where the European top three is occupied only by Italian coaches: Carlo Ancelotti, Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Conte.

The Portuguese's podium is probably due to his much talked about farewell to Juve and return to Manchester, although the vast majority of United fans have never stopped following the Portuguese on social media. Cristiano Ronaldo is a player capable of making a difference off the field, just think that from August 26th to August 31st, Manchester United's account recorded a growth of 3,709,120 followers, with an incredible average of 618 thousand more followers per day. As if that wasn't enough, Manchester United's post announcing the return home of their number seven, with almost 13 million likes, is the most liked post in the history of Instagram, in terms of content posted by a club. Ronaldo is capable of shifting the balance not only on the pitch but also off it.