Top 10 most followed footballers across social media during UEFA Euro 2016

The action in Euro 2016 is heating up, and as the tournament’s group stages come to an end, we look at the top 10 European footballers who are followed across social media during Euro 2016. Data has been collected by NewsWhip data.

On top, predictably we have Portugal and Real Madrid’s star man Cristiano Ronaldo. Although Ronaldo has not had the best of tournaments so far, he still remains the most followed footballer on social media by a comfortable margin.

The real surprise is in the second position, which is occupied by Croatian superstar Luka Modric. Modric is undoubtedly one of the best footballers in Euro 2016, but it is surprising as one would not expect him to have the same level of star appeal as Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The top 3 is rounded off by another Real Madrid star Gareth Bale. The Welsh superstar has been in stunning form this Euro 2016 and it is no surprise to see the player so high on this list. The top 3 players are all Real Madrid players and it goes to show how popular the Real Madrid stars are on social media.

Jamie Vardy is the only English footballer at number 6, while Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic also unsurprisingly makes the list in 4th position. The top 10 is rounded off by Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta.

The data has been calculated using the total number of facebook interactions and Twitter shares for the star athletes.

Rank	Name	FB Likes	FB shares	FB comments	TW Shares	Total
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	495,894	22,023	45,218	50,290	613,425
2	Luka Modric	296,430	13,494	23,533	31,360	364,817
3	Gareth Bale	279,940	12,045	18,805	24,880	335,670
4	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	220,970	4,399	7,890	14,860	248,119
5	Dimitri Payet	208,969	4,775	6,187	18,440	238,371
6	Jamie Vardy	156,408	5,843	10,989	15,610	188,850
7	Eden Hazard	91,758	744	1,919	4,040	98,461
8	Antoine Griezmann	71,015	1,133	1,123	5,450	78,721
9	Paul Pogba	69,412	849	1,138	5,540	76,939
10	Andres Iniesta	68,388	903	1,221	3,570	74,082

France has the most representatives on this list with Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Dimitri Payet making the list. Social media is largely indicative of the footballer’s popularity and it is indeed a refreshing surprise to see a midfielder like Luka Modric second on this list.