10. Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 36.25 million followers
"King Zlatan" concentrates more on soccer than on posting: On average, his Instagram followers only get to see one new post every ten days. Still, his club L.A. Galaxy profits from the numerous mentions of the superstar, who also promotes his own perfume brand through posts.
9. Marcelo Vieira Jr.: 36.46 million followers
The Brazilian soccer player has been a left-back at Real Madrid for years. On Instagram, Marcelo lets his fans participate - and promotes his partner Adidas, who has by far the most mentions in Marcelo's posts.
8. Gareth Bale: 38.95 million followers
Gareth Bale also plays for Real Madrid. On Instagram, however, the Welsh gives his followers insights into his second passion: golf.
7: James Rodriguez: 41.07 million followers
James Rodriguez has made it into the Top 10 as the only active Colombian athlete in Germany. The FC Bayern Munich midfielder is a superstar in South America. No wonder he writes his postings in Spanish - even when it comes to success with Bayern München.
6. Ronaldinho: 43.23 million followers
Ronaldinho ended his active soccer career in 2015. His popularity, however, is unbroken - especially in his homeland Brazil. The world star is mainly treating mentions to his most important ex-clubs: FC Barcelona, AC Milan and Flamengo Rio de Janeiro.
5. LeBron James: 47.91 million followers
Only one non-soccer player makes it into the top 10 worldwide: Basketball superstar LeBron James embodies athletic excellence and NBA lifestyle on Instagram. He's polarizing, as is his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
4. David Beckham: 54.89 million followers
Even more popular than ex-soccerplayer Ronaldinho is the eternal David Beckham. He already finished his active career in 2013, but the Beckham brand is still drawing attention, and should become even more interesting in the future: Beckham's own soccer club Inter Miami will soon be stirring up the US Major League Soccer.
3. Lionel Messi: 112.11 million followers
The probably best soccer player in the world is "only" number 3 on Instagram. Still, Lionel Messi has more than twice as many followers as fourth-placed Beckham - even though Messi's fans only see new Instagram content every ten days on average. One thing makes Messis gigantic number of followers particularly impressive: In contrast to many other popular players, Messi has always been loyal to FC Barcelona, so he has only limited possibilities to make followers of other top clubs.
2. Neymar: 112.71 million followers
Neymar is in second place with a wafer-thin lead over Lionel Messi. Perhaps because the offensive man from Paris Saint-Germain lets his followers participate in his private life much more excessively. But Neymar also devotes a lot of space to his sponsors and partners like Nike and Otro. Both are provided with plenty of mentions in the account of the Brazilian.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo: 158.91 million followers
With a giant head start, Cristiano Ronaldo is the most popular sportsman on Instagram and the third most popular Instagram account overall. On average, 0.6 postings per day are published on the account of the Portuguese. His transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus Turin in the summer of 2018 turned out to be another follower magnet: since then CR7 has gained more than 35 million followers.
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