Amid World Cup Fever, Cristiano Ronaldo Tops Twitter in Asia

Portuguese national soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo in action during an open training session with 8,000 people in the stands, at Moises Lucarelli Stadium in Campinas, Brazil, on June 12.

 

European Pressphoto Agency

Portugal may not emerge from the 2014 World Cup victorious, but the team’s star captain Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world’s best – and legendarily egotistical – soccer players can take comfort in knowing he is already the most-tweeted player at the tournament among fans in several Asia-Pacific markets.

Mr. Ronaldo, who has 26.7 million Twitter TWTR +1.32% followers – many of them in Asia – was mentioned in the region by name and Twitter handle, @Cristiano, more times than any other player participating in the World Cup, according to data compiled by the social media platform between Jan. 1 and June 6.

The countries surveyed include Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, Ronaldo beat out fellow Real Madrid and Portugal teammate Pepe (second most tweeted); England’s Manchester United MANU +1.66% star Wayne Rooney (third); Luis Suarez, a standout for Liverpool playing for Uruguay in the World Cup (fourth); and Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard, who is playing for Belgium (fifth).

Rounding out the top 10 most tweeted players were David Luis (Brazil and Chelsea), Sergio Ramos (Spain and Real Madrid), Nani (Portugal and Manchester United), Mesut Ozil (Germany and Arsenal) and Diego Forlan (Uruguay and Cerezo Osaka).

Twitter provided The Wall Street Journal with the rankings, but was unable to provide the numbers of tweets per player.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are likely to play a significant role in the way fans watch and follow the action on the field during the month-long sport’s tournament, the world’s biggest.

In a bid to capitalize on global interest, Twitter has launched a special World Cup hub, and users can now tweet using “hashflags,” or hashtags that incorporate World Cup nations’ flags.

Twitter is using the World Cup as a chance to sign up new users, encouraging them to join by declaring their allegiance to a country and picking a pre-made image as their avatar.

Courtesy of Twitter

So, what explains Ronaldo’s Twitter dominance? One factor may be his club team’s global appeal. Real Madrid is one of the world’s most storied outfits, and last month it won European soccer’s crown jewel, the Champions League, with Ronaldo in fine form throughout the season.

Ronaldo also posts frequently on Twitter, often inviting fans to attend games or tweeting photos of himself with teammates – unlike his Argentina and Barcelona nemesis Lionel Messi, who many regard as the world’s top player, with Ronaldo second best.

Twitter’s country-level data also contains some interesting outliers. In India, Manchester United and Netherlands star Robin van Persie is among the top five, perhaps due to the Premier League side’s popularity there. In Australia, Spain’s David Villa is also in the top five – likely because he is set to debut in the coming months for Australian club side Melbourne City.

Meanwhile, the top tweeted player in Japan was Diego Forlan. The Uruguayan, who won the Golden Ball as the best player of the 2010 World Cup, recently joined Japanese side Cerezo Osaka.