Kings of Instagram: Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Lionel Messi tops in followers among footballers

One of the surest ways to gauge the relative popularity of various soccer players is to compare how many Instagram followers they have. Last year, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first athlete from any sport to eclipse the 100-million follower mark. He joined a quartet of female pop stars (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande) in the ultra-exclusive club.

While Ronaldo, Neymar and Lionel Messi are tops on Instagram among footballers, can you name the remaining seven stars in the top ten? Overall, players for Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate the top ten. Six of the top-ten players were born in South America, while the remaining four are Europeans.

UPDATED February 2, 2018

A post shared by Marcelo Vieira Jr. (@marcelotwelve) on Sep 8, 2017 at 11:32am PDT

Marcelo Vieira da Silva Junior
Current team: Real Madrid
Born May 12, 1988 🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Instagram followers: 22.4 million

A post shared by Luis Suarez (@luissuarez9) on Sep 10, 2017 at 10:52am PDT

Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz
Current team: Barcelona
Born January 24, 1987 🇺🇾 Salto, Uruguay
Instagram followers: 26.2 million

A post shared by Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (@ronaldinho) on Jan 29, 2018 at 4:45am PST

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira
Last team: Fluminense
Born March 21, 1980 🇧🇷 Porto Alegre, Brazil
Instagram followers: 29.5 million

A post shared by IAmZlatan (@iamzlatanibrahimovic) on Jan 21, 2018 at 11:32am PST

Zlatan Ibrahimović
Current team: Manchester United
Born October 3, 1981 🇸🇪 Malmo, Sweden
Instagram followers: 30.1 million

A post shared by Gareth Bale (@garethbale11) on Sep 15, 2017 at 7:04am PDT

Gareth Frank Bale
Current team: Real Madrid
Born July 16, 1989 🇬🇧 Cardiff, Wales
Instagram followers: 32.5 million

A post shared by James Rodríguez (@jamesrodriguez10) on Jan 16, 2018 at 12:40pm PST

James David Rodríguez Rubio
Current team: Bayern Munich
Born July 12, 1991 🇨🇴 Cúcuta, Colombia
Instagram followers: 34.6 million

A photo posted by David Beckham (@davidbeckham) on Oct 8, 2016 at 3:16am PDT

David Robert Joseph Beckham
Last team: Paris Saint-Germain
Born May 2, 1975 🇬🇧 London, England
Instagram followers: 42.1 million

A post shared by Leo Messi (@leomessi) on Sep 26, 2017 at 6:03am PDT

Lionel Andrés Messi
Current team: Barcelona
Born June 24, 1987 🇦🇷 Rosario, Argentina
Instagram followers: 86.8 million

A post shared by Nj 🇧🇷 👻 neymarjr (@neymarjr) on Dec 27, 2017 at 6:30am PST

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior
Current team: Paris Saint-Germain
Born February 5, 1992 🇧🇷 Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil
Instagram followers: 88.4 million

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on Sep 14, 2017 at 6:23am PDT

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
Current team: Real Madrid
Born February 5, 1985 🇵🇹 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Instagram followers: 120 million