How Cristiano Ronaldo beat Lionel Messi hands down

Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first athlete ever to surpass 200 million followers on social media.

The Real Madrid and Portuguese forward was the first athlete to rack up 100 million Facebook fans and his current total of 109.6 million is more than any other person on the planet (beating nearest rival Shakira’s 104.5 million). Statistically, he gets a following almost every second.

Ronaldo vs Messi is widely an unsettled debate as to who bosses the football world with both sharing 8 of the last 10 Ballon d’Or trophies between them but the 31-year old clearly trumps the Argentine as the most popular athlete.

Now the Portuguese forward can lay claim to being the world’s most popular athlete on social media after he crossed the 200 million threshold on Tuesday.

The 31 year-old’s combined total social media followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter reached 200,058,494, according to social media tracking database Hookit.com.

Messi has 120.8 million followers on his social media accounts although he does not own a Twitter account.

Ronaldo’s staggering stats for popularity on social media puts him past the combined total of basketball stars LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, who altogether have a 187 million following.

The Real Madrid and Portugal forward has been widely described as a ‘perfectionist’ and ‘self-obsessed’ and in his book ‘My Decade in the Premier League’ Wayne Rooney says that Ronaldo  ‘can’t walk past his reflection without admiring it—even if we’re about to play a game of football’

All criticism put aside, Messi vs Ronaldo on social media is simply no duel.