Cristiano Ronaldo and the 5 Biggest Footballers on Facebook

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If you use Facebook, you know how big the social networking site has become.

Wait—let's rephrase that.

Since we all use Facebook—because it's true—we all know how big the social networking site has become.

And, since we're all football fans here, we also know how big football has become on Facebook.

If not, just look up some of the world's most popular footballers and see how many "Likes" they have.

It's staggering, really.

The phenomenon has gotten so big that The Independent earlier this year published a list of the world's most popular footballers based on their presence in online social networking.

To see the list, click here.

Not surprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list by some margin. As you'll see in a moment, he heads our list of Facebook's biggest footballers as well.

But, our lists differ somewhat from there.

How? You'll have to click to find out.

(NOTE: All Facebook stats were retrieved Wednesday night.)

5. Wayne Rooney

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Who: Wayne Rooney

Club: Manchester United

Country: England

Stats: 8,112,684 likes; 134,870 talking

Impressions: Wayne Rooney is England's top player, and his Facebook popularity mirrors that. Only David Beckham—who has crossed over into the cultural mainstream—outranks him among English players.

Rooney's official Facebook page, however, doesn't quite match up to his international stature. The ramblings and links look a bit like the ramblings and links of a 13-year-old.

But, then again, that might reflect Rooney better than we know.

4. Kaká

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Who: Kaká

Club: Real Madrid

Country: Brazil

Stats: 11,572,553 likes; 119,456 talking

Impressions: Kaká presents a clean, crisp, classy page with very few frills. We like it a lot.

The layout mirrors Kaká's no-nonsense personality. A devout Christian, Kaká generally shuns the typical life of world-famous footballers.

He married his childhood sweetheart and has served as an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN World Food Programme since 2004.

3. David Beckham

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Who: David Beckham

Club: LA Galaxy

Country: England

Stats: 14,010,185 likes; 228,176 talking

Impressions: Beckham's Facebook page reminds us a lot of him as a player. There's lots of flash and style, but it doesn't necessarily have the most substance.

Users get exclusive content for liking the page.

No, thanks. We have enough Beckham in our lives as it is.

2. Leo Messí

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Who: Leo Messi

Club: Barcelona

Country: Argentina

Stats: 25,776,773 likes; 295,165 talking

Impressions: Messi constantly beats out Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of world's best player, but he has some distance to cover if he wants to be the world's most popular.

Still, Messi is a phenomenon of his own, getting nearly double the likes of David Beckham in third place. His Facebook page uses an effective graphic with a picture of the player shooting into the top left corner.

The text in the picture says as much and then invites the user to join with the word "Vamos," which is, of course, Spanish for "Let's go."

Let's go, indeed.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

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Who: Cristiano Ronaldo

Club: Real Madrid

Country: Portugal

Stats: 34,942,177 likes; 392,681 talking

Impressions: Cristiano Ronaldo is the undisputed heavyweight champion of popular world footballers. He has nearly 10 million more likes than Leo Messi in second and has more than double Beckham's total in third.

But for the most popular footballer in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo has a pretty threadbare Facebook page. He doesn't have any fancy graphics or come-ons for exclusive comment.

Instead, he mostly just talks about himself and plugs his endorsements.

Hey, it's Cristiano Ronaldo's world. We're all just along for the ride.