Cristiano Ronaldo Becomes 1st Footballer to Reach 100M Followers on Instagram

Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach 100 million followers on photo-sharing site Instagram.

The Real Madrid star has made almost 1,800 posts on Instagram since joining and also has over 51 million followers on Twitter and more than 120 million "likes" on Facebook.

By comparison, Barcelona's Neymar is followed by 74 million people on Instagram, while team-mate Lionel Messi has almost 71 million followers.

In February last year, analytics site Hookit (h/t Forbes' Kurt Badenhausen) reported the 32-year-old had become the first athlete to surpass 200 million followers across the three social media platforms combined.

In September, Ronaldo had a total of 238 million followers, putting him behind only pop star Taylor Swift as the most followed person on the planet, according to Apple Tree Communications (h/t ESPNFC). 

The Portugal international has since overtaken Swift, who has a combined total of 259.5 million followers compared to Ronaldo's 272.8.

Hookit also reported Ronaldo has had over 5 million new followers in the last 30 days alone.

The forward has likely been aided by a tremendously successful year on the pitch. He helped Real and Portugal win the UEFA Champions League and UEFA European Championship, respectively, and received his fourth Ballon d'Or in December for his efforts.

In 2017, Ronaldo has helped put Los Blancos on the verge of another Champions League title and their second La Liga title in eight years.