Football continues to be the most popular sport across the whole world, with supporters numbering around 3.5 billion. Football fans and supporters pay a significant amount of their own money to attend football games to witness their favourite players perform.

With numerous sportsbooks providing various markets on all of the different football events held across the world, online betting on football is always in demand. Fans no longer look up to and root for their hometown sports heroes and clubs. Because of football's significant global reach, football players have a prominent standing as celebrities worldwide.

Although determining the number of followers a player has is extremely difficult, social media offers a reasonably good indicator for determining the athlete's popularity. In the world we live in today, social media is an integral part of everyone's routine. Even knowing about one’s popularity and performance helps people to pace bets on their favourite player through online football sports betting.

Almost everyone uses social media, which includes a number of professional football players who use various platforms to engage with their fans and followers.

Players like Ronaldo, Messi, and Neymar are quite well recognised for their brilliance and talents on the field as well as their large fan following off the pitch notably on social media. In no particular order here is a list of ten most popular football players that you should know:

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano-Ronaldo

Cristiano has to be on top here. Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, also known as Cristiano Ronaldo, was born on February 5, 1985 in the town of Aveiro, Portugal. He is a Portuguese pro footballer and captains the Portugal national team. Players like him are very famous in sports betting circles.

When it pertains to branding and sponsorships, Ronaldo has always been at the head of such lists. Indeed, he is the most popular person on Instagram at the moment. In his career, he has won a UEFA Euro Championship and 5 Champions League trophies and. Additionally, he has won league trophies in four separate nations throughout Europe.

Neymar Jr.

Neymar, another great player, has been a football phenomenon. Neymar was born on February 5th 1992, is a Brazilian pro midfielder who plays as a striker for Paris Saint-Germain and the national team of Brazil.

In addition to being one of the most talented players in football, he is also one of the most beloved. That's reflected on his Instagram. In recent years, he has won many awards in Spain, Brazil and France and remains on a winning streak. In terms of goals for his country, he is second only to Pele. He is one of 3 footballers with over than a 100 mn Instagram followers.
Neymar-Jr.

Lionel Messi

Lionel-Messi

Without Messi, any ranking would be inadequate, as he is widely considered as the most balanced player the game has ever seen. Lionel Andres Messi was born June 24, 1987 in Buenos Aires. He is an Argentine pro player who currently plays as a striker for Barcelona and the national team of Argentina. Without a doubt, the best football player that has ever lived, Messi ranks below Cristiano Ronaldo in the most-followed player rankings. He has won 4 Champions League cups with Barcelona during the course of his two-decade career with the club. In spite of his team's dismal performance, this season, he is the leading scorer in La Liga. The Barcelona captain is considered to be a quiet person and allows his play on the game to do all the work and this is reflected in his social networking activities too though.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimović, a Swedish pro footballer, plays for A.C. Milan in Italy. He was born on October 3, 1981. Ibrahimovic is largely considered to be among the greatest strikers in history. He has won 31 titles in his career, making him arguably one of the most accomplished current players in the world.

At the age of 39, the AC Milan forward is indeed going strong, having recently renewed his contract for another season. Additionally, he has made over 100 showings for Sweden. He also purchased 23.5 percent of the stock in Swedish team Hammarby.
Zlatan-Ibrahimovic

Kylian Mbappe

Kylian-Mbappe

The talented Frenchman is also one of the most well-known players in the game. Following his recent World Cup victory, Mbappe has been compared to his hero, Cristiano Ronaldo. So far, he has won a number of titles for PSG and AS Monaco. He'll be able to earn more trophies when he gets older.

Sergio Ramos

Sergio Ramos Garcia, born March 30, 1986, is a pro footballer who performs and captains for both the national team of Spain and Real Madrid and as a centre back. It has been said that many people see the current Spanish National Team Captain as the finest defender of the current generation. He has accomplished in winning a World Cup, 4 Champions League trophies, 2 Copa del Rey crowns, 2 European championships, 5 La Liga championships, and several more titles in his 17-year career. He is extremely famous on social media, with the most Instagram followers of any Spanish player.

Sergio-Ramos

Paul Pogba

Paul-Pogba

The world loves Paul Pogba. When he joined Man Utd from Juventus, the gifted midfielder was the Premier League's costliest move. He was a key member of France's FIFA WC winning side in 2018. In his club playing career he has won numerous titles, such as Serie A and the Europa League.

Marcelo

Identified as Marcelo, a left back for Real Madrid and the national team of Brazil, Marcelo was born on May 12, 1988. Despite his reputation as one of the greatest left-backs in history, Marcelo has never won the Champions League. He has a tremendous fan base in Spain and also Brazil. At Real Madrid, he created a dangerous combination with Cristiano Ronaldo that helped the squad win several trophies. He is, however, out of favour with the club at the moment.

Marcelo

James Rodriguez

James-Rodriguez

Rodriguez, who won the Golden Boot as the 2014 World Cup's top scorer, currently plays for Everton. The 29-year-old Colombian has claimed 1 Europa League championship, 2 Champions League crowns and 2 FIFA Club WC victories. Off the field, he has competed for a number of prominent teams, and has quite a bit of public support.

Gareth Bale

Gareth Frank Bale is a Welsh pro player who currently plays for Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, on lease from La Liga club Real Madrid, as well as the national team of Wale.

The Welsh striker is presently on loan at Tottenham, his old club. He was formerly a highly regarded player at Real Madrid, however, the fans in Madrid no longer consider him to be one of their own. After making his breakthrough at Tottenham, he was signed by Real Madrid, the highest-paying club in the world, for a world-record trade cost. But his injuries robbed him of his football career in Madrid. Despite this, he has amassed several awards over his career.

Gareth-Bale