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Entertainment

Is Beyoncé more popular than Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi?

By Giancarlo Cornejo September 26, 2022
Featured Image
Soccer Twitter responds.
Shutterstock

"Beyoncé" is trending on Twitter. Care to know why?

Over the weekend, a tweet claiming that no football player alive is more popular than Beyoncé riled up the whole of Twitter.

As of Monday, the original tweet had gained over 24,000 interactions and is now filled with replies and quote tweets from accounts defending the notion and with others denying it.

It's a Twitter battle for the ages between the Beyhive and soccer fans. 

Where does Beyoncé stand against the world’s most famous soccer players?

There’s no denying the level of stardom of Beyoncé — one of the most popular music artists in the U.S., the world and of all-time. 

Beyoncé

Beyoncé, as of Sept. 2022, has over 275 million followers on Instagram, 15.7 million Twitter followers, 44.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, over 200 million records sold, has had five world tours, performed in the Super Bowl and is married to one of the most famous rappers in the world, Jay-Z.

She’s the boss in the music business. 

Additionally, Beyoncé was the 25th most searched person on Google in 2022 with over 1.6 million searches, putting her ahead of celebrities like Tom Brady, Kanye West and Donald Trump. 

However, is this enough to put her past the fame of any soccer player in the world? Not exactly.

Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi was the 10th most searched person on Google in 2022 with over 3.1 million searches — almost double that of Beyoncé's.

Messi, as of Sept. 2022, has over 362 million followers on Instagram, has won four Champions Leagues, seven Ballon d’Ors, has played for two of the most famous clubs in the world (Barcelona and PSG) and will play in his fifth World Cup in November.

After signing with PSG in 2021 as a 34-year-old, the club reported one million jerseys sold with Messi’s No. 30 printed on the back. 

In music terms, Messi went platinum with $100 per-copy albums. Insane.

Pretty impressive numbers, right? Well, what if I told you he still wasn’t the most followed player in the world? 

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo, as of Sept. 2022, has over 483 million followers on Instagram, 103.6 million Twitter followers, has won five UEFA Champions Leagues, five Ballon d’Ors, has played for two of the biggest soccer clubs in the world (Manchester United and Real Madrid) and will play his fifth World Cup in November.

Ronaldo is also known for being a fan favorite in the jersey market.

As a 24-year-old, when he signed for Real Madrid in 2009, Los Blancos sold a reported one million jerseys with Ronaldo’s No. 9 printed on the back.

After going to Juventus as a 33-year-old, the club sold a reported 520,000 jerseys in 24 hours, and as a 36-year-old re-joining Manchester United, the club sold a reported one million jerseys in the first season.

World stardom.

Are these fair comparisons?

In reality, there’s really no point of comparison between professional athletes and music stars.

Artists like Beyoncé could sell out stadiums all over the world because she performs and makes music, whereas players like Ronaldo and Messi (by themselves and in normal instances) wouldn’t be able to.

Soccer players like Messi and Ronaldo can sell millions of $100 jerseys because they use them in games every week, whereas if Beyoncé released a line of merchandise, her numbers wouldn’t come close to that of these players.

It’s difficult to compare the fame of the two.

Now, in retrospect and in conclusion to the tweet, although Beyoncé is clearly more famous than most professional athletes and soccer players, there’s definitely some players — including and aside from Ronaldo and Messi — that could give the American singer’s fame a run for her money. 

The funniest memes that came out of the Beyoncé soccer tweet

As always and with our usual personal preference, we end on a lighter note with some of funniest memes and replies that came out of the conversation on Twitter.

Football Twitter unites, Ronaldo promoting chicken, Premier League drought and Maguire/iShowSpeed more famous than Beyoncé.

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