A Look at the Euro Players: These Are the Most Popular Pros of the 2024 European Soccer Championship on Instagram

The ball is rolling, and all of Europe is cheering on the nations competing for the championship title—whether in the stadium, in front of the TV, or at public viewings. Many soccer players are currently winning over fans’ hearts and drawing attention to themselves. Soccer fans can follow most of them not only on screen during the games but also on social media.

A large number of players engage with their followers on Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms—both on the field and in their everyday lives—and diligently post snapshots of their lives. But which nation actually has the most soccer stars with millions of followers in its ranks?

We’ve done the big comparison for you and looked at which players have the largest social media following. To do this, we calculated and compared the follower counts and the number of Instagram posts for a total of 599 players from the squads in this year’s European Championship during the group stage and leading up to the final.

Twenty-three players do not have an official Instagram account and are therefore not included in the comparison. According to the results, there are also several stars on the German team who share glimpses of their lives on and off the field with an audience of millions on social media. You can find all the results of the comparison on this page.

These Players Are the Social Media Winners of Euro 2024

With 583 percent more followers under his belt, Romania’s Florin Niță is heading home: The goalkeeper can celebrate the largest increase in followers among the players. Alongside Niță, Georgia’s Anzor Mekvabishvili made a big impact both on and off the field: The 23-year-old midfielder can celebrate a 198 percent increase in followers.

Romania’s Marius Marin and Hungary’s Barnabás Varga each gained 197 percent more followers on Instagram after the tournament. On the field, Georgia couldn’t quite keep up with the top nations, but on social media, Giorgi Kochorashvili is still among the tournament’s winners with an 181 percent increase in fans. Right behind him is Portugal’s Diogo Costa, whose performance in the Portuguese national team jersey earned him a 178 percent increase in followers.

Here’s how the social media numbers broke down for all the players:

In absolute terms, no one comes close to Spain’s prodigy: Yamal gained 3.98 million new followers on his Instagram profile during the tournament—an all-time high. Not even Cristiano Ronaldo can keep up (up 1.75 million followers).

His teammate Nico Williams follows with 1.36 new fans. The Turkish team’s advance to the quarterfinals sparked a wave of euphoria: For Arda Güler and Kenan Yıldız, the tournament brought in 1.3 and 991,260 additional fans, respectively, putting the two soccer players right at the top of the pack.

Here’s how the numbers have developed for the German team

On the German team, David Raum established himself in the starting lineup and also managed to grow his fan base on social media: With a 56 percent increase, he is the player on the German team who has gained the most fans. His pink hair didn’t bring him any luck in the match against Spain, but it did bring him new followers: Robert Andrich comes in second with a 49 percent increase. Substitute Niclas Füllkrug has also expanded his Instagram following by 30 percent since the start of the tournament—that’s 167,400 more fans than he had during the group stage. Waldemar Anton, who recently caused a stir with his transfer from VfB Stuttgart to Borussia Dortmund, is also among the leaders with a 21 percent increase. Maximilian Beier rounds out the top five with a 20 percent increase.

In absolute terms, veteran Toni Kroos leads the pack, having gained an additional 655,330 followers. The two young players, Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz, follow with increases of 328,550 and 328,490 new fans, respectively. Toni Rüdiger has gained 241,330 additional followers since the group stage.

Here are the social media numbers for the German national team players:

These players have the largest fan bases on Instagram

No one is as popular as Cristiano Ronaldo: With 634.4 million followers, the Portuguese star leads the social media rankings by a wide margin. France captain Kylian Mbappé also reaches a broad audience on his social media account with 119.7 million fans, followed by Germany’s Toni Kroos (48.6 million followers). Another Frenchman, Antoine Griezmann, ranks among the most popular Euro players on Instagram; 41.1 million people follow the Atlético star. Luka Modrić rounds out the top five in the international rankings with 36.4 million fans.

With 35.5 and 34.5 million followers, respectively, Robert Lewandowski and Jude Bellingham are also well ahead. Belgium’s captain, Kevin De Bruyne, follows behind (26.5 million followers). After missing a penalty kick in the 2021 European Championship semifinals, Spain’s captain Álvaro Morata was bombarded with hate messages. On Instagram, Morata is now the most popular Spaniard with 22.3 million followers, ahead of Portugal’s Pepe with 18.2 million fans.

Here’s an overview of the number of followers for each player:

Kroos and ter Stegen Are the Most Popular Players on the German Roster

Becoming European champions on home soil: That is the German team’s ultimate goal. Millions of fans are following the players’ progress toward this goal on social media. Alongside Toni Kroos, Marc-André ter Stegen is also particularly popular on Instagram. The FC Barcelona goalkeeper, who has to settle for a backup role behind Manuel Neuer on the national team, has 16.7 million followers on Instagram.

Thomas Müller is also not part of the German team’s starting lineup, but with 14.8 million followers, he ranks among the top players on social media. On Instagram, Manuel Neuer shares glimpses of his life both on and off the field—including photos with Hollywood stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, as well as his birthday cake. A total of 13.9 million people follow him on the social media platform. Real Madrid star Antonio Rüdiger has 10.8 million followers on Instagram—ranking fifth on the German squad.

Here’s how all the players on the German team rank:

Undav and Groß only appear on the field

At just 21 years old and already competing in the European Championship: Maximilian Beier is currently living the dream of many young soccer players. Unlike the young stars around Musiala and Wirtz, however, Beier is still unknown to many: Only 54,900 people follow the Hoffenheim player on Instagram. Waldemar Anton also remains under the radar compared to the rest of the German team, with 67,990 fans.

Chris Führich and Oliver Baumann—two other pros who have only recently earned spots on the DFB roster—round out the bottom of the list (with 69,930 and 124,620 followers, respectively). Deniz Undav and Pascal Groß are nowhere to be found: neither player has an Instagram profile.

Players on the Czech team are still flying under the radar on social media

When it comes to the largest online audience, Portugal can already claim the European Championship title: Thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese squad tops the list with a total of 712.3 million followers. The star-studded French squad featuring Mbappé, Griezmann, and Kanté puts the team in second place with 249.76 million fans. The German squad takes the bronze medal: 148.64 million people follow the national team players’ profiles.

The players on the Czech national team have significantly fewer fans; with a total of 1.55 million followers, they bring up the rear in the country comparison. Slovakia, too, remains unknown to many, with 2.04 million fans. PSG defender Milan Škriniar accounts for just under half of that total, with approximately 854,500 followers. Romania has 2.09 million people following its 26-player squad on Instagram.

The table shows you how many followers each country has in comparison:

These players post particularly frequently

The most fans, the most popular nation—and the most posts: Cristiano Ronaldo keeps his followers up to date with currently around 3,700 photos—no other pro posts more on Instagram.

The account of Dutch player Georginio Wijnaldum currently features 2,470 posts, and Belgian player and former Dortmund player Axel Witsel has published a similarly high number so far (2,380 posts). Wijnaldum’s numerous posts are followed by 5.79 million people, while Witsel has 1.39 million followers. On the German national team, Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos are particularly active on Instagram: in 1,870 and 1,140 posts, respectively, the two soccer players showcase themselves and their daily lives.

You can find the number of posts per player in this overview:

What did we do?

For this comparison, we analyzed the number of followers, the number of posts, and the number of people followed on the social media platform Instagram. The analysis included the official accounts of a total of 599 players from the European Championship soccer squads. Twenty-three players do not have an official Instagram account (data collection dates: June 21, 2024, and July 12, 2024).