Cristiano Ronaldo earned £14-million (R298m) more from his Instagram posts than his annual salary at Juventus - here are the six highest-earning football social media influencers in the world.
Last week, Ronaldo became the first active footballer to earn over a billion in earnings, according to Forbes and a breakdown of his social media sponsorship displays the lucrative nature of his global presence.
As the most followed account on the social media application, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner is the most marketable sporting figure in history.
Levels - Outearning staggering Juve salary
With 222-million followers on IG, Ronaldo raked in a remarkable £41.7m (R894m) over the past 12 months from 43 sponsored posts which dwarfs his wage of £27.3m-a-year (R580m) at the Bianconeri.
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According to Buzz Bingo, he's earnings from the social media app increased by £3.5m since 2019, with an average of £971,000 per post with Nike, CR7 fragrance and the EMS training device (Sixpad) the biggest pay-days.
Beating his long-standing rival - Messi
Messi, who won a record sixth Ballon d'Or this year could not reach the heights of Ronaldo, with his average sponsored post earning him £631,000 (R13.5m) and a total of £25.2m (R537m) for the year.
The FC Barcelona club-record goalscorer earned most of his endorsements from paid-partnerships with Adidas while he also shares his family holiday getaways with his loyal fans.
Did you know?
Ronaldo earned more than the Virat Koli, Kim Kardashian and the Jenner sisters?
Your thoughts, please?
Do you think it's time local players and teams step up to take advantage of social media earnings?