Cristiano Ronaldo Earned $22M More Than Lionel Messi On Instagram This Year

Cristiano Ronaldo has earned a staggering $20 million more than Lionel Messi or anybody else on Instagram this year, revealed latest data.

Ronaldo and Messi have been the face of soccer for more than two decades now and the two have earned a fortune in the process. There have been several debates regarding who is the best soccer player of the two but a permanent answer to the same is yet to be found out.

However, in terms of popularity on social media, Ronaldo clearly has conquered over his FC Barcelona rival. While Messi boosts of 133 million followers on Instagram, Ronaldo enjoys 186 million followers as he is the most followed person on the platform in the world.

This year, Ronaldo, who earned $48.7 million, had 49 sponsored posts on Instagram and each one of them earned him $ 994,305.

Meanwhile, the Argentine star fell well short of Ronaldo as he made $23.8 million and earned $550,320 per post.

According to a study done by Buzz Bingo, another football star in the list behind Ronaldo and Messi was former Manchester United star David Beckham, who made 30 sponsored posts and earned close to $11 million.

He was followed by Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar with $7.3 million and Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic with close to USD $5 million.

Ronaldo recently netted his career's 700th goal during Portugal's Euro Qualifier against Ukraine on Monday.

Ronaldo, who moved from Real Madrid to Juventus ahead of the previous season, still has some way to go to beat the all-time record of 800 goals set by the former Czech Republic forward Josef Bican. However, the Portuguese's agent, Jorge Mendes, believes his client is not done with breaking records yet and termed him the best footballer in the history of the sport.

"The numbers do not lie. The overwhelming way in which Cristiano Ronaldo shatters records elevates him to the category of the best player in the history of football and with a big difference compared to the second. For all that he has achieved in the services of the different clubs which he has represented, either in England or in Spain or now in Italy, but also with the Portuguese national team," Mendes added.

Ronaldo's Portugal won the maiden edition of the UEFA Nations League earlier this year by beating the Netherlands in the final and they also conquered the Euro 2016 trophy by defeating France.