Footballers are some of the most famous athletes on the planet. Stars both on the pitch, in tabloids and on televisions across the world. With the World Cup on the horizon, this infographic from StaySourced looks at who would win the tournament if a team’s Twitter following was proportional to their success.
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The firm looked at who had the most Twitter followers in the final 16, placing them in the tournament against each other to see who would win the social world cup 2014.
England comes 4th, but not all footballers had an official Twitter- notably Messi was without a page, either as a response to online abuse, or because he simply doesn’t use it. There are also some young players who, despite not having a large Twitter following, may make a massive impact in the tournament.
Players who play or have played for in either a top English club or Real Madrid and Barcelona have a bigger following, probably because these are the club sides with the largest international fan base.
From our results, Spain are set to retain the cup, which they won for the first time in 2010. Despite not having the player with the most Twitter followers, a title held by Ronaldo who was largely responsible for Portugal making it to the final, they had the most Twitter followers as a team.
As an added bonus, StaySourced also provided some top World Cup facts to help marketers stay in the know about the history of the competition.
World Cup Facts
The most:
World cup Tournaments Played in (Team): Brazil – 19
World cup Tournaments Played in (Player): Antonio Carbajal (Mexico) and Lothar Matthäus (Germany): 5
Matches played in by a player: Lothar Matthäus – 25
Minutes played by a player: Paolo Maldini – 2217
Wins (Team): Brazil – 5
Wins (Player): Pelé – 3
World cup goals: Ronaldo – 15
Goals scored in a match by one team: Austria 7 Switzerland 5 1954 – 12
Goals scored in a match (Player): Olag Salenko (for Russia VS Cameroon 1994) – 5
Goals in a a tournament (Team): Hungary (Switzerland 1954) – 27
Goals in a a tournament (Player): Just Fontaine (for France in Sweden 1958) – 13
World cup own goals by a team: Bulgaria, Mexico and Spain – 3
World cup own goals by a team in one tournament: Bulgaria (1966) – 2
Matches won (team): Brazil – 67
Matches won (player): Cafu – 16
Apperances in a final (Team): Brazil – 7
Apperances in a final (Player): Cafu – 3
Attendance of a match: Uruguay v Brazil (Brazil 1950) – 199,854
Attendance of a final: Argentina v West Germany (Mexico 1986) – 114,600
Clean Sheets(Player): Peter Shilton (England) and Fabien Barthez (France) – 10
Consecutive minutes without conceding a goal (Player): Walter Zenga – 517
Biggest Victory: Hungary VS El Salvador (Spain 1982): 10 – 1
Youngest:
Player: Norman Whiteside (Northern Ireland) – 17 years 41 days
Captain: Tony Meola (USA) – 21 years 109 days
Goalscorer: Pelé – 17 years 239 days
Oldest:
Player: Roger Milla (Cameroon) – 42 years 39 days
Captain: Peter Shilton – 40 years 292 days
Goalscorer: Roger Milla (Cameroon) – 42 years 39 days
Fastest:
Goal from kick off: Hakan Şükür (For Turkey VS Korea Republic in South Korea & Japan 2002) – 11 seconds
Hat-trick: László Kiss ( For Hungary VS El Salvador, Spain 1982) – 8 minutes
Source: Stay Sourced