Lionel Messi is an Instagram king! Inter Miami superstar becomes only second person to reach 500m followers - but he's still way behind Cristiano Ronaldo

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, who continues to make history on the field, reached another notable landmark off the pitch when hitting half-a-billion followers on his social media channel of choice. He is just the second person on the planet to achieve that feat.

Eternal rival Ronaldo was the first, with the Portuguese icon topping the charts by some distance on 622m. Musician and actress Selena Gomez ranks third (429m), followed by Kylie Jenner (400m) and Hollywood film star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (397m).

According to Sportico, Messi is now followed by 20 per cent of the 2.5 billion monthly active user base on Instagram. He has more followers than all current NFL players combined and tops the cumulative total of the 154 teams in the five major sports leagues in America.

Messi’s fan base exploded on the back of his 2022 World Cup triumph with Argentina, while he now boasts a new legion of supporters following a move to the United States that has seen him link up with MLS side Inter Miami. His following is predominately male (72%), while Brazil is his top country for followers at 12% - followed by India (8.1%), Argentina (6.5%) and the U.S. (6.2%).