The Manchester United striker has become
the first UK athlete to reach 10 million online
followers, a figure which is still more than 20m behind his former teammate
Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney has become the first athlete from the United Kingdom to reach 10 million Twitter followers.
The 28-year-old, currently
serving a three-match Premier League ban for kicking
West Ham’s Stewart Downing, is also in the top 10
most-followed UK individuals, but is still some 12m
followers behind One Direction singer Harry Styles in
first place.
Rooney’s red card against the Hammers was the sixth of
his career, and he will sit out all of his club’s three
matches in October, but his online appeal has not
dimmed.
The striker is the fifth most-followed footballer on
Twitter, though it is his former Old Trafford team-mate
Cristiano Ronaldo who sits top of that list, and indeed
the list of global athletes, with over 30m followers.
The two men exchanged tweets following May’s
Champions League final, in which Ronaldo scored Real
Madrid’s final goal in a 4-1 extra-time victory over city
rivals Atletico.
Thanks for the support @WayneRooney. Crazy days
these last ones!
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) May 27, 2014
On that global list of athletes, Rooney lies in sixth place,
with Brazil internationals past and present taking three
of the top five spots. Kaka (21m) is in second, Neymar
(14.6m) is fourth and Ronaldinho (10.8m) is fifth. NBA
star LeBron James is the only non-footballer in the top
eight, and slots in between Kaka and Neymar in third.