Cristiano Ronaldo is the Highest Earning Athlete on Instagram, According to Hopper HQ

Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest earning athlete on Instagram in 2019, according to a study published last Wednesday by Hopper HQ. The Portuguese star surpasses his colleagues and rivals Lionel Messi and Neymar by a wide margin.

Just like in the race for the Ballon d'Or in recent years, 'CR7' has to face off against Lionel Messi and Neymar to determine who is the king of social media. On Instagram, it's the Portuguese who is earning close to a million dollars per post: 975 thousand, to be exact.

This is thanks to the nearly 173 million followers he has on Instagram, which make the image of the Juventus forward an attractive character for the big brands that sponsor his posts and generate continuous income for him.

The difference between Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar ($722,000), his closest pursuer, is more than $250,000 per post, while Lionel Messi is in third place, generating $648,000 per post.

The top 10 of the list compiled by Hopper HQ includes other footballers such as Gareth Bale, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Luis Suarez. It also includes former footballers like David Beckham and Ronaldinho, and other athletes like LeBron James (Basketball) and Indian Virat Kohli (Cricket).

Hopper HQ is a company born in 2015 in the United Kingdom and describes itself as "an Instagram planning and scheduling tool that posts for you".