Chinese Netizens and Their Love Affair With European Footballers on Weibo (INFOGRAPHIC)

Mailman Group has come back with another infographic about how popular European footballers are on Twitter-esque services Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo. The two most famous players on the social networks have just fallen out of the Champions League competition: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. They both record the highest number of followers in China and the most engaged Weibo accounts as well.

The report notes that the best newcomer, in the eyes of Chinese netizens, is Tottenham Hotspurs’ Gareth Bale. Interestingly, Spain’s La Liga players are a lot more popular than those in the English Premier League (BPL). La Liga’s top six most popular players on Weibo have eight times – yes, x8 – the number of followers compared to BPL’s top eight players.

One interesting thing to note is that Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata – who retired a few years back – is the fourth most popular European player on China’s leading social networks. Although he’s Japanese, he’s played in a few European clubs like AS Roma and Parma in the past.

The last time the Mailman Group, which helps celebrities do social marketing in China, assessed football mania on Weibo, it noted that European football clubs have 15.6 million supporters online in China.

Here’s the infographic for you football fans:

For more fun graphics like this one, check out previous entries in our infographic series.