Cristiano Ronaldo beats Lionel Messi to become the highest money maker on Instagram

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has been crowned the highest earner on Instagram. The 34-year old earned £38 Million through sponsored posts on the social media platform. In the process, CR7 ended up collecting more than twice of what Lionel Messi earned during the same 12-month period. The Argentine earned only £18.7 Million over the last 12 months.

Ronaldo, who just scored his 700th career goal last Monday, is already considered the Instagram king. As we speak, CR7 has 186 million followers on the social media platform, which makes him the most followed individual on Instagram. Singer Ariana Grande has the second most followers, which is 20 million less than the Juventus forward.

When it comes to earnings per post, Ronaldo rakes in £780,000. In contrast, Messi earns £580,000 per sponsored post. This helped the Argentine secure second position. Both football maestros virtually dwarfed some of the biggest social media influencers. Kendall Jenner is the third-highest earner with £12.7 million earned on an average of £489,000 per post. However, with a rate of £1.01 million per sponsored post, Kylie Jenner is the biggest earner as far as per individual sponsored post is concerned.

David Beckham is the third footballer to make it to the top five. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid superstar earned £8.6 million on Instagram during the same period. On average, Becks made £286,000 for each sponsored post on the social media platform. Significantly, the former England star has retired from the game a long time ago. Still, he remains one of the major football celebrities in the world.

Among the other footballers to become a part of Instagram's highest-earning list are Neymar Jr, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Ronaldinho at 6th, 7th, and 9th position, respectively. Neymar made £5.8 million with a per-post pay of £578,000. Ibrahimovic raked in £3.2 million after being paid £160,000 per sponsored post. On the other hand, Brazilian football magician Ronaldinho collected £2 million. He earned £205,000 for every post he made for commercial brands.

It is clear that football stars are making it big on Instagram. The Sun reports that industry advertising chiefs would rely on these athletes in the near future to take brands to new heights.