Johannesburg - Despite their shocking 2-1 loss to minnows Saudi Arabia, Argentina still remains the most loved Fifa World Cup team on Twitter.
This is according to data provided by Ticketgum.com, who conducted a sentiment analysis on over 10 000 tweets over an eight-day period to uncover this year’s most loved teams and players at the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar.
As the big event officially kicked off last weekend, the World Cup has achieved over 460 000 Instagram hashtags and 5.7 billion TikTok views.
While the Argentina national team is the most loved on Twitter, earning an online support score of 9.09/10, they are followed by the France national team, with the reigning champions gaining an impressive 84.91% of supportive tweets.
Pipping Brazil by a mere 0.15, is Portugal’s squad headed by social media superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claims third place, securing 83.35% of positive tweets.
The only African team to feature in the top 10 is Cameroon.
The African giant received an impressive 87.07% of positive tweets, over the eight days that the study was conducted.
Other teams to feature in the top 10 most loved teams include the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Japan and hosts Qatar.
While the most loved team on Twitter may come as no surprise, the most loved player on Twitter most certainly will.
Netherlands defender Nathan Ake is the most loved with a staggering 92.86% of supportive tweets.
French top scorer Kylian Mbappé takes close second with his number of positive tweets.
Close friends Lionel Messi and Neymar place third and fourth respectively with a slim difference in their final scores.
Despite controversies, Ronaldo sits in fifth place with the striker’s dedicated fan base bagging him 188 positive tweets.
Other players to feature in the top 10 most loved players include Garang Kuol from Australia, Iliman Ndiaye from Senegal, Mario Gotze from Germany, Sardar Azmoun of Iran, and Croatia’s Luka Modric.
To check out the full report of most loved countries and players at the World Cup, visit https://www.ticketgum.com/