“You don’t need a corporation or a marketing company to brand you now: you can do it yourself. You can establish who you are with a social media following.” --- Ray Allen, former American professional basketball player
Social Media and Futsal
Today – something different! Social media has transformed the way we do almost everything on the internet. Among many other things, it changed the way we seek information; it changed the way we receive news, and it changed the way we look upon our idols. This includes futsal and futsal players as well.
Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts of futsal players have been the central focus point of interest for millions of futsal fans, enthusiasts, journalists, and players alike, who will race to their favorite futsal profiles to get one player’s first reactions on a match, find news about upcoming matches, tournaments, injuries, transfers, and many other futsal-related things.
Many players use their social media profiles to voice their opinions and concerns. Quite often, these posts get transferred into news because they represent authentic, unedited opinions that generate a lot of engagement.
Most futsal players though, use social media platforms to inform us about their and their team’s performance. Players going live after important victories in a major tournament have gotten a huge amount of attention from fans. Everyone likes a peek into areas where they are usually not allowed – in their favorite team’s locker room or even their favorite player’s living room.
Top 10 Most Popular Futsal Players on Social Media
So, have you ever wondered who are the most followed futsal players across the ‘main’ social media platforms? Well, if you did, you can stop wondering now as we bring you the list of top 10 futsal players across social media!
*To generate this list, we used the sum of all followers of one futsal player across three major social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Important to note is that we did not take into account private Facebook profiles – only official Facebook pages. Also, as the social media landscape is an ever-changing place, we can’t guarantee that this list will be 100% correct if you happen to find this article one or two years after its publication.
1. Falcão – 9.9 million
Without any competition – the futsal god Falcão has by far the most followers across all three social media platforms – summed up and individually. Almost unreal 6.9 million followers on Instagram are joined by 2.8 million fans on Facebook and almost 200.000 followers on Twitter generate a staggering 9.9 million followers for Falcão. It is very likely that Falcão will soon hit the 10 million followers across these three platforms.
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>>> FutsalFeed Original: Falcão, Futsal God
2. Ricardinho – 1.7 million
Another one of futsal greatest has a huge following across social media, as expected from one of Ricardinho's stature. The only one including Falcão on this list that has over 1 million followers. Ricardinho punched the 1 million mark on his Instagram, which is coupled with 643.000 fans on Facebook and huge 131.000 followers on Twitter.
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>>> 5 things you did not know about Ricardinho
3. "Ter" Panat Kittipanuwong - 895.000
Ter is a Thai futsal winger. He plays for Chonburi Bluewave in Futsal Thailand League and is also a part of Thailand's national futsal team. As one of the most famous futsal players in Thailand, Ter has almost 600.000 followers on Facebook alone! His Instagram account counts close to 300.000 followers. Unfortunately, we couldn't find his official Twitter account. Altogether, that is close to 900.000 followers across social media platforms and enough for third place!
❤️💪
Posted by Ter Panut Kittipanuwong on Saturday, 23 January 2021
4. Bayu Saptaji - 854.000
Bayu Saptaji is one of the most famous Indonesian futsal players. His Instagram account is on fire with a whopping 833.000 fans and that generates almost all of his social media followers. They are accompanied by another 16.700 followers on Twitter and 4.500 fans on Facebook.
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5. Ardiansyah Runtuboy - 410.000
Another Indonesian futsal player found its way in Top 5! Ardiansyah Runtuboy plays as a winger for Bintang Timur Surabaya futsal team and the Indonesian national team. Almost all of his followers are located on Instagram where he has 407.000 followers. His Facebook page attracts another 3.000 people, but that is a drop in the sea compared to his Instagram following.
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6. Rodrigo Hardy Araujo – 402.000
Magnus’ superstar and currently one of the best futsal players in the world is sixth on this list. The gap between Rodrigo and Ardiansyah Runtuboy is quite small, and Rodrigo's incredible performances this season could see him rise further in the future. Most of his followers are at Instagram – 375.000, with Facebook adding another 22.000 and Twitter 5.000 more.
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>>> Falcão and Rodrigo comment the Futsalplanet Awards
7. Amandinha – 378.000
The only lady on this list, but she takes a great seventh place in a very tough competition. Amandinha has been voted the best female futsal player in the world for incredible 7 times in a row by the Futsalplanet Awards jury and her social media following reflects that fact. A huge part of her audience is on Instagram - 356.000. With 17.000 fans on Facebook and 5.000 followers on Twitter adding to that, she secured the seventh spot on the list.
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8. Ferrão – 220.000
Experienced Barcelona pivot Ferrão makes the 8th place on this list. Current Champions League winner and best player in the world as voted by Futsalplanet Awards has almost all of his followers on Instagram. By our search results, he does not have an official Facebook page and his Twitter profile generates 4.000 followers.
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9. Hossein Tayebi – 207.000
Currently, the most famous Iranian futsal player and Benfica’s winger takes ninth place on the Top 10 most popular futsal players on the social media list. We couldn’t find Tayebi’s official Facebook page and he only made his official Twitter account in 2019 and has generated a little over 500 followers on it. However, his Instagram account has a whopping 206.000 followers which were enough to secure 9th place.
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10. Thiago Mendes Rocha "Guitta" – 174.000
Lurking close behind Tayebi, Brazilian and Sporting CP’s goalkeeper Guitta takes completes the Top10 list. Guitta spread his followers a bit more evenly as his Instagram account generates 103.000 followers. He has a strong following on Facebook where he has almost 70.000 fans, and his Twitter account generates additional 2.000 followers. Looked at individually, his Facebook profile alone would be fourth on this list.
🙏🏻🙌🏻💪🏻🦁 #c5action #comunicarelse #championsleague #futsal
Posted by Guitta on Friday, 15 January 2021
It is always possible that our ‘social media radar’ missed someone big from this list. If you happen to know someone that should be included here please don’t hesitate to send us a message – we’ll gladly update it.
