Twitter’s most hyped World Cup star is not Messi or Ronaldo

Can you believe it? The first week of the 2018 FIFA World Cup is already over. The ol’ onion bag has ballooned numerous times, and many a goalkeeper wish they had coated their gloves in glue.

But the most searched for World Cup star is not a goalkeeper, nor does he have “Cristiano” or “Lionel” on the back of his shirt.

Instead, according to Twitter Data, Brazil’s Neymar has “captured the most attention” on the social network during the first week.

In second place, Cristiano Ronaldo (thanks to his hattrick against Spain) and Lionel Messi (thanks to his duffed penalty against Iceland) are ranked second and third respectively.

In fourth, Neymar’s Brazilian compatriot Philippe Coutinho charts, while French talisman Antoine Griezmann is fifth.

Now that football fans have had a chance to see every #WorldCup squad play, which players are capturing the most attention on Twitter? 👀 our ranking of who’s been most Tweeted about thus far. pic.twitter.com/4cA4VPD6oh

— Twitter Data (@TwitterData) June 19, 2018

England’s Harry Kane, Colombia’s James Rodriguez, France’s Paul Pogba, Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku and finally Egypt’s Mo Salah prop up the rest of the top ten during the tournament’s first week.

Feature image: Alex Fau via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY)