Virat Kohli tied at third spot with Neymar Jr in most followed sportspersons on Instagram

Team India skipper Virat Kohli has been one of the most influential sportspersons in the last few years and has succeeded in creating the maximum number of followers for himself on Instagram along with the modern-day football greats Cristiano Ronaldo and his long-term rival Lionel Messi.

Lately, Virat Kohli has become the joint third-most followed sportsperson on Instagram and he is tied with another modern-day football icon.

Virat Kohli Instagram

As of Sunday, October 24, Virat Kohli became the third most followed sportsperson on the social media platform. However, he is not the only athlete to occupy the third position and has Brazilian as well as Paris-Saint  Germain (PSG) forward Neymar Jr for company. The duo has 163 million followers on Insta. 

In March this year, Virat Kohli created history by becoming the first Indian to cross the 100 million followers mark on Instagram. The Indian captain managed to beat the likes actors Priyanka Chopra, Shraddha Kapoor,  Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, and Akshay Kumar to reach the milestone.

Six months later i.e. in September, the batting megastar became the first Asian celebrity to reach 150 million followers on Instagram.  As per Hopper HQ, Kohli is the highest-ranked Indian celebrity on Instagram and charges over INR 5 crores for every promotional post he puts out on Insta.

The 'Captain Fearless' is currently leading Team India in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup  2021. The inaugural edition's winners will kickstart their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Virat Kohli will be stepping down as the Indian team's T20 captain after the conclusion of the showpiece event. Kohli has relinquished RCB captaincy. He had led the three-time finalists to the playoffs in the recently-concluded IPL 2021 where they were knocked out by the eventual finalists KKR in the Eliminator. 

Most followed sportsperson on Instagram

While Virat Kohli and Neymar Jr jointly occupy the third spot, the top two spots are occupied by the fierce football rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi respectively. While Messi is at the second spot with 277 million followers, the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup winner takes the 'Numero Uno' spot with 359 million followers.