It may have been a while since Indian captain Virat Kohli scored a century on the cricket field, but off the field and on Instagram, he has joined a select list of personalities who have more than 100 million followers.
Kohli is the only cricketer to have achieved the social media milestone and also has more than three times the followers of MS Dhoni (30.4 million), who is the second most followed Indian cricketer on Instagram.
Elite List
He is also the fourth most followed sportsperson on Instagram after the superstar trio of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Neymar.
On Monday, Kohli joined Ronaldo, Neymar, Messi, Hollywood actor and former pro-wrestler Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson (220 million followers), American singer-songwriter Beyonce (167 million), and Ariana Grande (224 million followers) in the 100 million club.
In the most followed Indian celebrity list, Kohli holds the top spot and is ahead of Priyanka Chopra. The actress has a massive fan following of 60.8 million followers, while Deepika Padukone has 53.3 million followers.
Top Indian Earner
Kohli has yet again retained the top spot for a fourth year amongst Indians, as his brand value remains steady at $237.7 million in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Duff and Phelps study that was published last month.
According to the study conducted by the multinational consultancy firm based in New York, Kohli’s brand value rose by 39 percent to USD 237.5 million in 2019. Second on the list is Bollywood’s Akshay Kumar with a brand value of USD 104.5 Million – less than half of Kohli’s.
However, in terms of earnings from Instagram, Kohli has quite a way to go to reach the top of the charts. Cristiano Ronaldo (41.7 Million GBP) tops that chart by quite a distance and is followed by Lionel Messi (25.2 Million GBP). Kohli is fifth on that list.
Kohli was the only Indian in the top 10 list of highest-earning athletes in the world through sponsored Instagram posts during the lockdown, according to reports. He was sixth on the list, the figures for which were collected during the period between 12 March and 14 May, when the world literally shut down to stem the growth of the coronavirus outbreak. According to the list, Kohli earned a total of Rs 3.6 crore through his sponsored posts, raking in Rs 1.2 crore per post.
Kohli’s estimated annual earnings of USD 26 million due to a whole host of sponsorship and endorsement deals makes him the only cricketer ever to feature in Forbes, ranking 66th on their list of the 100 highest-earning athletes of 2020.
The Forbes list is headed by the likes of Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and LeBron James.
However, earlier in February this year, a report made by Spanish publication El Mundo stated that Messi's four-year contract with Barcelona is worth €555 million (£491m/$674m). His earnings amount to €138m (£112m/$167m) a season, based on the deal he signed with the Catalan team when he extended his contract in 2017. The report claims that Messi's current earnings make him the highest-earning athlete in the history of sport.
(With various inputs)
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