Cristiano Ronaldo's 154 Million Lead Over Lionel Messi is Turning Heads

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been pitted against each other for the majority of their football careers, with their respective fans often debating why one is better than the other.

When Messi led Argentina to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, many believed that he had settled not only his rivalry with Ronaldo but also the debate about the football GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). After all, the sport's biggest and most important trophy was the only silverware missing from his legendary career.

Aside from his astonishing individual career highlighted by his record eight Ballon d'Or awards, Messi was also successful at the club level with four Champions League wins and 10 Spanish La Liga titles with Barcelona, as well as a French Ligue 1 trophy with Paris Saint-Germain.

Ronaldo, for his part, has five Ballon d'Or trophies and five Champions League titles. He has also won the English Premier League with Manchester United three times, La Liga with Real Madrid twice and the Italian Serie A with Juventus twice. Nonetheless, CR7 has yet to win the FIFA World Cup with Portugal.

Lionel Messi's Instagram following pales in comparison to Cristiano Ronaldo.

Yukihito Taguchi-Imagn Images / Kai Pfaffenbach-Reuters via Imagn Images

Despite that, there's one area where Ronaldo has often beaten Messi: online popularity.

Ronaldo is undoubtedly one of the most famous athletes in the world, and his social media following speaks volumes about how popular he is.

As Bleacher Report posted on Thursday, Ronaldo remains the most-followed athlete on Instagram with 660 million followers. Messi, on the other hand, pales in comparison with just 506 million followers — a difference of 154 million.

Sure enough, Cristiano Ronaldo's massive following and huge lead over Lionel Messi got fans buzzing, with many praising the Portuguese striker.

"Wait if more people follow Ronaldo does that make him better than Messi?" a fan asked. Another one stated, "154 million people more know CR7 is the goat and not fifa princess pessi."

"Streets know Ronaldo the real [GOAT]," a commenter added.

"Ronaldo damn near has the same amount of followers as instagram itself.." a fourth supporter shared in disbelief.

"Ronaldo is the goat," a social media user remarked.

A poster noted, "Messi & Cr7<<<< Rest of the athlete." Another follower wrote, "There is Cristiano and then there are rest."