The best of the best – Twitter’s greatest sports stars (Part one)
Last week we looked at tweeting in English football and how it continues to grab the headlines, the latest being the owner of Premier League club Newcastle United banning staff from tweeting about the club.
Matters weren’t helped when players Joey Barton and José Enrique criticised the club’s spending policy which lead to Barton being made available on a free transfer. The situation became so bad that manager Alan Pardew had asked Manchester United boss, Alex Ferguson for advice on how to deal with players on twitter.
So as the print media continues to use sports starts tweets as a source of ‘news,’ we’ve have decided to put together a comprehensive list of the biggest sports stars on the planet who use Twitter.
In the first part of a two-part blog, we have listed the top five biggest users of Twitter from the world of Soccer, Rugby, Golf, Formula One and Tennis. Although when we say the biggest users, we suspect that many of these accounts are handled by the player’s agents and their management companies.
During our research, we came across some interesting findings and we’ve also included a screenshot of what our top rankers so you can see what all the fuss is about. We hope you enjoy!
Football
It seems oddly fitting that the biggest tweeters from the beautiful game are from the Spanish League, given Spain’s dominance of world football at the moment, although many of the footballers on the list aren’t actually of Spanish descent.
At the top of the table is Brazilian Kaka has over 5.3 million followers, that’s more than the entire population of Ireland. In second place is his Madrid teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo, followed by Diego Forlan who plays for cross-town rivals, Athletico Madrid. Rio Ferdinand is the only Premier League player to make it into the top five.
@KAKA
Madrid
Bio: Um cristao, marido e pai. Que ama o futebol
Followers: 5,200,898
@Cristiano
Madrid
Followers: 3,642,834
@DiegoForlan7
Madrid
Bio: Goleador del Mundial 2010, disputa su tercer Copa América y es uno de los delanteros más importantes de la tabla de goleadores de Uruguay según DIRECTV Sports.
Followers: 1,578,219
@andresiniesta8
Barcelona
Bio: Andrés Iniesta Lujan, born in Fuentealbilla the 11th of may of 1984. Football player from the FC Barcelona in Spain.
Followers: 1,420,040
@rioferdy5
Manchester, UK
Bio: Official Twitter account of Rio Ferdinand
Followers: 1,329,319
Golf
Rory McIlroy has over half a million followers but only half of what Ian Poulter has.
Maybe it is the flamboyant golf pants that have Ian Poulter ahead on the golfing Twitter leader board as he is even ahead of the once mighty Tiger Woods. With these two over the million mark, Ireland’s Rory Mcilroy, Lee Westwood and Grame McDowell make the cut despite only reaching half a million followers at best.
@IanJamesPoulter
Bio: Global tour golfer, play pgatour & europeantour. Massive Arsenal fan and also Orlando Magic fan. Love all Sports, Cars, most of all love my Family time
Followers: 1,221,566
@TigerWoods
Windermere, FL
Bio: Official Twitter account of Tiger Woods
Followers: 1,140,205
@McIlroyRory
Belfast, Belfast GB
Bio: I hit a little white ball around a field sometimes!
Followers: 569,109
@WestwoodLee
Followers: 254,246
@Graeme_McDowell
Everywhere
Bio: Travelling the world playing a game I love. Doesn’t get much better.
Followers: 229,993
Rubgy
Brian O'Driscoll has only 74,000 despite being the most followed rubgy player in the world
In BOD we trust and in Twitter BOD trusts. Not only is Brian O’Driscoll Ireland captain, a Lion and central to Leinster Rugby, he also has the honour of biggest Rugby tweeter in the world. Despite this, his number of followers pale in comparison to other sports stars which implies that either rugby players don’t have the time or interest in tweeting or that rugby lacks the global appeal other sports have.
Although with the Rugby World Cup just around the corner, we suspect the number of followers for the sport’s bigger names will grow.
@BrianODriscoll
Followers: 74,510
@sebchabal Antony
Valence
Bio:Joueur de rugby, passionné de la vie
Followers: 50,978
@BryanHabana
Bio: Pro Rugby Player, Proud South African & Blessed Husband. Living Life To the Fullest while living my Dream!!!
Followers: 46,946
@JohnSmit123
Bio: Springbok Rugby Captain, Sharks Rugby – Husband,father and proud South African
Followers: 46,137
@QuadeCooper
brisbane
Bio: professional rugby player QLD Reds/Australia Wallabies tweeter commentator
Followers: 44,785
Tennis
Andy Murray is fourth behind the Andy Roddic and William sisters
Much like a few years ago, Tennis is dominated by the Williams sisters with younger sister Serena well ahead of Venus. Djokovic has still to build on his Wimbledon victory as he comes in at number five but most surprising is that neither Nadal nor Federer make the list.
@serenawilliams
Paris
Bio: Living, Loving, and working to help you. www.theswf.org
Followers: 2,161,770
@Venuseswilliams
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl
Bio: Tennis player, big sister, grown up girl. Double Tap!
Followers: 766,235
@andyroddick
Travelling
Bio: I play tennis. 
Followers: 669,403
@andy_murray
London
Bio: I play tennis.
Followers: 538,618
@DjokerNole
Bio: This is me, real me – Novak Djokovic.
Followers: 249,134
Formula 1
McLaren driver, Jenson Button is second with 507,973 followers compared to Barrichello 1,103,113
In pole position by a significant margin is Williams driver, Rubens Barrichello who has over twice as many as his nearest challenger, McLaren’s Jenson Button. In a tight contest at the back of the main group are Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Bruno Senna.
@rubarrichello
Bio: amante da velocidade e Pai do Dudu e Fefe
Followers: 1,103,113
@JensonButton
Guernsey
Bio: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 driver, Like putting myself through pain in Triathlons! Love my cat!;)
Followers: 507,973
@LewisHamilton
All over the place!
Bio: No faking, this is me. 26 years old, race F1. Family man, love my family, close to my boyz, enjoy travelling and adventures, music and movies. This is my life..
Followers: 365,402
@BSenna
Monaco
Bio: Lotus Renault Grand Prix 3rd Driver
Followers: 159,856
@AussieGrit
United Kingdom
Bio: Mark Webber here – F1 driver for Red Bull Racing. A big fan of sports, fitness and the great outdoors (as well as the occasional Xbox game!)
Followers: 159,502
Part two will be posted on the site next week and will feature the stars of Cricket, Gaelic games and American Sports.
