by top line
Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s tweets have dominated the platform since he took over as owner last month, but his posts last week were dwarfed by Cristiano Ronaldo. cheep in terms of popularity, with the soccer star sharing what is already considered an iconic image of himself engaging in a game of chess with rival Lionel Messi.
A combination of two images taken on December 4, 2010 shows (FromL) Real Madrid’s Portuguese … [+]
key facts
The tweet, posted on Saturday, shows an advertisement for French fashion brand Louis Vuitton photographed by famed American photographer Annie Leibovitz, showing Messi and Ronaldo playing chess on top of a Louis Vuitton briefcase.
As of Wednesday, the tweet had attracted more than 1.9 million interactions, including more than 1.7 million likes and around 215,000 retweets, according to data compiled by social media tracking firm NewsWhip.
The image was also immensely popular on Instagram, where it was shared by both Ronaldo and Messi: Ronaldo’s Instagram post has amassed over 39 million likes, while Messi’s has nearly 30 million.
The second most popular tweet last week was from Musk, who said “Twitter is ALIVE” on Saturday night, drawing nearly 1.6 million interactions, while a tweet from rapper Kanye West, whose account was banned after he made anti-Semitic comments, read: “Testing, testing, seeing if my Twitter is unlocked”, followed as the third. -most popular in the last week, with more than 1.25 million interactions.
Musk was responsible for five of the eight most popular tweets this week, according to NewsWhip.
However, the billionaire’s tweet from a survey asking users whether to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account surpassed Ronaldo’s post in terms of retweets alone, drawing more than 233,000 compared to just over 215,000 for the game of Ronaldo-Messi chess (Musk continued to the end). in the tweet and unbanned Trump over the weekend).
key background
Ronaldo shared the image on the eve of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, which is expected to be the last major tournament featuring Ronaldo, 37, and Messi, 35. The two are widely regarded as one of soccer’s greatest players. of all. time, while their similar ages and sustained high levels of performance have sparked a seemingly endless debate over which player is the best of his generation. The rivalry, which has been cordial, has persisted even after fading from a height between 2009 and 2018, when Ronaldo played for Real Madrid and Messi played for arch-rival club Barcelona in Spain’s La Liga; both players regularly broke goalscoring records during that time. .
amazing fact
Neither Messi nor Ronaldo have won a World Cup, and both won their first continental titles with their national teams recently. Messi won the Copa América with Argentina last year, while Ronaldo won the Euro Cup with Portugal in 2016.
what we don’t know
It is unclear where Ronaldo will play after Portugal’s World Cup run ends. Ronaldo is without a club after he and Manchester United agreed to terminate his contract by “mutual consent” after the striker rebuked the organization’s management in an interview last week.
Tangent
Musk has been heavily promoting the World Cup on Twitter. in a cheep On Friday, he said: “First game of the World Cup on Sunday! Watch on Twitter for the best coverage and real-time commentary.”
Other reading
The money behind the most expensive World Cup in history: Qatar 2022 in numbers (Forbes)
Cristiano Ronaldo will leave Manchester United by ‘mutual consent’ (Forbes)
Musk’s Trump Twitter Poll Reaches 14 Million Votes: Most Want Former President To Return To Platform (Forbes)
