In football, the most followed athlete in the world on social networks is Cristiano Ronaldo with 239 million followers on Instagram: five-time Golden Ball, winner of 5 Champions League, all the major league titles and champion of Europe with Portugal.
In basketball it is LeBron James with 72 million. He won the NBA title 3 times and was Olympic gold twice: in Beijing 2008, and in London 2012.
And in volleyball?
Well …the ranking of the most followed volleyball players on the planet is a bit unusual, and it’s probably not what you expect.
In the first places there are in fact emerging countries, off the radar of the high level, far from Olympic triumphs, but which are strong on hundreds of thousands of fans.
Drumroll…
At first place, Saeid Marouf – 1.8 million
Yes. The volleyball player with the most followers in the world on Instagram is the Iranian setter, known for his thick beard and golden hands.
Honestly, would you have guessed it?
This makes us understand how Iran, certainly not the most populous country in the world, is crazy about volleyball. Despite some rules that still prevent many women from accessing the sports halls.
Furthermore, Iranian athletes hardly go out to play outside the borders of their state.
The second is Alyssa Valdez – 1.3 million
The most followed female volleyball player on the planet on Instagram is Alyssa Valdez, star of the Philippines. 1 meter and 75 in height.
Archipelago of South East Asia, inhabited by 100 million people, the Philippines is a country that gives a lot (really a lot) importance to volleyball. The fields are set up in every corner, built also with fishing nets and lines for drying clothes.
They are also the country where in 1916, while Europe was busy destroying itself with the First World War, the technical gesture of the spike was invented.
The three-touch rule is also their invention: it was created following a tournament in which the members of a team had passed the ball between themselves 52 TIMES before throwing it over the net (yes, really 52 times). The local volleyball committee was forced to invent a ruse to ward off that delirium.
Why then has the Philippines, with so many practitioners, never excelled in volleyball?
Basically for genetic reasons: despite having a great jump, they are one of the lowest average populations in the world!
But the height does not stop their passion.
At third place, Bruno Mossa de Rezende – 1.1 million
Here, finally, a face known also to the world public. Bruninho, Brazilian setter, perhaps the most titled volleyball player in the world (who still plays), climbs to the third step of the podium of followers on Instagram. He is certainly backed by Brazil, a nation of over 200 million inhabitants, where football is a religion, but volleyball definitely has its importance too.
Pleumjit Thinkaow – 1 million, is at fourth place.
And let’s start with the oddities again.
After the Philippines, here is a high country that freaks out with volleyball: Thailand.
Middle-blocker (only 1.80 meters) and captain of the national team, Pleumjit has never played in Europe. However, she is an absolute star in South East Asia.
Thailand, which like the Philippines has to deal with the modest average height of its players, has made the acrobatic game its strength: very complicated attack patterns, orchestrated by setter Nootsara Tomkom, to evade the opponent’s block.
But apparently this is not enough.
Other unsuspected players also have a million followers, at least for us Westerners: the Iranian central Mohammed Mousavi in fifth place and the Kazakh Sabina Altynbekova in sixth (especially for non-sports merits). And then the Brazilian Jaquline Carvalho, two-time Olympic champion. The first Italian on the list is opposite Ivan Zaytsev, with 800,000 followers on Instagram. For France, Earvin Ngapeth has 296.000 followers while Jenia Grebennikov 177.000. Japanese Yuki Ishikawa has 257.000 followers on Instagram, German superstar Georg Grozer “only” 27.100 and 19.000 for Dutchman Nimir Abdelaziz.
But, honestly, how important are followers for sport? And not only? Nothing at all, and on this (I hope) we all agree. In sport, above all, the actual technical value of the athlete always counts, and the impact he has had on the discipline.
And, in my opinion, it should really be like this …
Source: FIVB.