Lionel Messi celebrates reaching 500MILLION Instagram followers – but the Inter Miami star still trails rival Cristiano Ronaldo by 122m!

Lionel Messi has celebrated his latest social media milestone (500 million Instagram followers) by thanking his fans on the platform, even though the Inter Miami star is still trailing Cristiano Ronaldo by 122 million.

The 36-year-old Argentine is now the third most followed Instagram account in the world behind Instagram and Ronaldo’s own branded account. She surpasses third-place Selena Gomez by 71 million followers.

‘5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ Thanks a million for always being there!!’ shared as the caption of a video of all her posts shared over the past year on Instagram on Friday.

The 2022 World Cup winner reached new heights on social media after Inter Miami head coach Tata Martino warned that Messi is already showing signs of fatigue after the first two games of the MLS season. of the team.

To reduce the burden on the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, the club decided not to compete in this year’s US Open Cup, with only eight of the 26 American MLS teams willing to participate in the competition.

Houston beat Miami 2-1 in last year’s finals. Messi missed the game due to injury.

He and his Inter Miami teammates will look to continue their undefeated start to the 2024 MLS season when they host Orlando City on Saturday.

Miami (1-0-1, 4 points) opened with a 2-0 home win over Real Salt Lake on February 21.

The club followed up with a dramatic 1-1 draw at the LA Galaxy last Sunday in which Messi scored the equalizer in second-half stoppage time.

Almost inevitably, Messi combined with his former Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba to create a late score.

“It is true that they dominated the first half, especially in the period in which Riqui Puig had more time with the ball and made the team play very well,” Miami coach Tata Martino said through an interpreter.

“But then we had the personality to keep searching and we reached the tie, well, you could say with the genius of Leo.”