Chloe Kelly, Leah Williamson: Which Euro 2022 stars gained the most social media followers? | OneFootball

Euro 2022 has undoubtedly changed the women’s football landscape massively.

Record crowds watched some of the biggest names in the world represent their countries, and the best part is, people are now genuinely interested in learning more about the players.

Thousands have been bitten by the women’s football bug and the proof is in the new social media followers gained by the players.

Since the opening Euro 2022 match at Old Trafford, the competing countries gained more than 3.1 million new Instagram followers combined.

Here is a breakdown of which players received the most followers, according to bettingexpert.com data.

Who gained the most followers during Euro 2022?

Leah Williamson gained the most new followers of any player during Euro 2022 with a huge 151,850. After leading her side to their first ever major trophy and ending England’s 56-year wait for silverware, who wouldn’t want to find out more about the Lionesses captain?

Just behind Williamson is Germany’s Giulia Gwinn, who pulled in 150,900 new followers, closely followed by Chloe Kelly with 135,378.

The England and Manchester City star wrote her name in history by scoring the winning goal against Germany in the Euro 2022 final. Kelly went viral after she whipped off her shirt and recreated Brandi Chastain’s iconic celebration at the 1999 Women’s World Cup.

England made up the rest of the top five players with the most new followers. Alessia Russo was fourth with 117,885 and Beth Mead fifth with 92,819.

Both Lionesses also played huge roles in winning the European title. Russo proved she was the perfect super substitute after bagging four goals from off the bench throughout the tournament.

Mead completely blew the competition away by winning the Golden Boot and the Player of the Tournament award.

Who are the most followed women’s footballers from Euro 2022?

Following the new surge of Instagram activity, the Netherlands, England and Spain are the three countries with the highest followed players from Euro 2022.

Dutch star Lieke Martens sits way out in front with 1.3 million followers. Ada Hegerberg is in second but with a significantly lower amount of 734,000+.

Despite the huge amount of new followers gained by England players, only one Lioness is in the top ten most followed players on Instagram.

Williamson’s 150,000+ boost has seen her leapfrog Lucy Bronze as England’s most followed female player and eighth overall from Euro 2022.

Here are the top ten most followed Euro 2022 players:

Players within the top 20 include England duo Bronze and Fran Kirby with 308,000 and 292,000 respectively, Aitana Bonmatí of Spain (274k) and Pernille Harder of Denmark (228k).

The growing appetite for women’s football is only just getting started and with the 2023 World Cup around the corner, we can expect even more eyes on the game than ever before.