Robin van Persie becomes 10th most followed footballer on Facebook after Dutch striker helps steer Holland to World Cup knockout stages Robin van Persie becomes 10th most popular footballer on Facebook By ASHLEY CLEMENTS Robin van Persies goal scoring form at the 2014 World Cup has understandably seen his popularity soar as the Dutchman became the 10th most followed footballer on Facebook. The Holland striker has already bagged three goals in two games for Louis van Gaals side and can now celebrate picking up over 10million Facebook likes. Van Persie enters an impressive list of players to reach the landmark which has already been surpassed by the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar and Lionel Messi. Top 10: Footballers on Facebook 1. Cristiano Ronaldo - 87.2m likes 2. Lionel Messi - 59.1m likes 3. Ricardo Kaka - 29.2m likes 4. Neymar Jr - 28.2m likes 5. Wayne Rooney - 21.6m likes 6. Andres Iniesta - 20.4m likes 7. Mesut Ozil - 20.2m likes 8. Iker Casillas - 19.6m likes 9. Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 16.5m likes 10. Robin van Persie - 10.6m likes The Manchester United striker has picked up 642.2K Facebook likes in the past week as he helped steer Holland into the knockout stages of the World Cup with a game to spare. Spanish stars Iker Casillas and Andres Iniesta remain in the top 10 despite La Rojas shock World Cup exit which included a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Holland. Spain goalkeeper Casillas has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in Brazil after two poor performances but the Real Madrid legend still managed to gain an extra 307.7K likes over the past seven days. Under-fire England striker Wayne Rooney sits in fifth place with 21.6million Facebook fans even though the Three Lions have also crashed out of the summer tournament. Rooney recently took to his Facebook page to apologise to the England faithful for his sides poor performances which led to defeats against Italy and Uruguay in Group D. He wrote: Absolutely devastated to be out of the World Cup. Going into each game we had great belief in ourselves but unfortunately it hasnt worked out. Sorry to all the fans that travelled and at home that we havent done better...gutted! Unsurprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list with a whopping 87.2million fans on the social media network as his popularity increases despite being on the fringes during Portugals 4-0 defeat against Germany. The 29-year-old is currently a major doubt for Portugals second World Cup match against USA after pulling up with a knee injury during training last week. Read more: dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2664387/Robin-van-Persie-10th-followed-footballer-Facebook.html#ixzz35QYgOuMt Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 02:59:25 +0000