RICHARLISON’s acrobatic goal against Serbia is the biggest social media moment of the World Cup so far, new research has revealed.
The study by sports betting site Nostrabet analysed tweets from the official @FIFAWorldCup Twitter account to discover which of its football-related posts since the opening day of the tournament have had the most combined likes, re-tweets and replies.
A photo of Richarlison’s spectacular overhead volley against Serbia in the group stage is the tweet that has generated the most engagement so far, racking up 284,837 likes, 39,259 re-tweets and 1,894 replies. The text reads, simply “WOW #FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022”.
The second most engaged World Cup tweet came from Argentina’s opening goal against Croatia in the semi-final, and simply names the scorer of the penalty. “LIONEL MESSI” generated a total of 315,176 reactions, including 282,290 likes, 3,442 replies, and 29,444 re-tweets.
The tweet with the third most total engagement from FIFA’s official account is from the opening day of the competition, Sunday 20 November, and says one single word “Today”, without any image or video attached. The minimalist post generated an impressive 267,275 likes, 39,074 retweets and the most replies of any tweet in the list – 4,157.
The fourth biggest tweet pays tribute to Luka Modric, hailing him as a World Cup legend, and has accumulated a total of 280,755 reactions.
Morocco’s goalkeeper Bono is the subject of the fifth most popular World Cup tweet. The post was published on Tuesday 6th December following Morocco’s penalty shootout victory over Spain in the round of 16. It features images of Bono saving a penalty, and waving to the crowd, with the text reading “THE HERO” followed by emojis of a crown and the Moroccan flag, and has generated a total of 277,344 reactions.
The sixth biggest tweet is another single word post, “History”, which came after Morocco’s history-marking quarter-final win over Portugal, and produced a combined total of 272,170 replies, likes and re-tweets.
Seventh place goes to a tweet which read “Japan beat Germany”, marking the group stage upset. It received a total of 243,986 reactions, including the highest number of retweets, with 44,343.
The top ten is rounded out by a picture of Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal dancing with his mother on the pitch after victory over Portugal in eighth, emojis of the Argentina and France flags confirming the match-up for the final in ninth. In tenth place is the phrase “This is football” which came after the Netherlands’ dramatic two goal comeback against Argentina in the quarter final.
Commenting on the study, a spokesperson for Nostrabet said: “The World Cup is reaching a climax and soon fans will start feeling nostalgic about the action at the tournament, so it’s fascinating to take a look back and see which moments made the biggest impact at the time. Richarlison’s goal is definitely one of the best this World Cup has seen, so it’s a worthy winner, while there were plenty of upsets, shocks and great performances to fill up the top ten.”
The study was conducted by Nostrabet, a betting community site with sports experts at its core. Its team is compiled of professionals experienced in online sports betting acting as a trusted guide for the world of online bookmakers, odds and bonuses.
