ARLINGTON, TEXAS – JUNE 17: Jude Bellingham #10 of England celebrates with Harry Kane #9 after scoring the team’s third goal during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group L match between England and Croatia at Dallas Stadium on June 17, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
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The FIFA World Cup is the biggest global sporting event outside of the Olympics for athlete brand growth across social media.
Ahead of this week’s semifinal matchups, I received social data around many of the World Cup’s top international stars as well as the U.S. men’s national team players to see which athletes captured fans’ attention from around the world.
Among some of the star footballers competing in the semifinals, England midfielder Jude Bellingham, who is still in contention for the Golden Boot with six goals, has seen his Instagram following surge nearly 15% from June 1 to July 13. That’s according to data provided to me by Zoomph, a social audience intelligence and sponsorship analytics firm. Bellingham, 23, has accumulated over six million new followers on the social media platform.
Spain’s teenage phenom Lamine Yamal has experienced more than an 8% bump on Instagram (over 3.5 million new followers), compared with England striker Harry Kane, who has added over 1.2 million (nearly a 7% bump) in the past six weeks, per Zoomph. Argentina star Lionel Messi, who recently reached billionaire status according to Forbes, added over 6.1 million followers on Instagram as his country aims to repeat in 2026.
Meanwhile, on the social media platform TikTok, U.S. searches for “Jude Bellingham” have increased 10-fold from June 11 to July 12 versus the previous period, while searches for “Harry Kane” have increased by over 136x, per data from the social media platform.
What USMNT Players Stand Out On Social Media?
USMNT defender Alex Freeman, who was the youngest player on the team’s World Cup roster, made headlines with his crucial goal against Australia in the group stage match, securing a U.S. berth in the knockout stage. During the World Cup, the 21-year-old has seen a massive spike in his Instagram following (over 425% bump), the most of any USMNT player on the platform.
Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and striker Folarin Balogun, who had a controversial red card overturned by FIFA ahead of the team’s Round of 16 match against Belgium, rounded out the top three players who saw the biggest growth as a percentage of their total followers. In terms of pure numbers alone, Balogun came in at No 1. with around 620,000 new followers, followed by Christian Pulisic (over 280,000), whose World Cup performance is already being seen by some as a cautionary tale for sports marketers.
On TikTok, Balogun and Pulisic have also both captured users’ attention and interest, with U.S. searches for the former having increased 7x in the past two weeks (June 29 to Jul 12 vs. the previous period), according to data from TikTok. Similarly, U.S. searches for “Christian Pulisic” have increased 36x since the tournament started compared with the prior time period.
Additionally, from June 11 to July 12, there’s been nearly a 29x uptick in both “USMNT” and “Team USA” searches on TikTok as the team’s World Cup exit in the Round of 16 sparked a youth soccer debate and a discussion about why the U.S. cannot advance further on the global stage.