BARÇA'S Andrés Iniesta has overtaken pop legend Alejandro Sanz as the Spaniard with the most followers on Twitter, although the now-ex president of Catalunya, Carles Puigdemont, holds the record for the politician with the most mentions on the social media site in 2017.
Of the five Spaniards with the highest numbers of followers, FC Barcelona's Iniesta takes the top spot with 20.3 million – just under half the population of Spain, which is currently around 46.5 million.
Alejandro Sanz – famous for his two duets with Colombian pop-rocker and 'footballer's wife' Shakira – has 18.5 million followers, and Shakira's partner, Iniesta's team-mate Gerard Piqué, is third with 17 million.
World number one tennis star Rafa Nadal has 15.1 million, and dance-pop chart-topper Enrique Iglesias, son of crooner Julio, has netted 13.9 million.
These figures were released yesterday (Tuesday) as part of a global study of the popular social media platform which revealed that several records have been broken this year.
The most-retweeted message in history is Carter Wilkenson's #NuggsForCarter, which has even beaten Ellen DeGeneres' famous Oscars' selfie.
Wilkenson's post tagged the world-renowned US fast-food chain, Wendy's Burgers, and read: “Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?”
Wendy's replied, “18 million,” and Wilkenson said: “Consider it done,” then set up the hashtag with the caption: “Help me please. A man needs his nuggs.”
Global records for the highest numbers of followers include American and Canadian singers Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, who have topped 100 million.
Iniesta, however, would need to double his number of followers to beat the Pope, who currently has 40 million.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com