Portugal’s national football team has lost more than 1.4 million Instagram followers within 24 hours amid the controversy surrounding captain Cristiano Ronaldo and head coach Jorge Jesus.
A check by Daily Trust on Friday morning showed that the official Instagram account of the Portuguese national team had dropped from about 24.9 million followers to 23.5 million.
The decline came shortly after Ronaldo left Portugal’s training camp in Denmark following a dispute involving the veteran forward and Jesus.
Ronaldo reportedly left the camp on Wednesday after speaking with Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença. He later confirmed his departure in an Instagram post, saying he would explain his reasons “in due time.”
The development followed Jesus’ decision to leave Ronaldo out of the starting lineup, with reports saying the disagreement escalated after the coach addressed the situation publicly. Ronaldo’s departure has since triggered widespread debate over his future with the national team.
The sharp fall in the team’s social media following has also been reported by Portuguese media. A Bola recorded a decline of more than 300,000 followers in less than 24 hours, while Portuguese broadcaster Renascença, citing HypeAuditor data, reported a drop of more than 370,000 followers to 24,631,902.
Comments reported by A Bola and Goal included users saying they followed Portugal because of Ronaldo.
Despite the controversy, Ronaldo remains one of the most-followed individuals on Instagram.
A check on his Instagram page on Friday showed that his followers were about 679 million.
(Daily Trust)
