Lionel Messi breaks Cristiano Ronaldo's Instagram record with Copa America trophy post

While Cristiano Ronaldo may be the world's most popular athlete on social media, Argentine star Lionel Messi has set a new record, surpassing his former Spanish league counterpart. Messi's most recent Instagram post featuring his first international silverware has received more than 20 million likes, making it the most liked post shared by an athlete on the social media platform. For comparison, Ronaldo is the most followed personality on Instagram and has 315 million followers. Messi, on the other hand, has only 233 million followers. 

Last week, Messi had shared a picture on Instagram with the Copa America trophy post-Argentina's win against Brazil. The picture has since amassed 20,104,532 likes on Instagram, over 1 lakh more likes than Ronaldo's most-liked post. "What a beautiful madness !!! This is amazing, thank you God !!! WE ARE CHAMPIONS THE SHELL OF YOUR MOTHER !!!!!! Come on, damn it! #Let's go Argentina," Messi had captioned the post. 

Ronaldo had set the record in November 2020 with his tribute post for Diego Maradona. The post has since garnered 19,839,477 likes on Instagram. "Today I lost a friend, and the world lost an eternal genius. One of the greatest of all time. Unrivaled majesty. Departed too soon, but left a legacy without bounds and a void that will never be filled. Craque, rest in peace. You will never be forgotten," Ronaldo wrote in his tribute post for Maradona. 

Messi wins his first international cup 

Messi lead Argentina to the Copa America title win for the first time in 28 years, which is also the footballer's first major international trophy since he started playing the sport professionally. The Messi-led Argentina beat Brazil 1-0 in the final of Copa America, which took place on July 10 in Rio e Janeiro. Messi finished the tournament as a top-scorer alongside Colombia's Luis Diaz. Meanwhile, Ronaldo-led Portugal failed to defend its title in Euro 2020 as the side was knocked out of the tournament prematurely. 

(Image Credit: LionelMessi/Insta/AP)