Ahead of Champions League final Leo Messi scores Facebook friends

With the Champions League final on May 28 fast approaching, FC Barcelona footballer Leo Messi is climbing up the Facebook charts, attracting over three million new fans this week alone.

English football club Manchester United are due to face Spanish rivals FC Barcelona in the final of the European football completion - The Champions League - on May 28 at Wembley, however ahead of the game one player has already seen his Facebook popularity climb rapidly.

Argentinean Leo Messi, widely acknowledged as one of the best players in the world, has, over the week prior to May 20, attracted 3,315,671 new Facebook fans, and is this week's biggest riser on Facebook.

The nearest page to Messi's in terms of "fans this week" is the Facebook application Snaptu which improves a phone's ability to run internet sites such as Facebook; Snaptu attracted 530,147 fans over the past week.

The football maestro who plays as striker or winger for Spanish team FC Barcelona has proved a Facebook favorite since he first opened his social networking account on April 6 and broke records by attracting over six million fans in 24 hours.

As of 10:30 GMT May 20, Messi had a total of 13,994,559 Facebook fans; the closet comparable sports star is Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo who currently has a total of 26,037,399 fans but attracted the affections of only 416,331 Facebook users this week.

Messi's Facebook page can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/LeoMessi
Cristiano Ronaldo's Facebook page can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/Cristiano

Currently, betting company Ladbrokes give Barcelona odds of 4/9 to win, while Manchester United are at 13/8.

More information about the Champions League can be found via the UEFA at http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html