Argentina progresses in COPA America, Messi's popularity grows

(AFP PHOTO / SEBASTIEN FEVAL)

As the COPA America progresses, Argentinian striker Leo Messi continues to grow in terms of Facebook popularity, having attracted over a million fans in the past seven days.

This year the South American football championship runs July 1-24 in Argentina. The tournament is held between the ten teams in the South American region and two invited guest teams - this year, Costa Rico and Mexico.

Leo Messi, widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, helped set up two of the three goals in Monday's game against Costa Rica, which ended 3-0 and saw Argentina progress to the quarter finals.

As the tournament continues with Argentina in it, Messi's online popularity continues to grow; according to social media analysts Famecount, Messi gained 53,000 fans on July 11 alone and 1,106,049 new fans in the past seven days - more than any other Facebook page.  
 
A further example of Messi's online popularity can be seen in a Facebook post written by the footballer on July 12 thanking his fans; the message attracted over 48,000 'likes' in just seven hours.    

Despite gaining more new fans than any other Facebook page over the seven days prior to July 12, Messi is still around 10 million Facebook fans behind Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo - who is currently the most popular athlete on Facebook with over 30 million fans.

As of July 12, the top five Facebook pages with the largest increase in number of fans this week, according to Famecount.com are:

01.   Leo Messi (+1,106,049 fans)
02.   Facebook (+736,911 fans)
03.   Harry Potter  (+700,343 fans)
04.   Shakira  (+625,865 fans)
05.   The Lion King   (+618,499 fans) 

For information about the COPA America see: http://www.ca2011.com
Watch the tournament live on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/CopaAmerica