From Salah to Haaland: Premier League stars with the MOST fake Instagram followers

As the Premier League draws to a close, fans can keep up with their favourite players by following them on social media, but follower counts aren’t always what they seem.

Interested to find out which players potentially have the most fake followers, the experts at SeatPick took to Transfermarkt to source the 100 best-performing Premier League players by market value, and then used Modash to calculate an estimate of their fake followers.

Highlights from the research:

• Liverpool favourite Mohamed Salah potentially has over 12.8 million fake Instagram followers, the most of all Premier League players.
• Man United defender Raphael Varane is second, with over 6 million potential fake Instagram followers
• Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling has the least of the top 10, with over 2.7 million fake followers.
• On the club’s side, Manchester United’s Instagram account has the most fake followers, with almost 14 million.
• Brentford has the least, with only 105,300 estimated fake followers.

The players with potentially the most fake followers

#	Player		Instagram handle	Club	Instagram followers	Estimated no. of fake followers	% of fake followers
1		Mohamed Salah	mosalah	Liverpool	59,373,661	12,854,397	21.65%
2		Raphaël Varane	raphaelvarane	Manchester United	21,623,392	6,028,602	27.88%
3		Erling Haaland	erling.haaland	Manchester City	29,287,177	5,983,370	20.43%
4		Kevin De Bruyne	kevindebruyne	Manchester City	21,884,304	5,663,658	25.88%
5		Casemiro	casemiro	Manchester United	21,041,375	5,087,804	24.18%
6		Gabriel Jesus	dejesusoficial	Arsenal	21,767,567	5,019,601	23.06%
7		Richarlison	richarlison	Tottenham	22,182,372	4,731,500	21.33%
8		Harry Kane	harrykane	Tottenham	14,483,578	3,794,697	26.20%
9		Marcus Rashford	marcusrashford	Manchester United	15,565,284	3,692,085	23.72%
10		Raheem Sterling	sterling7	Chelsea	10,421,378	2,755,412	26.44%

SeatPick can reveal that the player with potentially the most fake followers is Liverpool midfielder, Mohamed Salah. He boasts a whopping 59 MILLION Instagram followers (more than Liverpool itself) but according to data from Modash, 21.65% of these are fake, equating to over 12 million followers. 

Close behind him in second place is Manchester United player Raphaël Varane. Varane has over 60% fewer followers than Salah (21,623,392) but almost 28% of these are fake (6,028,602) meaning he may only have over 15 million real Instagram followers.

In third place is Manchester City centre-forward Erling Haaland, who boasts over 29 million Instagram followers, but over ⅕ of these may be fake (5,983,370) meaning his real follower count may be over 23 million followers.

At the bottom of the top 10 is Chelsea star Raheem Sterling who has the least number of fake followers, equating to 2,755,412 (26.4%) of his over 10.4 million followers, meaning he has a legitimate follower count of over 7.6 million.

The clubs with potentially the most fake followers

#	Club	Instagram Handle	Instagram followers	Estimated no. of fake followers	% of fake followers
1	Manchester United	manchesterunited	61,740,470	13,854,561	22.44%
2	Manchester City	mancity	42,788,703	10,555,973	24.67%
3	Chelsea	chelseafc	39,910,361	9,774,047	24.49%
4	Liverpool	liverpoolfc	42,263,093	9,513,422	22.51%
5	Arsenal	arsenal	26,248,244	6,464,942	24.63%
6	Tottenham Hotspur	spursofficial	15,392,827	4,128,356	26.82%
7	Leicester City	lcfc	7,431,118	239,727	32.26%
8	Everton	everton	2,877,381	853,431	29.66%
9	West Ham	westham	2,746,233	805,470	29.33%
10	Aston Villa	avfcofficial	2,925,297	784,564	26.82%
11	Wolverhampton Wanderers	wolves	2,369,916	617,126	26.04%
12	Crystal Palace	cpfc	1,644,510	552,884	33.62%
13	Southampton	southamptonfc	1,291,186	425,058	32.92%
14	Newcastle United	nufc	1,699,955	386,909	22.76%
15	Brighton and Hove Albion	officialbhafc	982,000	287,922	29.32%
16	Fulham	fulhamfc	756,306	257,673	34.07%
17	Bournemouth	officialafcb	695,933	251,370	36.12%
18	Leeds United	leedsunited	1,162,424	213,072	18.33%
19	Nottingham Forest	officialnffc	776,782	170,037	21.89%
20	Brentford	brentfordfc	389,281	105,300	27.05%

The club with the most fake followers is Manchester United. The club’s official account has over 61 million followers, but almost 14 million (22.4%) are believed to be fake.

Coming in second is fellow Manchester side Manchester City whose official Instagram page boasts over 42 million followers. However, 24.6% of these may be fake, or over 10.5 million followers.

In third is Chelsea. The Blues’ Instagram page has almost 40 million followers, but 24.4% (9,774,047) of these could be fake.

The club with the most genuine follower count is Brentford who may only have 105,300 (27%) fake followers.