The forward Endrick, scorer of the winning goal for the Brazilian national team against England this Saturday (23), by 1×0, at the legendary Wembley Stadium, may have been the Brazilian athlete who gained the largest number of followers on social media in just 24 hours. From the day of the match to this Sunday (23), he gained 315,000 new fans, with 215,000 on Instagram and 100,000 on TikTok.
For comparison, other key figures from the Brazil vs. England match gained far fewer followers within those 24 hours. Looking solely at Instagram, Vini Jr. gained 56,064 new fans; Jude Bellingham (63,723), Rodrygo Goes (27,143), Lucas Paquetá (25,560), and Phil Foden (8,140).
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Among other sports, police, and entertainment personalities, Endrick also stands out. The president of Palmeiras, Leila Pereira, who heads the Brazilian delegation in the European friendlies and gained prominence for strongly condemning Robinho and Dani Alves, gained 9,654 new followers.
The driver Carlos Sainz, winner of the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, gained 40,977 followers. The participant and one of the favorites to win this year’s Big Brother Brasil program, Davi, had 19,748 new fans in the last 24 hours. The U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, 8,600 followers. The singer Xamã, 7,347 followers.
Currently, Endrick has 11 million followers – to be more precise, 10.856 million. There are 7.861 million on Instagram, 2.7 million on TikTok, and 295,000 on Twitter.
“With the call-up to the main Brazilian National Team, Endrick has started to attract interest from an audience that is not interested in football clubs or young players with great potential in development. He now appeals to an audience that only follows the Brazilian National Team and those athletes who believe they will be associated with him for a long time, or even permanently. It is a new wave of growth in his number of followers that will continue until May when a significant leap is expected just before the squad announcement for Paris,” Thiago Freitas, COO of Roc Nation Sports in Brazil, analyzes.
A significant portion of this social media growth occurred since his debut in the Palmeiras first team in October 2022 and his subsequent negotiation with Real Madrid in Spain – at that time he had 1.9 million followers.
Of the current 10.019 million followers, over 1 million of these new fans were gained between December and January, culminating with the Brazilian Championship title, the presentation with his new sponsor Neosaldina, trips to Boston in the United States for activities with NBA athletes and the Red Sox baseball team, and a visit to Real Madrid.
“Endrick’s rapid growth on social media occurs for several reasons such as on-field performance, career and image management, charisma, and being beloved by all fans. Social media is an important asset for the athlete. It is undoubtedly one of the points that companies consider when deciding whether to sponsor a professional or not. Therefore, the more engaged followers he has, the more attractive he becomes,” explains Fábio Wolff, managing partner at Wolff Sports, the exclusive agency for managing sponsorship and image contracts for the player.
Manchester United post and Real Madrid’s most viewed video in 2023
On Sunday (24), the official Manchester United profile – which has no connection with Endrick – made a post mentioning the player in reference to Endrick’s statement after the match against the English team. “I’m a fan of Bobby Charlton; he’s a guy who played a lot here at this stadium. Being able to play and score in a stadium where he scored many goals is very important to me,” he said. The mention of one of England’s greatest idols is because Endrick plays with the Briton on his team in EAFC’s Ultimate Team mode, the main game in the sector. The post already has thousands of likes and comments.
In 2023, Endrick had already gone viral worldwide with a video of his trip to Madrid, meeting coach Carlo Ancelotti and his future Real Madrid teammates at the training center posted on December 16, 2023. The post was the most viewed on Real Madrid’s Instagram in all of last year with 67.1 million views.
To give an idea of its magnitude, the video surpassed the views of four other posts that achieved good numbers on the Madrid club’s Instagram last year.
The institutional video ‘Madridistas is Here. Follow us’ from April 2023 reached 66.3 million views.
A video of Chilean Joselu Mato’s goal from July reached 52.1 million views. A video of Jude Bellingham saying “Buenas noches amigos. Hala Madrid!”, which later became a meme on social media and WhatsApp groups, reached 50.9 million views.
Before that, the record was held by the video Brazilian MAGIC! 🇧🇷 ¡MAGIA brasileña!, featuring a recording between Ronaldo and forward Rodrygo from February with 46.4 million views.
In the Top 5 is also the video of forward Arda Guler’s presentation in July with 45.9 million views.
According to Fábio Wolff, these numbers already point to global interest surrounding him. “This is the most viewed content so far considering all those posted by Real Madrid in 2023. The numbers show and prove that interest in Endrick is enormous in Madrid and around the world,” he explains.
“It is a very pleasant surprise not only for us but for everyone at the club and in the Spanish press. Something like this has never happened with such a young athlete at any club. We are facing something new in several aspects. New for Brazilian athletes, new for media professionals, new for sponsors, and new for clubs of Real Madrid’s stature from the top tier worldwide who are dealing for the first time with such early communication and influence phenomena,” Thiago Freitas analyzes.
