Last week, we took a look at the Instagram followings of the England women’s world cup 2023 squad. We found that 4 players had, at that time, over half a million followers and the average (mean) number of followers for a member of the squad was 279,574.
These social profiles could be big business for players. Recent influencer marketing statistics show that a quarter of young people have bought a product after seeing a celebrity endorse it on social. And brands know. So partnerships could absolutely supplement the (frankly not yet high enough in comparison to the men) wages the women get.
But is this the same for all squads at the World Cup?
England beat China today in a thrilling 6-1 stunner to top their group and book their place in the last 16. They’ll face the runners up from group B. That’s Nigeria, who stunned hosts, Australia, with a 3-2 victory on the 27th July.
So this has the potential to be a tough game for the Lionesses.
Once again, we’ll let the pundits pit the players on the pitch and we turn our attention to their Instagram followings.
Nigeria Women’s World Cup Squad on Instagram
Here are all the profiles and Instagram follower counts for the Nigeria squad at the 2023 World Cup.
We couldn’t find accounts for 4 members of the squad at all. And at first glance the thing we notice is that there are significantly fewer followers across most of these accounts than the Lionesses have. This is despite Nigeria having some four times the population of England.
But some things to bear in mind:
- The UK (not just England) has an estimated 35 million Instagram users
- Nigeria has an estimated 12 million
In other words, the UK has three times the Instagram users. This goes some way to explaining smaller followings.
Also, women’s football has gained significant traction and is enjoying greater funding an prominence in England than in many other places in the world.
The 1 Million Follower Player
At the time we looked at the profiles of the Lionesses, the wonderful Lucy Bronze was the most followed player, with 577,000 followers.
However, Nigeria boasts in its squad a player with 1 million Instagram followers – Asisat Oshoala.
With the help of her incredibly popular account, the average for the Nigerian Squad’s 19 players with profile is 92,924.
We’d expect followers to increase with Nigeria in the final 16. And if they do knock the Lionesses out of the competition and march onto the quarters, perhaps more prominence will follow.
Good luck, Nigeria!
