For the Top 10 Nigerian footballers, social media serves as a crucial platform to connect with fans, enhance their public image, and pursue various commercial opportunities.
Which Nigerian players have amassed the biggest social media following across the four major platforms — X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and TikTok — to boost their popularity, though?
Below, we rank the top 10 Nigerian footballers in ascending order.
Top 10 Nigerian footballers by social following
- Wilfred Ndidi- 1,033,400 followers
- Kelechi Iheanacho- 1,190,862 followers
- Ademola Lookman-1,358,700 followers
- William Troost-Ekong- 1,633,800 followers
- Odion Ighalo- 2,108,634 followers
- Victor Boniface- 2,784,600 followers
- Ahmed Musa- 3,469,800 followers
- Alex Iwobi- 3,998,000 followers
- Assisat Oshoala- 6,461,800 followers
- Victor Osimhen- 7,293,700 followers
Wilfred Ndidi
- X: 226.2k followers
- Instagram: 736k
- Facebook: 14k
- TikTok:1,033,400
It is on Instagram and X that Leicester City's Wilfred Ndidi generates the overwhelming majority of his social media following to feature in the Top 10 Nigerian footballers. TikTok brings in 57,200 and Facebook another 14,000.
Kelechi Iheanacho
- X: 354.7K
- Instagram: 809k
- Facebook: 27k
- TikTok-162
Iheanacho, until last summer Ndidi's teammate at Leicester, sprinkles a surprisingly low TikTok following of 162 on a far more impressive 809,000 from Instagram, 354,700 from X, and 27,000 from Facebook. Iheanacho still has the numbers to earn a spot in the top 10 Nigerian footballers.
Ademola Lookman
- X: 269.9k
- Instagram: 953k
- Facebook: 56k
- TikTok: 79.8k
The reigning African Footballer of the Year has, needless to say, soared in popularity courtesy of his exploits in the past year. His Instagram following stands at 953,000, and he rakes in almost 270,000 on X. Lagging a good distance behind those are his numbers on TikTok (79,800) and Facebook (56,000).
With these numbers, Lookman, undeniably deserves a place in the top 10 Nigerian footballers.
William Troost-Ekong
- X: 203.7k
- Instagram: 499k
- Facebook: 719k
- TikTok: 212.1k
The AFCON 2024 MVP, who plays in the Saudi Pro League, is yet to notch a million on any of the platforms, but his figures still make for pretty great reading. Troost-Ekong is just shy of 500,000 followers on Instagram, but he has over 700,000 on Facebook, with his following on X and TikTok numbering in the low 200,000s.
Odion Ighalo
- X: 901.4k
- Instagram: 1.2 million
- TikTok: 7,234
Thirty-five year-old Ighalo, also Saudi-based, conspicuously lacks a presence on Facebook, but he more than makes up for that with some solid numbers elsewhere: 1.2 million on Instagram, 901,400 on X, and a little more than 7,000 on TikTok.
Victor Boniface
- X: 532.6k
- Instagram: 1 million
- Facebook: 1.5 million
- TikTok : 855k
Boniface has not been in the spotlight long, but most Nigerian fans would agree his social media content is such great fun to engage with. The Bayer Leverkusen man's light-hearted posts keep his 532,600 X followers regularly amused, and that number can only increase as his profile grows.
Some 885,000 also follow him on TikTok and 397,000 on Facebook, but — as with the majority of those on this list — it is on Instagram (1 million) that Boniface has acquired the most following.
Ahmed Musa
- X : 356.6k
- Instagram: 1.6 million
- Facebook: 636k
- TikTok: 877.2k
The Super Eagles’ substantive captain may have declined in relevance for the national team and even at club level, but he remains considerably popular with the fans, with 1.6 million following him on Instagram alone.
Approximately half that number follow Musa on TikTok, while, on X and Facebook, he commands a combined total of nearly a million followers.
The Kano Pillars man made the list of top 10 Nigerian footballers by social media.
Alex Iwobi
- X: 885.7k
- Instagram: 1.4 million
- Facebook: 1.5 million
- TikTok : 212.3k
Just about 2,000 followers short of hitting the 4 million mark is Fulham's Alex Iwobi. The midfielder is just one of two players on this list whose largest fan-bases exist on Facebook (Troost-Ekong the other), where Iwobi enjoys the following of some 1.5 million.
His Instagram followership is just about 100,000 fewer, with X coming in at 885,700, and around 212,300 on TikTok. Iwobi is number three on the top 10 Nigerian footballers by social media.
Asisat Oshoala
- X: 461.8k
- Instagram: 1.2 million
- Facebook: 3.8k
- TikTok: 1 million
Next on the list is Oshoala, by most metrics the most successful women's footballer to have ever come out of Africa.
With all that success has, quite reasonably, come a lot of fame and admiration, reflected in the sheer numbers she pulls on social media: 1.2 million on Instagram, 1 million on TikTok, 461,800 on X, plus a smattering of Facebook friends.
With her massive fanbase, no ranking of the top 10 Nigerian footballers by social media following would be complete without the ‘Agba Baller.'
Victor Osimhen
- X: 1.3 million
- Instagram: 5.7 million
- Facebook: 180k
- TikTok: 113.7k
The Napoli forward — on loan at Galatasaray — tops this ranking quite easily, given you would struggle to find a more popular active Nigerian footballer than the 2023 African Footballer of the Year.
The bulk of Osimhen's followership is found on Instagram (5.7 million), followed by X (1.3 million), Facebook (180,000), and TikTok (113,700). Osimhen is ranked number one in the top 10 Nigerian footballers by social media following.
