Lionel Messi surpasses Cristiano Ronaldo in having the most liked Instagram post by a sportsperson

Lionel Messi has enjoyed another small victory over Cristiano Ronaldo by claiming the most liked Instagram post by a sportsperson following Argentina’s World Cup final win on Sunday night.

In the aftermath of Argentina’s thrilling penalty shootout win over France, the PSG star took to Instagram to post 10 pictures of the celebrations in Qatar.

In the 17 hours since he uploaded it, Messi’s post has racked up a staggering 44.6 million likes.

Lionel Messi has the most liked Instagram post by a sportsperson with over 44 million likes

Messi’s post has amassed almost 43,800,000 likes since he uploaded it on Sunday night

Messi accompanied the post with a caption that read: ‘WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!! I dreamed it so many times, I wanted it so much that I still haven’t fallen, I can’t believe it……

‘Thank you very much to my family, to all who support me and also to all who believed in us. We demonstrate once again that Argentines when we fight together and united we are capable of achieving what we set out to do.

‘The merit belongs to this group, which is above individualities, it is the strength of all fighting for the same dream’.

 Messi’s post surpassed the number of likes received by Cristiano Ronaldo’s upload last month

It surpassed Ronaldo’s post from last month – an advert for Louis Vuitton ahead of the World Cup in which the Portuguese star and Messi were seen playing chess that had accumulated 41.9 million likes.

Ronaldo is still the most-followed person on Instagram though, with a staggering tally of 519 million. 

Last month he became the first person ever to reach 500 million followers on the social media site.

The Portuguese star leads the way in terms of followers with Messi a clear distance behind in second on 399 million – the two are the only athletes inside the top 10.

Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, Dwayne Johnson, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Khloe Kardashian and Justin Bieber complete the top 10.

Messi still has some way to go, however, if he is to have the most liked Instagram post overall. 

Messi was jubilant after he helped Argentina to secure glory in the World Cup final  on Sunday

That record is held by Chris Godfrey, who uploaded a photo of an egg in January 2019.

The photo ended up getting 56.1 million likes, with the aim of surpassing the then-most liked Instagram post, a picture of Kylie Jenner’s daughter which had 18.6 million likes. 

Ronaldo got 32.6 million likes in October 2021 for the announcement that his partner Georgina Rodriguez was pregnant, while Messi’s post of his advert with Ronaldo got 32.2 million likes.

Messi had a huge impact in the final in Qatar as he scored twice, while he also converted his penalty in the shootout.