Barça's Iniesta: The Spaniard with the most Twitter followers

BARÇA'S Andrés Iniesta has overtaken pop legend Alejandro Sanz as the Spaniard with the most followers on Twitter, although the now-ex president of Catalunya, Carles Puigdemont, holds the record for the politician with the most mentions on the social media site in 2017.

Of the five Spaniards with the highest numbers of followers, FC Barcelona's Iniesta takes the top spot with 20.3 million – just under half the population of Spain, which is currently around 46.5 million.

Alejandro Sanz – famous for his two duets with Colombian pop-rocker and 'footballer's wife' Shakira – has 18.5 million followers, and Shakira's partner, Iniesta's team-mate Gerard Piqué, is third with 17 million.

World number one tennis star Rafa Nadal has 15.1 million, and dance-pop chart-topper Enrique Iglesias, son of crooner Julio, has netted 13.9 million.

These figures were released yesterday (Tuesday) as part of a global study of the popular social media platform which revealed that several records have been broken this year.

The most-retweeted message in history is Carter Wilkenson's #NuggsForCarter, which has even beaten Ellen DeGeneres' famous Oscars' selfie.

Wilkenson's post tagged the world-renowned US fast-food chain, Wendy's Burgers, and read: “Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?”

Wendy's replied, “18 million,” and Wilkenson said: “Consider it done,” then set up the hashtag with the caption: “Help me please. A man needs his nuggs.”

Global records for the highest numbers of followers include American and Canadian singers Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, who have topped 100 million.

Iniesta, however, would need to double his number of followers to beat the Pope, who currently has 40 million.

The highest number of 'likes' for a tweet went to one published by former US president Barack Obama against racism – which read, “No-one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion...” - and the most memes tweeted were based upon the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.

Barcelona's terror attacks led to a record for the highest number of hashtags about a tragedy, with #NoTincPor ('I'm not afraid') being the most-shared, followed by other 'support' hashtags such as #MeToo for women who have suffered sexual harassment and abuse, and several showing solidarity with victims of natural disasters, with transsexuals, and with the homosexual community.

In Spain, the most-retweeted message of the year was the one published by the National Police on August 17, reading: “Out of respect for the victims and their families, please do NOT share pictures of those injured in the #Ramblas attack in Barcelona,” and which was shared by over 100,000 Twitter users.

The second-most retweeted message in Spain, shared 85,687 times, was that written by reporter Jordi Évole on October 1, the day of the disputed referendum in Catalunya: “Those who came up with this plan to prevent the referendum probably don't realise that what they have actually caused is for Catalunya to leave today for good.”

On the same day, netting 74,000 retweets, was reporter Dani Mateo's message: “I would like to have seen the police entering Génova [the PP's national headquarters on Madrid's C/ Génova] every bit as robustly to confiscate papers and hard drives which have been destroyed with total legal immunity.”

Mateo was referring to the police action on Catalunya's referendum day in the context of the 'slush fund' allegedly held by former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, whose computer hard drive was formatted before the court was able to examine it.

The most mentions on Twitter in Spain this year have been Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) for politics, slightly ahead of PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon), president Mariano Rajoy (@Marianorajoy) and Podemos' founder Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias).

Also, the Twitter site for the National Police was, in general, one of the most-mentioned accounts.

Spanish politicians were not among the world's most-mentioned, however – this honour went to US president Donald Trump (@RealDonaldTrump), his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (@Narendramodi).

Celebrities with the most mentions include Columbian singer Maluma, who caused controversy and 'sexism' accusations with his hit single Cuatro Babys, plus pop favourites Alejandro Sanz, Pablo Alborán and David Bisbal.

The most-mentioned sports personality worldwide so far in 2017 is Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, although he is beaten in this respect in Spain by Barça's Gerard Piqué.

The most-used sports hashtag is #HalaMadrid, and Spain's top two football teams hold the world number one and two spots for the highest numbers of Twitter followers – Real Madrid has 27.8 million and FC Barcelona has 26 million.