Did you know that Cristiano Ronaldo is the most followed footballer on Twitter, with over 15 million fans?

Football – or soccer, if you’re stateside – is the most popular sport on the planet, and players and teams from all around the world use the micro-blogging social network to engage with and inform fans… sometimes with very mixed results.

Yep, many soccer stars are just as likely to put their foots in their mouths as they are against a ball on a pitch, and the results can be costly – Newcastle United star Joey Barton was fined a hefty (and very appropriate) £140,000 for criticising his team on Twitter. Still, that’s only two weeks wages, so it’s safe to say that he coped.

This infographic takes a look at football’s impact on Twitter, and vice versa.

(Source: Neomam, Unibet. Football image via Shutterstock.)