The North West dominates the English league of “most marketable footballers,” according to an analysis of number of Instagram followers, plus average monthly Google searches and and TikTok hashtags, carried out for 430 Premier League players carried out by marketing platform Ahrefs.
Eight out of the top 10 players were North West-based, with seven of them from Manchester, according to Ahref’s analysis. Outside of Manchester, only Liverpool’s Mo Saleh, ranked second and no doubt spurred on by his huge popularity in the booming, and youthful, Middle East market, and one player each from Spurs and Arsenal made the cut.
Erling Haaland was ranked as the most marketable player in the Premier League, with a score of 23.82 by Ahref’s metrics, which awarded points out of 10 on each of the three platforms studied. The Manchester City striker placed higher than any other player due to 2.5m average monthly searches worldwide, over 1.5m more than his nearest competitor, Declan Rice. TikTok posts using #ErlingHaaland also total 184,100, while the player has garnered an Instagram following of over 38m.
Second-placed Salah ranked top for Instagram followers with 63.3 million, over 25 million more than the second-highest, Erling Haaland. The forward also proves popular on TikTok, with posts using #MoSalah reaching 202,100, while searches for the player average 603,000 per month.
Kevin De Bruyne placed third among the Premier League’s most marketable players, scoring 14.47 out of 30. De Bruyne is the third most-followed player in the league on Instagram, with over 26 million followers, behind Salah and Haaland. Searches for the midfielder average 714,000 every month, the seventh highest of any player.
Manchester United’s highest entry was midfielder Mason Mount. Despite significant injury issues, Mount ranked high thanks to monthly searches and the highest number of TikTok posts. Approximately 238,200 posts have been shared on TikTok using #MasonMount, more than any player in the Premier League. Meanwhile, Google searches for the midfielder are the fifth highest, cementing Mount’s position as the most marketable English player in the Premier League.
In fifth place, Spurs’ Richarlison finally breaks the North West monopoly with a score of 12.98 out of 30.
It was back to United for sixth spot, with Casemiro’s legion of over 20m Instagram followers the seventh-highest following of any footballer in the league alongside global Google searches of an average 534,000 per month.
Manchester City’s World Cup winner, Julian Alvarez, is seventh, with over 16m Instagram followers, an average 495,000 monthly searches. Posts on TikTok under #JulianAlvarez total 187,200, the fourth highest among footballers in the league.
London makes a second appearance in eighth spot, with Kai Havertz the only Arsenal player to make the top 10.
Finally, the top 10 was rounded out by Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes in ninth, and cross-town rival, Stockport Iniesta and England darling Phil Foden in 10th spot.
Fernades was the third most popular player on TikTok, with users sharing 189,400 posts under #BrunoFernandes, along with over 9m followers on Instagram and 436,000 monthly searches worldwide, while Foden, the 2023/24 Premier League Player of the Season, was the second most-followed English player in the league on Instagram behind Marcus Rashford, with 12.3 million followers. The six-time Premier League winner also averaged 462,000 monthly searches in the last year.
Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs, said: “Despite only spending two seasons in the league, record-breaking Erling Haaland is the Premier League’s most marketable asset. Non-English players dominated the ranking, with Haaland being among eight foreign players in the top 10.
“Manchester seems to be the home of the Premier League’s most marketable players, with seven of the top 10 playing for a Manchester club. Manchester City’s dominance in the Premier League has directly resulted in greater marketability, with the club ranking top as the most marketable team in the league, averaging more Instagram followers, global monthly searches, and TikTok posts per player than any other.”
