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Lionel Messi has cemented his status as an Instagram king, passing the 500 million follower mark, but he is still a long way behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, who continues to make history on the field, reached another notable landmark off the pitch when hitting half-a-billion followers on his social media channel of choice. He is just the second person on the planet to achieve that feat.

Eternal rival Ronaldo was the first, with the Portuguese icon topping the charts by some distance on 622m. Musician and actress Selena Gomez ranks third (429m), followed by Kylie Jenner (400m) and Hollywood film star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (397m).