Messi surpasses Ronaldo in having the most liked IG post by a sportsperson

Lionel Messi has overtaken Cristiano Ronaldo in having the most liked Instagram post by a sportsperson with over 43 million likes.

The Argentine star took to Instagram after playing a key part in his nation's victory over France in the World Cup final.

After finally getting his hands on the coveted trophy, Messi uploaded a post including ten images of him and his team-mates celebrating.

Messi accompanied the post with a caption which 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 has received over 43.7million likes in just 17 hours.

It surpassed Ronaldo's post from last month which was an advert for Louis Vuitton ahead of the World Cup in which the Portuguese star and Messi were seen playing chess. That post got 41.9million likes. That post got 41.9million likes.

Ronaldo is the most-followed person on Instagram with a staggering tally of 519million. Last month he became the first person ever to reach 500million 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 399million - 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.

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

The photo ended up getting 56.1million likes, with the aim of the upload having been to surpass the then-most liked Instagram post, a picture of Kylie Jenner's daughter which had 18.6million likes.

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

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