Ronaldo is first sport star to 50m Facebook likes

Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first sports star on the planet to get 50 million 'Likes' on Facebook.

The Portuguese superstar has his fair share of detractors - many see him as fantastically arrogant and irredeemably smug, traits which are only exacerbated by constant comparisons to Barcelona's relatively humble genius, Lionel Messi.

But it seems that plenty of you out there forgive those foibles and absolutely love the Real Madrid forward - or at least, you like him enough to click a small icon on a social networking website. His tally means that one in 20 people who use Facebook have 'liked' the 27-year-old.

Ronaldo is 11.5 million 'likes' ahead of his nearest sporting rival, Messi, on 38.5m, while David Beckham is third on 21 million.

But it is Ronaldo who is the only one giving the world's other biggest stars a run for their money. He has three million more 'likes' than Justin Bieber (46.9m) and Katy Perry (47.9m), for example, but trails overall leader Rihanna. The Jamaican singer is locked in a close battle for top spot, apparently: Eminem beat her to the 60m follower mark last month, but Rihanna is now ahead on 61.8m against the rapper's 61.5m.

Shakira (55.2m), Lady Gaga (53.3m) and Michael Jackson (52m) are the only other people above Ronaldo, unless you count Harry Potter on 50.9m.

Fourth on the list of sports stars is Michael Jordan, on 20.5m, while ronaldo's Real Madrid team-mate Kaka is fifth on 18.7m.

Kobe Bryant (14.1m), WWE wrestler John Cena (13.6m) and LeBron James (12.5m) take the next three spots, with Roger Federer next on 11.7m just half a million ahead of 10th-placed Rafa Nadal.

Maria Sharapova is the highest-placed woman in 13th place on 8.4m, one place behind Usain Bolt (9.4m) and just ahead of Sachin Tendulkar (8.3m) and Steven Gerrard (7.5m).

Source: EuroSports