Brazil 2014: Neymar rakes in 15m fans, winning World Cup of Twitter and Facebook

The Twitter and Facebook audiences of Brazilian striker Neymar Jr saw larger increases than those of any other World Cup player during the event; he landed 15m new fans (a 44% increase) from 12/06 to 10/07/2014. The player for FC Barcelona (who is under contract with Nike) has 55.5m fans/followers in total.

Neymar suffered a fractured lumbar vertebra during the Brazil-Colombia quarter-final (2-1 on 04/07/2014), and is to have 40 days of rest. He was therefore unable to play in the semi-final against Germany (Brazil was defeated 1-7 on 08/07/2014) nor against the Netherlands for third place (Brazil was defeated 0-3 on 12/07/2014) in Brasilia.

Another Brazilian, the future Paris SG defender David Luiz (Nike) got the second largest social media fan base, with 12.5m new followers/fans, an increase of 138%, for a total of 23m. AS Monaco midfielder James Rodriguez (Adidas) of Colombia -- who scored six goals during the tournament -- finished third with 10.2m new fans/followers since 12/06/2014 (up 201%).

Despite Portugal's elimination in the first round, Cristiano Ronaldo (Nike) saw a…