The transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo attracted the interest of millions of fans to Al-Nassr in Riyadh, Lionel Messi boosted PSG’s already high attendance figures in the French Ligue 1 by an average of a third and the arrival of Luis Suarez it brought Gremio an average of 200,000 more fans per game. Directthe Italian version of the network Flashscorewhich provides real-time scores, statistics and other information, reveals how a star player can enormously shift the interest of fans towards a football club and increase the attendance of spectators at matches.
The Cristiano Ronaldo Effect
Since his transfer in December Cristiano Ronaldo has significantly influenced the ratings of Riyadh’s Al-Nassr. Before the arrival of CR7, the number of views in the so-called three-day window on the Flashscore network was around 200,000 users. The very first match after the transfer changed everything. Over 5,000,000 users have followed her on Flashscore.
This was mainly due to their opponents, none other than the PSG of Messi, Mbappe and Neymar. But regular Al-Nassr numbers have also increased, from 1.5 million to 2 million users. Ronaldo’s presence has obviously had a major impact on Saudi Arabia’s league numbers, especially with increased traffic from Portugal and Brazil. Al-Nassr forms a large part of these statistics.
Messi the PSG
Messi’s move to PSG is a slightly different story, as PSG were already a much better known team globally than Al-Nassr. Despite this, Messi’s first game for PSG, in August 2021 against Reims, attracted 9 million users, which generated almost 30 million views in a three-day window. An increase of around a third on the usual basis, which PSG have consistently maintained since then. With Messi in the squad, the average number of Flashscore users who follow PSG matches is 6.41 million. Before Messi’s arrival they were 4.41 million.
Suarez to the Guild
Earlier this year, Brazilian side Gremio welcomed new signing Luis Suarez, who moved from Uruguayan club Nacional on a free transfer. And the move has started to pay off, on and off the pitch. The average number of fans who attended a Gremio match (in the three-day window) in the Gaucho league increased by almost 50% year-on-year, from 427,000 to 630,000.
Stars attract attention, no matter how many goals they score and where.