Indian captain Virat Kohli is buzzing around after the heartbreak of the World Cup. The skipper is once again up and running, bouncing between his gym training sessions and turning up for different endorsements. During all of this, he doesn't forget to keep all his social media followers extremely interested. It is, hence, no surprise that Kohli is the only cricketer in the Instagram top 10 sporting 'Rich List' for 2019 as he takes the ninth spot worldwide.
Portugal and Juventus footballer Cristiano Ronaldo leads the way with Brazilian superstar Neymar and Argentina talisman Lionel Messi completing the top three. These results have been produced by HopperHQ.com (an Instagram scheduling tool), and it estimates that the Indian captain charges £158,000 (Rs 1,35,66,749) for every post and that makes him one of the highest-paid athletes on the picture-sharing social media portal.
At the time of writing this article, Virat Kohli had 36 million followers on Instagram which makes him one of the most popular sporting celebrity on the platform. He is also the number one ranked batsman in both ODIs and Tests and recently helped India reach the World Cup semifinal in England and Wales.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 173 million followers, and the five-time Ballon d'Or winner is the number one ranked athlete on the app. He charges a whopping £784,000 (Rs 6,73,49,082) per Instagram post.
Instagram top 10 'Rich List'
Cristiano Ronaldo (Football): Rs 6,73,49,082 per post
Neymar (Football): Rs 4,98,24,576
Lionel Messi (Football): Rs 4,47,35,925
David Beckham (Football): Rs 2,46,43,398
LeBron James (Basketball): Rs 1,88,04,544
Ronaldinho (Football): Rs 1,76,88,293
Gareth Bale (Football): 1,50,26,462
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Football): Rs 1,38,24,345
Virat Kohli (Cricket): Rs 1,35,66,749
Luis Suarez (Football): Rs 1,27,08,094
Kohli will now lead the Indian team in the tour of West Indies and after the exit in the semi-finals of the World Cup, the skipper wants his side to be ready and believe in their abilities at all times. He also believes that he has learnt a lot from his failures and setbacks and that, these things make him strong.
"I have learnt most in my life from failures and setbacks. The worst setbacks have not only motivated me but also improved me as a person, made me understand the importance of those times more than the success. It makes you sit down and think about what you need to do now, build a roadmap for yourself. Secondly, these moments show you the people who are going to stand by you in tough times and the people who will jump ship," the skipper said in a recent interview to TOI.
