Top MLS Players With the Highest Social Interactions Among Fans

July was a very busy month for Major League Soccer, featuring El Tráfico, the crosstown battle between LA Galaxy and LAFC, as well as MLS All-Star Week. Also during July was the end of the Gold Cup tournament which included a number of MLS players. Between All-Star week and the Gold Cup, the players were busy making moves in our Top 10 rankings. We saw movement from two major players, Jonathan Dos Santos of LA Galaxy and MLS leading scorer Carlos Vela of LAFC, both entering the Top 10 this month after missing out in June. 

Jonathan Dos Santos Jumps 39 spots to #4

July was a very busy month for Mexico-native Jonathan Dos Santos. He and the Mexican National team started off the month facing the US Men’s National Team in the Gold Cup final. Dos Santos’ goal in the final was the decision-maker, sending Mexico home with the Trophy. Dos Santos’ post-championship tweet accumulated over 90K likes and 11.5K retweets. A few weeks later LA Galaxy took on LAFC with Dos Santos and LA Galaxy edging out LAFC 3-2. After the game, Dos Santos tweeted a video proclaiming LA as theirs. The tweet garnered 283K views making it one of his most popular posts of the month.

Carlos Vela in the Top 10 Once Again

After missing out on the Top 10 in June, Carlos Vela found himself back in the mix at number 9. As the league’s leading scorer, Vela was featured as the Captain of the MLS All-Star team who took on Atletico Madrid this month. His tweet promoting the All-Star game in Orlando garnered 15K likes and was his most popular tweet of the month.

Wayne Rooney stays Number One 

Wayne Rooney has consistently found himself not just in the Top 10, but the Top 3 of all MLS athletes in the Hookit Top 10 Most social interactions for Major League Soccer. With 62 posts and 4.7M interactions, he finds himself at the top of the table once again. Rooney found himself on the MLS All-Star Team with two other European Legends Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Their picture together at the game collected 409K likes on Instagram, Rooney’s second most popular post of the month. His most popular post of the month, with 2.5 million video views, came again from the MLS All-Star Week action, an Instagram video of Rooney finishing a cross from Carlos Vela.

Wrap Up

Between the international Gold Cup tournament at the beginning of the month and all of MLS’s biggest stars on one field at the end of the month, Hookit’s MLS Top 10 Most Social Interactions saw new faces and some old faces. Dos Santos’ goal in the Gold Cup and LA Galaxy’s victory in El Tráfico allowed him to jump 39 spots this month! Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Raul Ruidiaz, and Josef Martinez round out the rest of the top 5 with Ibrahimovic at #2, Ruidiaz at #3, and Martinez coming in at #4. Of the players in the Top 10, seven made an appearance in the MLS All-Star game that took place on July 31st. 

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Written by Sophia Leksan

Sophia studied Information Systems at Loyola Marymount University while being a member of the D1 Women’s Soccer team. She is currently studying to earn her Master’s of Sports Administration at Northwestern University. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer and exploring Chicago.