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Cristiano Ronaldo had 9 of top 10 most-liked sports Instagram photos in 2017

By Alex Butler
The bust of Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo pictured during a naming event at Madeira's airport on March 29 in Santa Cruz, Madeira Island, Portugal. File Photo by Gregorio Cunha/EPA
The bust of Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo pictured during a naming event at Madeira's airport on March 29 in Santa Cruz, Madeira Island, Portugal. File Photo by Gregorio Cunha/EPA

Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Athletes had another big year on Instagram, especially soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Real Madrid striker, who won his fifth Ballon d'Or award on Thursday, had nine of the 10 most "liked" sports-related photos on Instagram in 2017.

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Data for the findings covered a span from Jan. 1 through Nov. 17.

Ronaldo's Nov. 12 photo of himself, his girlfriend, son and newborn baby was liked more than 11 million times. Another one of his baby photos from the year, this one including his newborn twins, was liked more than 8 million times. Ronaldo's third most-liked photo also featured his family and was liked more than 7 million times.

Neymar had the fourth most-liked Instagram photo, at 6.5 million. That photo was posted on Halloween and features the Paris Saint-Germain star wearing a Joker costume.

A Alana Martina acaba de nascer! Tanto a Geo como a Alana estão muito bem! Estamos todos muito felizes! ❤️

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A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on

When it came to sporting events, Super Bowl LI took first place for the most-discussed on the social media platform. The NBA Finals ranked second in showing up in captions, in comments on posts or in Instagram stories this year. Wimbledon, the World Series and El Clásico Madrid rounded out the top five most talked about events.

Joker 🃏

A post shared by Nj 🇧🇷 👻 neymarjr (@neymarjr) on

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Ronaldo also had the most-liked sports video, with a Sept. 28 post of his Bugatti Chiron. That post had more than 20 million likes. Leo Messi's farewell video to Neymar was the second most-liked sports-related Instagram video, at 14.9 million likes. Ronaldo has seven of the top 10 liked videos in that department, while Messi had the other three.

Ronaldo has more than 116 million Instagram followers. He gained the most followers on the social media platform in 2017, finishing ahead of Messi, Neymar, Conor McGregor, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gareth Bale, Paul Pogba, Paolo Dybala, LeBron James and James Rodriguez.

Dodger Stadium was the most geotagged sports venue in the world. Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu and the Staples Center were also in the top five for the most geotagged locations to watch sports. Madison Square Garden, Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, the Staples Center, Barclays Center, AT&T Park, Citi Field and Angel Stadium of Anaheim were to top geotagged sports venues in the United States.

Neymar, Ronaldo, Dybala, LeBron James and Karim Benzema had the most views on Instagram stories this year.

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