Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney tops chart of UK athletes with most Twitter followers

Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney tops chart of UK athletes with most Twitter followers. Credit: @WayneRooney

England and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has become the most popular British athlete on social media by going past the 10 million followers mark on Twitter.

The social network released the figures to mark Rooney hitting the milestone, which also revealed that 74% of Rooney's followers are based outside of the UK.

The United and England number 10 is now the fifth most followed footballer globally, with Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo leading the way with 30 million followers of his official account.

Rooney is the first Premier League footballer to reach 10 million followers.

Despite playing for Manchester United, London is the city with the highest volume of Rooney followers, and Twitter revealed that 29% of those following Rooney's official account also do the same with pop star Katy Perry.

Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney. Credit: Martin Rickett/PA Wire

The US singer remains the most popular account, with more than 58 million followers.

Rooney now sits ninth on the list of most followed British Twitter users, with One Direction's Harry Styles top with just over 22 million followers.

Also in the top five are Adele and actress Emma Watson, as well as Styles' One Direction bandmates Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson.