LaLiga stars making waves on Weibo

Excitement, passion and fantastic football are served up by LaLiga every weekend. And these are not just enjoyed in Spain, because the competition is a big hit in all four corners of the earth. It isn't hard to find LaLiga followers anywhere in the world, from the Americas to Africa and Asia.

Indeed, a number of LaLiga stars are using Chinese social media to engage with Asian fans. LaLiga opened an official account on China's most famous social network, Weibo, as part of its commitment to getting closer to supporters across the planet, and this profile now has in the region of 250,000 followers. Many of the competition's players have followed suit.

Cristiano Ronaldo created his account on Weibo on 16 May and is already followed by over 350,000 users. Besides the Portuguese forward, fellow Real Madrid attackers James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale are among the members. The Welshman is the most popular of the three on the platform, with no fewer than 1.031 million followers. Atletico Madrid are also well represented, with Saul Ñiguez the latest to join the Weibo ranks on 27 May.

Other players such as Roberto Soldado, Alvaro Arbeloa, Esteban Granero and Gerard Pique have had a Weibo account since 2015. Buccaneering Brazilian full-back Dani Alves, meanwhile, is something of a trailblazer: he has been present on the site since way back in 2013 and has amassed more than 870,000 followers.