By the Numbers: The Start of the 2019-2020 European Soccer Season

For international soccer fans, August marks the beginning of a year filled with excitement, surprises, and, for some, heartbreak. We’re a couple of weeks into the season and with the transfer window closing, let’s take a closer look at how noteworthy moments of the past month translated on social.

Transfers

The biggest storylines happened off the field, surrounding the transfers of esteemed, international players. We picked a couple of players, including Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann, and Harry Maguire, to see how their summer moves impacted their social followings.

Both Coutinho and Griezmann gained more than 2 million followers since the beginning of the transfer window on June 1 — gaining 9% and 7% respectively. On the other hand, Harry Maguire gained 1.05 million followers, but on a percentage basis earned an astounding 135% more followers. For a stalwart defensive center back, Maguire’s social following certainly took an attacking approach (*insert chuckle*).

Leagues Revel in the Glory

Each season’s starting fixtures generate an air of excitement for fans, leagues, pundits, and teams around the world. With all title races up for grabs on the first day, teams like Manchester City and Barcelona look forward to defending their titles, while teams like Everton and Athletic Bilbao dream of pulling a “Leicester City” and earning a domestic title.

We took a look at the top five leagues in Europe, as well as the participating teams within those leagues. The Premier League and its teams generated over 420 million engagements in the first three weeks of August, a 99% year-over-year increase. Here’s where your favorite league landed:

While the Premier League leads in total engagement, we wanted to see what league drove the highest percentage of total engagement on a relative basis. Ligue 1 (France) and LaLiga (Spain) lead the way, both driving at or above 20% of the engagements earned. 

Let’s see how leagues, teams, and players continue to create content throughout the season. With hundreds of millions of sponsorship dollars invested in the leagues and teams, those willing to tailor their content for fans and partners will certainly flourish.