Analysing which players are most and least loved by their fans during Euro 2024, according to social media reactions.
With Euro 2024 underway in Germany, the events that have unfolded on the field so far have given fans plenty of reason to both celebrate and despair depending on which nation they follow.
No fan would’ve wanted to be in the shoes of Scotland goalkeeper Angus Gunn after he conceded a record number of goals (5) for an opening match in the European Championships versus Germany.
Some embarrassment was also shared in that game by Germany's Antonio Rudiger, after heading into his own net and contributing to one of the six own goals scored before the group stage of Euro 2024 had even concluded. Own goals are well on course to finish as the top scorer at Euro 2024.
And, just as on-pitch events fluctuate in favour of either team, so do the opinions of fans who are watching the action unfold.
Our research
We have analysed more than 162,000 fan reactions to social media posts about footballers during Euro 2024 to reveal which of them are most and least loved. We focused on content about players that was posted from accounts within each of their home countries. We then ranked players on having the highest and lowest % of fans who left a love emoji (😍) in response to posts about them.
Key findings
Marc Guehi and Jude Bellingham are the England players that are most loved by their fans at Euro 2024
Harry Kane and Kyle Walker are the least loved England players at the tournament, according to their own fans
Outside of England, Netherlands defender Nathan Ake and Portugal's Bernardo Silva are the most loved by their home countries
Germany number one Manuel Neuer and Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai are the least loved by their fans at Euro 2024
Crystal Palace’s young defender is the most loved in England's Euro squad
With just 14 England caps to his name, Marc Guehi is already loved by 77% of England fans, according to the responses to him on social media. This is the highest of any England player who has played at Euro 2024 so far.
Despite concerns before the Euro 2024 began over who would be a capable replacement for Harry Maguire, Guehi has excelled as a partner for John Stones in central defence so far with a Sofascore rating of a least 7 in each of England's group games.
Real Madrid’s number 10 Jude Bellingham is also one of England’s favourites (74% of fans love him) after his match winning goal against Serbia in the 13th minute that was followed by a dominant midfield display for the game’s duration.
Harry Kane has been shown the least amount of love so far from England fans online with fewer than one in five (19%) love reactions in response to him. This comes despite the England skipper opening the scoring against Denmark with a coolly taken finish.
During Euro 2024, Gareth Southgate has experimented with Trent Alexander-Arnold as a midfield partner to Declan Rice and played him in his more natural position at right-back. In both positions, he has struggled to put his stamp on games with his usual delectable range of passing. This may explain why he is only second to Harry Kane in terms of how little love (35%) he's been shown by England fans.
Nathan Aké leads the rest of Europe as the most loved by his nation's fans
Outside of England, Nathan Aké has received the most love (89%) from his home nation's fans despite mixed results during the Netherlands' Group D matches.
The Netherlands impressed the whole of Europe after holding France to a goalless draw in their second group game. However, an entertaining 3-2 defeat to Austria in their final group match took their opportunity to progress to the next stage of the tournament out of their hands and reliant on other results to go their way.
Aké's national team mate Wout Weghorst also ranks within the top 10 most loved players in Europe after his late goalscoring heroics against Poland in their opening match of the tournament.
Elsewhere among Euro 2024's most loved players outside of England is Nicolai Stanciu (3rd place) with 85% of fans showing the Romania captain love on social media. Stanciu caused his nation to erupt 29 minutes into their opening Group E fixture against Ukraine with a sweetly struck goal from 20 yards, which he later called the goal of his career.
Among notable household names such as Kevin De Bruyne (6th) and Cristiano Ronaldo (7th), Albania's Qazim Laçi ranks as Europe's 10th most loved player with 72% of fans showing him love. Although Albania failed to progress out of their 'group of death' that also consisted of Spain, Italy and Croatia, Laçi provided Albania fans with one of their tournament highlights when his header set them on their way to securing an impressive 2-2 draw against Croatia.
Manuel Neuer is shown the least love by his nation's fans at Euro 2024
The hosts of the tournament were free-scoring during the group stages, putting away eight goals in their opening three games. At the other end of the pitch Manuel Neuer's experienced head in goal hasn't received much love at all in comparison to other players. Only 10% of fans have reacted to Neuer with a love emoji, while the vast majority (79%) of fans react to posts about him with a laughing emoji.
Perhaps the German goalkeeper's longstanding mastery in goal has left German fans laughing as much as loving him. Neuer's start against Switzerland meant that he surpassed Gianluigi Buffon as the keeper with the most appearances (18) in the European Championships.
Elsewhere among Europe's least loved players at the European Championships are Hungary's Dominik Szoboszlai (13%), Neuer's German teammate Maximilian Mittelstädt (14%), and Spain's Dani Olmo (14%).
Despite the lack of love shown to them, all three players have enjoyed impressive moments during the opening games of Euro 2024. Dani Olmo, who also plies his trade at club level in Germany, provided an assist for Ferran Torres's winner against Albania, which helped Spain qualify from their group with a 100% win record.
Methodology
We analysed the responses to posts on Facebook about footballers during the opening two weeks of Euro 2024 to reveal which of them are most and least loved.
We filtered social media content that was posted within each player's home country to focus on audiences based in that country.
We then calculated the % of love emojis (😍) by fans in response to posts about each player.
The data for content about each player and the fan responses to them were sourced from Buzzsumo.com. Content about each player includes articles, posts, videos, interviews and podcasts among other media types.
We removed players from the final ranking where there were fewer than 50 posts about them and fewer than 50 fans responding to posts about them.
Notes on the data
The data represents responses to media posted about each player on Facebook during Euro 2024. Other possible emoji reactions alongside 'love' were: anger, sadness, and laughing as per Facebook's possible emoji responses to posts. As such, the players who rank lower on 'love' may simply be ranked higher on anger, sadness or humour from fans who respond to them. However, it should be noted that anger responses made up less than 10% of the responses to almost every player in the dataset.
