Who are the Most Followed Athletes on Twitter?

Leveraging social to keep in touch with your fans is must for star athletes in all sports. Here is a breakdown and analysis of how athletes across sports stacked up when it comes to their popularity on twitter. It's pretty clear that soccer and basketball players dominate the top 100 positions.
But soccer is a true global passion - Ronaldo has more than twice the numbers of followers than Lebron James, and Kaka has 7 million more followers than him.
These ranks from Twittercounter.com don't tell the entire story - keep in mind that these are all-time totals, so recent popularity isn't factored into these ranks, which is why older athletes dominate this list.

 15 Cristiano Ronaldo - 22,222,552 followers // 1,589 tweets

21  Kaka - 17,173,078 followers // 3,043 tweets

 64 LeBron James @KingJames - 10,176,460 followers // 3,659 tweets


 87 @NBA - 8,484,017 followers  //54,646 tweets

 94 SHAQ- 7,747,974 followers // 6,873 tweets


 95 Ronaldinho Gaúcho - 7,730,954 followers // 1,590 tweets


102 Wayne Rooney - 7,438,271 followers // 1,363 tweets


109 Gerard Piqué - 7,192,888 followers  //  1,556 Tweets

110 Andrés Iniesta  - 7,302,216 followers // 618 tweet