The internet is awash with would-be stars, 15-minute famers and opinion dispensers looking to ride on the coat-tails of the beautiful game.
But amid all this noise, only a small percentage really cut through as bona fide football influencers. This Daily Mail Sport power list seeks to highlight those individuals: the most entertaining, the most ground-breaking, the most agenda-setting.
But before we dive in, some ground rules about who’s eligible.
Firstly, anybody who is closer identified as a journalist does not meet the admittedly rather nebulous category of ‘influencer’. Secondly, nobody who was named on our next generation of TV sports presenters is allowed in – apologies to any fans of Nieve Petruzziello. Finally, anyone associated with a popular non-football-specific troupe, such as the Sidemen, is off limits.
What we do want is talent and influence. People who lead the conversation in whatever community they’re part of. Some aim for a broader market while others are nailing a niche. Without further ado, let’s dive in…
15. Abigail Rudkin
Follower count: 135,000 (X 73k, Instagram 37k (two accounts), TikTok 25k)
Rudkin is well-known among the Liverpool fan community and brings a talent to this list that nobody else does.
Alongside leading the conversation on The Redmen TV, The Anfield Wrap, This is Anfield, Sky Sports, the BBC and even the club’s own official channels, she blesses the Liverpool fan community with her artwork.
Her dab hand with the paintbrush saw Rudkin invited to create Jurgen Klopp’s leaving present by the Reds, a gift which brought tears to his eyes (and not in a bad way!).
Anyone who tunes in to the raft of Liverpool shows and podcasts before or after games will know her voice and expert ability to get across how fans in the stands are feeling. She has also been an outspoken voice against sexism on matchdays, exposing how far the game and society still has to go to stamp out the abuse.
Her focus on one club does limit her ‘influence’ across the football spectrum – your average Arsenal or Newcastle fan likely isn’t familiar with her work – but in terms of tapping into one community, the art virtuosa and analyst is doing well.
Abigail Rudkin has impressed Liverpool fans with her artwork and clued-up commentary
She has also been an outspoken voice against sexism on matchdays, exposing how far the game and society still has to go to stamp out the abuse
14. Gabriel Sutton
Follower count: 45.5k (X 36k, TikTok 7k, YouTube 2.5k)
The voice of wisdom on the English Football League. You’ll be hard-pressed to find many people more knowledgeable about the EFL and able to connect with all 72 of its fanbases.
Don’t be fooled by Sutton’s relatively minor social media following and lack of sizzling beach selfies. You won’t find him posing on the red carpet but you will find him doing diligent rounds of podcasts, X Spaces and websites, able to pluck out an hour’s worth of sage analysis on Barnet, Port Vale or Bromley at a moment’s notice.
There’s probably nobody on this list more respected by their audience. There are no quick wins with Sutton, no inflammatory remarks for the sake of content, just measured opinions and an amiable manner about him. His followers appreciate it and over a decade he has built up a reputation as the EFL’s savant.
Gabriel Sutton has become one of the most respected names in EFL social media punditry
13. Rose Ruland
Follower count: 412.5k (TikTok 168k, Instagram 119k, Twitch 59k, YouTube 42.5k, X 24k)
The only American to break into this ranking and one half of our first power couple. Ruland is becoming more known to British fans for her relationship with YouTuber Ellis Platten but she has built her reputation in her own right.
She started out as a gaming streamer but has transitioned to football content and nails the ‘outsider looking in’ role, making her an ideal follow for fans who are just coming to the sport. Lots of her content centres on her experiencing aspects of British football culture for the first time.
Rose has also had some unique ideas, such as trying out footballer’s favourite restaurants (hint: Cole Palmer has better taste than Cristiano Ronaldo). Other light-hearted efforts include taking 50 shots at goal sober and then drunk. Not to be tried at home, if you want to preserve your windows.
Rose Ruland has made a dent introducing American fans to British football culture
She started out as a streamer, as well as posting lifestyle content, but now works on football
12. Ellis Platten
Follower count: 859k (YouTube 558k, Instagram 105k, TikTok 103k, X 93k)
Platten’s thirst for football adventure always impresses. Watching matches in the Amazon. Attending the most notorious derbies. You get the picture. And sometimes it gets him in tight spots. In 2022, at Croatia’s Eternal Derby between Dinamo Zagreb v Hajduk Split, he was attacked by ultras.
It’s precisely that daring spirit which has helped Platten build an army of followers. But what started out as a channel pitching up at random games in his teenage years has snowballed into a diverse homage to the beautiful game.
In the past year he’s shone a light on some of the game’s most troubled clubs and fanbases. He’s also snagged some star-studded names on his ‘shopping for classic football shirts’ series: Pierre Gasly, Giorgio Chiellini and most recently Arsenal’s Mikel Merino, to name a few.
It has been refreshing to see him branch out into other types of content – not just ‘I visited this INSANE derby’ – and show his considerable knack for interviewing.
Ellis Platten has made a name for himself with his AwayDays brand and by interviewing footballers about their favourite classic shirts
He is in an influencer power couple with Ruland and the pair’s enthusiasm for football shines through in their content
11. Karel Prince
Follower count: 107k (Instagram 57k, TikTok 50k)
Karel Prince, come to the stage, front and centre!
Few have made a name for themselves in football more effectively than Prince this year, at least off the pitch. This man has single-handedly launched an entire genre and slapped his figurative trademark on it.
Players and ex-pros across the land are quaking in their boots at the prospect of being called out on their fibs by Prince. If you haven’t seen his videos, he specialises in identifying when footballers have told porky pies on podcasts; Lee Clark saying he had faced Zinedine Zidane, for example, when he never had.
People assume he has just burst onto the scene. But Prince has won the hearts of Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher and finally made his name after almost a decade of hard work. His ‘HMRC of Football Podcasts’ series is up for Social Media of the Year at the Football Supporters’ Association Awards.
The likes of Maya Jama, Alan Shearer and John Terry were thrilled to meet him at a recent Baller League event. His humility, good nature, and passion stand out. Are there many more universally liked content creators in football right now?
Another question that he’ll have to think about is: how can he take this further?
Karel Prince has been a big hit with football stars including Ian Wright and Alan Shearer
10. Spencer Owen
Follower count: 3.532 million (YouTube 1.93 million, Instagram 693k, X 586k, Twitch 235k, TikTok 88k)
Owen needs a big year. The Essex entrepreneur recently announced the launch of Hashtag Allstars – an exhibition team which harks back to the free-spirited beginnings of Hashtag United. You feel it needs to work.
There was a time when his Hashtag project, founded in March 2016 and taking on anyone who would face them, felt like the quirkiest thing in football.
Now they’re marooned in the seventh tier. Average crowds are a league-low of around 200. Nobody finds hashtags that edgy anymore. The progress has stalled and Spencer’s personal brand, now a bit quaint, may benefit from a refresh.
He certainly has the talent and personality to compete against the new-age influencers. He still has a huge audience and is a charming sell to advertisers. But he has ceded ground to his younger rivals. Hosting a mass-market podcast called Internet Dads alongside Rory Jennings has not helped his appeal on the playground.
If we revisited this list in a year’s time, he could be a big climber or drop off it entirely depending on how the Allstars venture goes. But make no mistake, Owen is one of the originals and pushed the boat out before most had the courage to do so.
Spencer Owen’s Hashtag United have lost their novelty but he hopes a new project harking back to their roots will pay dividends
9. Thogden
Follower count: 3.723 million (YouTube 2.28 million, Instagram 684k, TikTok 603.7k, X 155.5k)
Thogden (Theo Ogden) is that friend on your Instagram who, slightly annoyingly, has a seat at all the biggest events. Name any of the most iconic matches in recent history – whether that’s World Cup finals, England games, Champions League clashes or feverish South American showdowns – and chances are Thogden was at it, camera in one hand and a pint in the other.
Endearingly, lots of his videos feature his dad, Stephen, who is almost as passionate about football as him. They love to get in among the fans and give a really raw view from the stands.
He’s also acquired a reputation for being a bit of a clown, trolling people whenever he can. He recently swanned around Madrid and London with Jude Bellingham’s official body double to fool fans and it makes you feel lucky you don’t have a celebrity lookalike, such was the level of unthinking clamour from shameless grown adults.
This Bolton fan can turn his hand to anything, whether it’s short-form or long-form, and his impact has helped him rub shoulders with football’s elite, including his hero Lionel Messi.
Thogden and his dad Stephen are fascinated by global football fan culture
He somehow has a seat at every big occasion and has rubbed shoulders with the greatest – including Lionel Messi
8. Rory Jennings
Follower count: 521,000 (YouTube 307k, X 104k, Instagram 62k, TikTok 48k)
There are few talking heads in football more incendiary than Jennings. The former EastEnders actor turned Sky Sports and talkSPORT firebrand can always be counted on to cause shockwaves across social media.
One of his recent hits, for example: James Maddison is a ‘bog-standard’ Premier League footballer who is more concerned about YouTube and doesn’t score enough to warrant his own celebration. Jennings has a Spidey-sense for knowing where the fault lines lie in football and exploiting them.
And to his credit, considering the number of issues he is asked to have a stance on, he argues his points articulately. His output on YouTube is multiple opinion-rammed videos per week. Agree or disagree, he’s an engaging listen and has a broad knowledge base.
Rory Jennings is a rapid-fire dispenser of hot takes who knows where football’s fault lines lie
7. ChrisMD
Follower count: 9.11 million (YouTube 6.31 million, Instagram 1.7 million, TikTok 1.1 million)
Fifteen years after launching his YouTube channel and ChrisMD – aka Chris Michael Dixon – continues to entertain by pushing boundaries.
This year, he’s been scoring volleys from balls dropped by helicopters, pitting players of every age between 16 and 40 against each other to win £10,000 and testing the maximum number of goalkeepers he can score past at once.
He’s an easy watch and an affable chap who most young football fans know. What’s more, he puts his platform to good use, taking part regularly in Sidemen Charity Games and raising money during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A battle for Chris may be conquering the short-form space. His legacy is 20-minute challenges on YouTube – the equivalent of epic cinema for the attention spans of today’s phone-addled youth. But his Instagram short-form work is sparse and his TikTok trail is mostly clips derived from his longer videos. His YouTube game is strong but he may have to diversify to keep up with his rivals.
ChrisMD is known for his unique football challenges, such as trying to score volleys from balls dropped out of a helicopter
His next battle may be to cement his standing in the short-form space, having thrived on YouTube
6. AngryGinge
Follower count: 5.924 million (TikTok 2 million, Instagram 1.4 million, Twitch 1.4 million, Youtube 893k, X 231k)
AngryGinge – real name Morgan Burtwistle – is able to tap into the Gen Z market thanks to his not-so-hidden weapon: relatability. You could imagine having a chinwag in him in the queue for McDonald’s fries at 2am.
And that’s a compliment. The Salford lad, 24, carries with him a cheeky chappy, down-to-earth, northern charm which endears him as much to the public as to his baby-faced streaming audience. Appearances in Soccer Aid and now I’m A Celebrity vouch for that.
He’s known for filming himself playing video games, complete with unhinged (often sweary) reactions and a brotherly connection with his audience. That hobby led to him managing his own real-life football team on YouTube, Winton Wanderers U18 Yanited, and infiltrating the Premier League world. He recently sat with Maddison for Tottenham’s 2-2 thriller with Manchester United. Oh, and he’s a manager in the Baller League.
Burtwistle falls at the entertainment end of our spectrum rather than opinion, and it’s for that reason that his prospects look so broad. What’s next? Strictly?
AngryGinge has broken into the mainstream – even being invited into the celebrity jungle
5. John Nellis
Follower count: 14.25 million (YouTube 11.7 million TikTok 1.7 million, Instagram 822k, X 28k)
Nellis is one of the kings of football content creation. His audience numbers are staggering, his output prolific, his ideas fresh. Twenty of his videos have exceeded 100 million views.
The Northern Irish content creator has cultivated a loyal following through his enthusiasm and creativity. His brand is not built on seeking to divide, but to bring football fans together.
Some of his inventive efforts include faking his way into managing a team alongside Arsene Wenger, cooking a steak in the stands and pranking American football fans with a ‘lookalike’ of Lionel Messi. You might call him the MrBeast of football.
The accolades have rolled in. In 2024 he was awarded the TikTok Sports Content Creator of the Year, and on two occasions he has had the most viewed video of the week on YouTube.
His work has earned him a ‘nice to meet you’ from Lionel Messi and a hug with Cristiano Ronaldo. Not many can say they’ve penetrated the upper echelons of the game.
John Nellis’ viral football videos – including spending 100 hours trying to meet Cristiano Ronaldo – put him at the vanguard of modern creators
He carries out quirky experiments, such as trying to cook a steak in the stands during a match
4. Robbie Lyle
Follower count: 5.143 million (Instagram 146k, X 26.7k, TikTok 21.3k) + (AFTV: YouTube 1.78m, Instagram 1.2 million, TikTok 1 million, X 969k)
Lyle’s award-winning AFTV brand has amassed billions of views since launching in 2012. The mogul of Arsenal fan media has proven a shrewd operator able to reinvent himself and the organisation he runs.
Their bread and butter is fan reaction after matches (helped by Lee Judges’ explosive, spluttering rants) but their pre and post-game discussions are genuinely informative.
What makes Lyle stand out is his wider impact. People listen to him – and not just Arsenal fans. His 2020 documentary about racism in football, Football Fans: Under Their Skin, was eye-opening and moving. The scene where Rene Carayol spoke of his father being spat on at a game, not saying a word, and leaving at half-time was devastating.
Robbie also does the light-hearted stuff equally well and his range is what has made him one of the most recognisable and authoritative football influencers. An elder statesman of the craft.
Robbie Lyle has won awards for his AFTV brand and given a voice to Arsenal fans
3. IShowSpeed
Follower count: 134.8 million (YouTube 45.7 million, TikTok 43.9 million, Instagram 42.6 million, Twitch 2.6 million)
Love him or hate him, IShowSpeed has the youth in thrall. Nobody here comes close to Speed – real name Darren Jason Watkins Jr – in terms of raw reach.
His dramatic personality has rankled many. From whipping Mark Clattenburg with his shirt in a charity game, to barking at people any chance he gets, and making offensive comments to women, his behaviour is at best brash and at worst downright rude. Quite a few people were pleased to see him get destroyed by Bron Breakker at Royal Rumble 2025.
But with every person comes light and shade, and to his credit Speed has shown himself to have an overflowing passion for the game which makes his content an… absorbing watch, if we can put it that way. His ‘Siuuu’ imitation of his hero Cristiano Ronaldo is hard to escape.
Footballers have warmed to him. Ronaldo recently taught him how to do a Viking clap. Alejandro Garnacho had him as a special guest at Manchester United’s 2024 FA Cup party. In May, he celebrated with Paris Saint-Germain’s players on the pitch after they won the Champions League. His level of access is astonishing.
He’s not going anywhere. The only risk is that he diversifies too much – increasingly, Speed’s content isn’t even related to football, and lots of his energy this year has been spent producing rap videos. Perhaps the pull of dominating the internet more widely, for better or worse, will dilute the grip he has had on football’s corner of social media. That variety sees him slip to third.
Cristiano Ronaldo superfan IShowSpeed has been an unavoidable presence on social media
He has managed to infiltrate the football community, though his output this year has been more focused on rap
2. Celine Dept
Follower count: 90 million (YouTube 66.7 million (two accounts) TikTok 18.5 million, Instagram 4.8 million)
Characterised by her infectious enthusiasm, Belgian baller Dept has built an immense following and lives the dream by having regular contact with the game’s elite.
Her content is quite similar to ChrisMD’s, centering on football challenges. That has included playing games with Manchester City’s stars, taking on Alexis Mac Allister in his own garden and challenging Thibaut Courtois in a reflexes competition.
Name a top footballer and there’s every chance Dept has met them: Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappe, Aitana Bonmati, Chloe Kelly, Jude Bellingham, Ronaldinho, Luka Modric, David Beckham… you get the point. What’s more, they genuinely seem to enjoy spending time with her and taking on whatever crazy task she has masterminded.
Remarkably, she only started her influencer journey around two-and-a-half years ago, starting out doing viral games alongside her boyfriend Michiel Callebaut, who could be on this list himself.
Dept’s energy and positivity make her the perfect fit for what she does. She’s not a thought-leader in the game or someone who is widely quoted, but the numbers and novelty of her content tell us all we need to know.
Celine Dept has captured the hearts of football fans around the world with her enthusiasm
The Belgian seems to get on well with any of the legends and household names she meets
She is in a high-profile relationship with fellow football influencer Michiel Callebaut
1. Mark Goldbridge
Follower count: 7.429 million (YouTube 4.431 million (across four channels), TikTok 1.2 million, X 1 million, Instagram 501k, Twitch 297,000)
Goldbridge is the most seismic, agenda-setting name on this list, somebody who has influenced the inner workings of football itself.
Did he precipitate Garnacho’s downfall at Manchester United? Partially. Last year, the Argentinian liked two of Goldbridge’s tweets criticising the club and Erik ten Hag for taking him off against Bournemouth. It wasn’t a good look.
Goldbridge – a former policeman whose real name is Brent Di Cesare – also received death threats after interviewing Rasmus Hojlund on his ‘The United Stand’ channel, while the Dane’s team-mates reportedly interrogated him after he agreed to chat to the often-critical YouTuber.
The rant-a-minute Red Devils watchalong streamer now has rights to 20 Bundesliga games a season on YouTube, an experiment which hasn’t yielded huge views so far but has cemented him as a name the football authorities will turn to when they want extra reach.
Mark Goldbridge is the most explosive name on this list for his Manchester United rants
Few set the agenda quite like him and he has been rewarded with Bundesliga streaming rights in a sign of his influence
His USP is, for the most part, sitting in a chair and raging at United’s failures. His endless output of live streams and reactions to the big news of the day spark memes, articles and rows on social media.
He’s a master at this game. Few have nailed the marmite figure quite as well. That landed him a talkSPORT show in 2022, though he has since left. Taking part as a manager for Sidemen charity games in the past has also helped to cement his name among this community’s leading lights.
Will his influence fade? Probably not, at least for as long as United are a colossal club, or for as long as they’re struggling. For his brand’s own sake, Goldbridge may wish they never win the league again.
But there’s also something slightly sad about the fact that when United do lift the Premier League again, Goldbridge’s work means he won’t get to experience it with anybody else, instead confined to his chair and beholden to his live stream, fist pumping the air and exclaiming ‘yes!’ in that unmistakable accent, wondering if he might have been there.
Maybe influencing isn’t all glitz and glamour after all.
Honourable mention: Eli Mengem
Follower count: 36.8k (X)
Mengem is, simply put, one of the finest football storytellers of his era. His work with Copa90, particularly the worldwide Derby Days series, has left a lasting impression on a generation of young football fans, transporting them via YouTube from their bedrooms to the sights, smells, and sounds of Buenos Aires, Istanbul and Seville.
He has had an indelible influence on football fandom in a way nobody else on this list has. Bring up one of his videos from a decade ago to a group of fans in their 20 and 30s and they will likely still remember it. But can anyone recall what most influencers published on Instagram yesterday?
Eli is still going – his documentary series in Argentina released earlier this year garnered more than two million views – though he’s not on camera as frequently as he once was.
The Australian could rank on this list if he launched his own public Instagram or TikTok. The ‘influencer’ tag doesn’t really fit, but he is a documentarian of the highest order who tells stories that the fast-food, short-form brigade never touch.
Eli Mengem made waves back in the ay for his Copa90 Derby Days documentaries
