Iceland player gains 250,000 Instagram followers after substitute

Rurik Gíslason, a previously unheralded midfielder from the German second division, has seen his Instagram following swell by 250,000 overnight after a brief cameo in his nation’s opening game in the World Cup.

He may have only played a half hour in Iceland’s 1-1 draw with Argentina but Rurik Gíslason has already made quite an impression on the World Cup – and more specifically, the sport’s female viewers.

Imagine being sooooo good looking that your Instagram followers go from from 30,000 to 207,000 by playing 30 minutes at the World Cup. Take a bow, Rúrik Gíslason #fyririsland pic.twitter.com/Xr9uLRkoCk

— Sons of Ice and Fire (@sons_icefire) June 17, 2018

I feel like in the midst of the excitement of the game I perhaps didn't fully appreciate Rúrik Gíslason's contribution to the sport. Lemme do that real quick. You're welcome. pic.twitter.com/41cs7ix0HO

— Rebecca Roanhorse preorder ☇TRAIL OF LIGHTNING☇ (@RoanhorseBex) June 16, 2018

Gíslason has proved to be particularly popular with South American football fans, with Brazilian actress Gabriela Lopes writing to her 2 million followers to ask “how is it possible to be this cute?”

I’d like to take a moment to thank Iceland for the view of Rúrik Gíslason.
You have done the world a great service 😍🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/l08qKVtwJf

— Erika,First of Her Name,Mother of Bats🦇✨ (@bahmboozle) June 16, 2018

Argentinian actress Gimena Accardi also noted to her audience that over 40,000 of her fans had followed Gíslason’s account in just 30 minutes – and it is still growing at an astounding rate. In fact, in the time is has taken to write this his Instagram following has grown by 10,000.

Gíslason’s new legion of female fans will have another chance to watch him in action when Iceland take on Nigeria in their second Group D match on Friday.

today Rurik Gislason started the match against Argentina with 50k followers. Now he has almost 200k and his posts are full of comments in spanish. We have our reasons I guess 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/8NskyCvtz4

— Agus (@thatwasout) June 16, 2018

To put this into perspective, Sandhausen's 17 home games this season were watched by 104,001 people.

Rurik Gislason now has double that number of followers and counting. pic.twitter.com/ANmQrX9DOv

— Jonny Walsh (@jonathanwalsh_) June 17, 2018

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