Mohamed Salah is now the most followed African football icon on social media, beating off competition from Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o Fils.

The Egyptian has a social media following of 18, 107, 322 fans followed by Didier Drogba on 16, 306, 174 and Samuel Eto’O on 12, 871, 174.

Digital Football Stars report released by German based research company, Result Sports indicated that the Liverpool Star has 7.6m fans on Facebook, 6.7m on Instagram and 3.7m on Twitter which gives him quite some reach and his fan base continues to grow.

Salah, 25 was crowned the king of African football last week at the International Conference Centre during the 2017 Aiteo CAF Awards night.

He was rewarded for his outstanding season last term, after bagging 39 goals in the 2017 calendar year and his remarkable form has increased his popularity on the African continent.

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"Winning this award is a dream come true – 2017 was an unbelievable year for me I had a fantastic time with the national team," said Salah after receiving the trophy.

"This is a big award for me, a special moment in my career. I would like to dedicate it to all the kids in Africa and Egypt.

"I want to tell them to never stop dreaming, never stop believing."

Salah won the Africa Player of the year last Friday in Accra, Ghana pipping Liverpool team-mate, Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at a colourful ceremony at the Ghanaian capital and his acceptance speech was full of appreciation to his team-mates and his fans.