Barcelona Blaugrana teen has 472,000 Instagram followers

There are LaLiga mainstays and World Cup winners with fewer Instagram followers than Barcelona Cadet B player Xavi Simons, so how has the 14-year-old become such a social media phenomenon?

With over 472,000 followers in the social network, plenty are taking notice of the midfielder and Mino Raiola has recently signed a deal to represent him.

Indeed, Simons' posts are not too different from the standard footballer's social media log; his popularity has not risen by chance or due to an excessive passion to detail his personal life online.

MARCA contacted Instagram expert Manuel Moreno to discover how a young player can become more popular than Jesus Navas, Joaquin, Lucas Perez, and many more on the site.

"[Simons] has a lot of followers," Moreno notes.

"His personal image on social networks is very worked on, edited, with text and graphics.

"I think he has very professional people behind him who manage the account, which could give us an explanation for this boom."

Indeed Simon's account has risen from passing 300,000 followers on July 23 to topping 400,000 on August 17. All of this comes after opening the account in December 2015.

Looking forward, it's needless to say that these statistics will not determine his success, as the 14-year-old looks to forge a path into the Barcelona senior side, but with a logo and a very professional output on social media, Simons already has plenty of fans to fall back on.