Twitter reveals Manchester United's £60m Angel Di Maria signing as the window's most discussed transfer
Angel Di Maria’s £60m move to Manchester United was the most discussed transfer in the January transfer window on social networks, according to a report from Twitter.
Angel Di Maria is Louis Van Gaal's first major signing
The Manchester United midfielder was the most talked about transfer followed by controversial Luis Suarez’s move to Barcelona for the fee of £75m. Next was James Rodriguez, Alexis Sanchez and Toni Kroos.
Alexis Sanchez’s £35m move to Arsenal from Barcelona, was also the most discussed transfer in London on Twitter. In the capital, the transfers of Diego Costa, Didier Drogba, Thomas Vermaelen and Cesc Fabregas received significant engagements. Notably, three of the top five London signings involved Chelsea FC.
Twitter also shared Europe’s most speculated transfers with Manchester United’s failed £30m bid for Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal taking the number one spot.
Discussions involving the future of Sami Khedira, Marco Reus, Radamel Falcao, Mats Hummels, Edison Cavani and Daley Blind, were also prominent.
Topically, UK broadcaster Sky Sports received extensive coverage on Twitter with #Skytransferday’ and #JimWhiteDay’ trending in the UK.
On 31 August, #Skytransferday’ and #JimWhiteDay’ received 85,000 and 46,400 uses respectively, #transferdeadlineday only saw 7,000, according to Topsy Analytics.
As the deadline looms on Monday evening, Twitter chat will increase considerably with football fans worldwide joining in with the conversation.
Topically, Twitter also released a geo-location chart to show which players were being discussed where.
This football season will see social networks play a more vital role than ever - especially after Manchester United last week exclusively announced the signing of Angel Di Maria with a Vine loop showing the midfielder’s new jersey being printed.