Real Madrid Dir of Institutional Relations Emilio Butragueño on Tuesday said that "more visitors to Real Madrid's website come from the United States than any other country," according to Dermot Corrigan of ESPN. Butragueño: "The first country for visits to our website is the USA. Then Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia and India." Real has focused much of its "global marketing efforts" on the U.S. in recent years, "with the first team visiting various American cities for preseason training and games in each of the last six summers." Such "work on the ground appears to be paying off." Butragueño added that the club is "also huge on social networks, with Indonesia having the most Facebook fans and Colombia the most Twitter followers." He said the club has 173 million followers on social media, including 108 million on Facebook. The club's own research claimed that around 6% of the world's current population supports "Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Iker Casillas and company, with Madrid fans in 186 of the world's 193 countries." Butragueño said that the club's research indicates it has "about 450 million fans throughout the world" (ESPN, 2/25). The information was shared during Real's latest Luis de Carlos
Forum, which was dedicated to the club's int'l appeal. The forum, titled "Real Madrid without borders," was presided over by Real Madrid Foundation Exec VP Enrique
Sánchez and moderated by journalist Enrique Ortego. Execs in attendance included Butragueño, Real Madrid Association of Ex Football Players President Ignacio Zoco, Ambassador of the Philippines to Spain Carlos C. Calinas and Fly Emirates Spain GM Fernando Suárez de Góngora, among others. The event began with a video about Real Madrid fandom in different parts
of the world and the amount of passion generated between supporters all
over the globe. Following that, there was a discussion about how Real
Madrid transcends borders (Real Madrid).
