Cristiano Ronaldo, most searched player on Google

Portuguese football player Cristiano Ronaldo has been named by Internet search engine Google as the most sought after World Cup player.

As the World Cup gets underway in South Africa, the interest in players taking part is also heightened, but Ronaldo, 25, has garnered the most attention.

"In search, the winning player is already clear: Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese team captain and talented forward," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted the Internet giant as saying in a blog post on June 11.

Besides Ronaldo, Google said analysis of search queries found heavy interest from web surfers in Brazil's Kaka, England's Wayne Rooney, Argentina's Lionel Messi and Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands.

Google also said there was much more interest online in injured Dutch winger Arjen Robben than there was in the elections in the Netherlands.

"In the days leading up to the June 9 elections, between four and five times as many searches were done for Robben than either of the two popular candidates," Google stated.

Google said World Cup searches were spiking "although overall World Cup buzz seems to be off to a slower start in 2010 than in the months leading up to the 2006 tournament, based on global trends."