One week left to go before the 2010 FIFA World Cup gets underway in South Africa and World Cup related searches in the US are increasing each week as we near June 11th. Search clicks increased 10% for the week ending May 29, 2010 over the previous week and 64% when compared to the week ending May 1, 2010.

With lots of matches and the time difference between the US and South Africa, many of the searches are around the game schedule, which ranked 5th overall. The keyword ‘schedule’ was included in 68 different queries among World Cup related searches last week. Also popular are search queries around where to watch online or with a mobile phone.

As for the popularity of players in the US, we ran the names (assuming correct spelling for this analysis) included in the ESPN rankings of the Top 50 Players of the World Cup to see who would come out on top in terms of searches. Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal ranked 2nd among the top 50 players from ESPN but was the most searched last week in the US and captured 38% of all search clicks. Ronaldo was also recently featured on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine in the US which probably helped to boost awareness. Argentina’s Lionel Messi ranked 2nd in search clicks but holds the top rank on the ESPN list. Landon Donovan, the only US player in the top 50 ranked 4th in overall search clicks.