Armando “Hormiga” González has turned a strong run in Liga MX into a social media surge, and now he has 1.1 million Instagram followers. The Chivas forward has become a talking point in the buildup to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, even though he is not one of the players starting the conversation from the front line for Mexico.
That rise is why his name is being searched now. González was crowned the scoring champion in the Apertura 2025 with 12 goals and then scored 12 more in the Clausura 2026, a stretch that lifted him into a different level of visibility before the tournament cycle even fully settled. His profile is now being measured against Cho-gue Sung, the striker whose own following exploded after the Qatar 2022 World Cup, when he scored two goals against Ghana and went from 20,000 followers to 1.5 million.
The comparison is not just about numbers. Cho-gue Sung, born in Ansan on January 25, 1998, had already shown the kind of broad appeal González is now attracting: he started for FC Midtjylland in Denmark, played 42 matches across league, cup and Europa League competitions, and contributed seven goals before his name became familiar far beyond football circles. Vogue Korea and Elle Men later put him on their covers, a sign of how quickly a player can move from the field to mass recognition.
González’s case follows a similar shape, but with a Mexican twist. He became the first Mexican to win the Liga MX scoring title since Uriel Antuna in the Clausura 2024, and that achievement has fed the interest around him as Mexico prepares for the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. For fans, the appeal is simple: a striker who keeps scoring is suddenly available as a face of the moment, and his online following has begun to reflect that status.
Still, the attention has come even though he is not yet a fixed starter in Mexico’s setup. After the first matchday of Group A, Cho-gue Sung did not play in South Korea’s 2-1 win over Chequia, while González entered as a substitute in the 75th minute in the local team’s win over Sudáfrica. The contrast underlines the strange part of modern stardom: a player can become a massive digital draw before he becomes an automatic pick on the field.
That is why González’s 1.1 million followers matter beyond a vanity metric. The numbers point to a forward whose popularity has jumped ahead of his role, with the Cho-gue Sung comparison giving that rise a recognizable shape. If his scoring form continues and his minutes grow, the social media boom may end up looking less like a spike and more like the beginning of his public identity in the tournament cycle. For now, the interest says as much about how football fame travels as it does about the player himself.
