Rodriguez most searched player after Portugal`s surprise exit

Mumbai: As the 2014 FIFA World Cup approaches its business end, Colombian star James Rodriguez became the most searched player on the planet.

Rodriguez is now the top scorer with five goals and further enhanced his status as perhaps the World Cup`s biggest revelation, search trends by Google revealed Wednesday. Robin Van Persie`s `flying goal` has also ruled the search charts during the group stage as fans flocked to the internet to relive his incredible piece of skill near the start of the tournament Messi`s first goal was the second most popular search term after the Argentine scored a superb solo goal as his team beat Bosnia 2-1. Football fans were also keen to see `Dempsey`s fastest goal` after the American player scored in the first 30 seconds against Ghana. In the biggest sporting battle, every goal demands an incredible celebration and that`s what was seen on the ground during the matches. England`s Daniel Sturridge`s celebration after his goal against Italy during their Group D match stood beyond others gaining huge interest from fans online. England`s physio Gary Lewin injured himself during the course of the celebration. Christiano Ronaldo topped traditional Google search results despite his team getting knocked out in the early stages. There was a lot of interest in the Portuguese 2013 Ballon d`Or winner due to injury woes and his hairstyle changing on a daily basis. As England and Italy both exit from the World Cup, England`s opening encounter with Italy remained the most searched battle in the group stages. The USA vs. Ghana match in Group G and the Group A battle between Brazil and Mexico was also quite popular among fans online. Managing to impress with his team`s performance as they move to the knockout stage, Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari remained the favourite among the online audience drawing the most number of searches for any team manager. Searches around players "hair style" to their "girlfriends/wives" was also one of the major highlights of the group stage. Neymar`s hair remained most popular followed by Ronaldo and David Luiz. Spanish defender Gerard Pique`s partner and popular pop star Shakira remained the most searched `life partner" followed closely by Portuguese star Ronaldo`s supermodel girlfriend Irina Shayk. Controversy has never been far away with headbutts, dives, last minute penalties and even biting generating talking points during the tournament.  Match referee Yuichi Nishimura remained the most searched referee in the group stages grabbing lots of headlines for his controversial decisions in the opening match of the tournament. Interestingly the most searched teams during the World Cup group stage including England, Portugal, Mexico and Italy are already out of the contest with Brazil as the only exception leading from the top.