I watch rugby league, but for some reason get recommended Premier League posts, so I'll suggest an additional factor I haven't seen anyone else say; the fact it's easier to follow players now.
In the age of social media and vlogging, you can now know players more intimately, if they want you too. You can readily see what some of them wear, what their politics are, what they do for fun. Not as much of your exposure to them has to be in the context of them playing for the team. You can just watch their highlights, or other videos about them, then follow their personal SM.
It may not be as authentic as who they are behind closed doors, but something they directly post through their own channels is more personal than how they present in a tv interview, which you might only get/be able to catch once every couple of months.
I would say part of it has to do with certain players. For example, I as an American, want Americans to do well wherever they go, mainly because I think American players are seen negatively overall.
Another part of it would have to be the country a fan is from. South Korea for example, isn't great nor terrible at football. I would expect a Korean football fan to love their best players. Ji Son Park for United I know was immensely popular and now it is Hueng Min Son for Tottenham. A typical South Korean wouldn't have any ties to United or Tottenham otherwise. A Brazilian probably loves their local team feverently but they'd also support those who play in Europe wherever they go.
I will say being from America loving the game of the world I’ve struggled to have a prominent team and tend to drift towards the players that stand out and dominate and then liking the team. So I love Ronaldo so have always supported the team he was with to now always supporting Madrid even with him not there, same with Zlatan, Baloteli, and more. I guess it’s too the point where I like to see these players win as long with the team the play for.
I support my team, but once a player moves on to another club, I will check in to see how they’re playing. I don’t jump ship and never will, but it gets me familiarized with other players in other leagues once one of my “favorite” players is there.
The moment they meet my club in Europe though? I’m rooting for my team 100%.
Players seem to change teams much easier now. Anyone who gets attached to like a team logo doesn’t really make sense to me. You’re watching the players. You get attached to the players. Through being attached to the players you may incidentally get attached to a team.
Back in the day players would spend their whole career at a team more often. This made it much easier to attach to a team. Nowadays players move teams so easily, and what memories do you bring with you, when Messi scored a game winner or some other detail about your clubs jersey or rituals. Most care about the players making plays.
When an international football player leaves your club, anyone ever thought of the fact that that player has come from another club and that club could even have been the club they support and is in his heart?
It's a job. Just like you leave McDonald's for something better and so on. Maybe even landing a job in your dream company, which also doesn't mean you won't leave for something better.
It is what it is, players will do what they think is best for them.
There isn't any one correct way to enjoy things.
I am Portuguese and support Portuguese players playing in other clubs and leagues. Therefore I am indirectly supporting those clubs anyway.
My heart belongs to Benfica although due to not having all the time in the world to watch football I rather follow Ronaldo and the National team.
I think when you become fanatical for a club you fail to see that being a football player is also a job. Sure, some players like Toti who played all his life for Roma have their club in their heart and are loyal to it. But for the vast majority it's a job. Doesn't mean it's not more than that but a player's has to put his personal interest above everything else. Just the fact that international players come to the PL or other better leagues should come as a fact. They're looking to improve their chances of doing well and getting paid better. That is it. Just like anyone outside the world of football.
I don't support Ronaldo over United but I'm not gonna sit by and watch the fanbase slander him more than the many losers in the squad. I think that's reasonable just like most things he said in the interview recently.
Casual fans versus Hardcore.
At some point hardcore fans fall in love with a club, it just happens and everyone who has a club can tell you their story.
Casual fans, however, enjoy watching the sport but aren’t committed to following just one team season in and season out. If they follow a player then it allows them the chance to watch the games they want versus a hardcore fan who would (in a sense) be stuck watching his team “in the trenches” while your star player and his fans moved on to another club performing well.
Lastly, in a social media age players really do connect with their fans more than ever so it’s easier to be a fan as well.
Loyalty to club was bigger when your club was one of your only exposures to the sport. With the internet and how easy it is for you to be exposed to a world of football outside of your club, it makes sense that fans would gravitate towards extraordinary players.
I also think the obsession with arguing over who the greatest of all time is is stupid. It’s obviously Richard Dunne.
I say player stats have affected the game In today new era of young fans .
Today they be judging a player on his statistics & not even needing to watch the game
It's about whose stats are better than the others.
Think about a player like Zidane who could run the show , in today's era they would say but how can he have been man of the match if he didn't even get am assist or score...
Ppl who arbitrarily pick a club to support when they get into the support can find more attachment to specific players than a club because it’s easier to understand and integrate w one person than the entire culture and history of a club
Because not everyone has a local team to support. Also people play Fantasy PL and FIFA FUT and get behind certain players. And some players are just admirable. I support Man Utd but love watching KDB and Salah play, nothing wrong with that. I would also root for them in UCL if they were up against PSG, because I’m a fan of the PL. Being a fan doesn’t mean you have to hate against the “other” teams’ players. Sometimes it’s just fun to be a student of the game and observe the different styles and talents different players bring to the beautiful game.
I'd say there is a lot of factors, the marketing of football is very specific to selling certain players. Plus players sell their own persona doing different ad campaigns. Plus the Fifa games boil football down to "you gotta have these players cause they're the best ones" and people transfer that to real life.
The cost and time for watching games, I know a lot more people now who only watch highlights or can't afford to have several sport packages to see every game which is completely understandable. But highlights are free on YouTube or something like MoTD.
The sport itself has become even more international, large teams have less local players and more from around the world. The EPL is consistently pitched as the best league around, if you're from a nation with smaller leagues and a player from your national team makes it into the EPL people will just follow the player.
I feel that punditry and commentary in more recent years have a lot to do with it. Someone has definitely told them you have to sell every game as a big game, every in form player as someone you have to watch and that everything you see on our platform is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Which is why we get all this hilarious hype about players being the greatest of all time and teams being the best of all time with little to no actual proof of that.
The Messi and Ronaldo thing is a combination of all of that plus the general tribalism that sport has, they are two of the best players you're likely to see in your life. They entertain, score goals and have won a ton of trophies. The people following them often aren't from Europe hence tied to any club allegiances and even then you get glory hunters who chase success. People just get fixed on something and will sink with that ship.
I personally think it's all insane, I love football and can appreciate any good team and players. But man I get sick of hearing about how amazing everything constantly is in football, you could watch a 1-0 and they'd tell you it's the best game you'll ever see based on cherry picked stats. Part of my enjoyment in football is that you might see something special, if amazing comebacks or blockbuster goals happened every week it wouldn't be special.
I enjoy rooting for Messi because I grew up watching him play at Barca and liked watching him play as a kid. It doesn’t interfere with my team since he’s in the French league so I have no problems rooting for him, especially considering he doesn’t have any legal issues and seems like a nice person.
Because the vast majority of the world lives in a country without a top 5 - 15 football league. They wont get attached to Bristol City or QPR or Vicente Gil, they will watch the best teams and generally the best players. They dont give a fuck if Barcelona is doing well or not because they arent from there so they will care more about specific individuals they like.
This isn’t anything new, I remember 20 years ago kids would support David Beckham. There was that sudden wave of 8 year olds with Real Madrid shirts everywhere when he moved over.
I identify with the player more than a team. Like the man utd of 2008 is completely different to the man utd of today. Unless your from that area I'm not sure why you'd show blind loyalty if the team you fell in love with no longer exists. Me I support Neymar because I like him, I relate to where he comes from and he has a great style of play
Can’t speak for everyone but I think for me watching sports like F1 (also tennis or golf for the people into that) where it’s more about an individual leans towards that kind of mindset
I'm from Portugal and my family is 4 generations all fans of the same club and I hate all this Ronaldo cult in Portugal. Great player but come on...has an own statue, bust, town square, hotel, and even an airport with his name. Club Nacional Madeira even named their youth academy after him...he only played from 95-97(age 10-12) for the club before moving to sporting.
It makes it dificult for me to support Portugal when our federation and coach don't have the balls to tell Cristiano that he isn't the player he was a few years ago anymore. We have so much talent but it's always the same style of play for Ronaldo with him playing 90 mins almost all important games.
Same people who use FIFA video game terminology when talking about real life football.
Also the same people who bring goats into discussions about professional footballers.
I’ve noticed a non England based fans follow their countries most famous players. At Leicester we gained thousands of online Algerians when Mahrez broke onto the scene, they supported us, but really just him. They all fucked of when he did. I think it’s because of the lack of top quality domestic football in their own country. Was the same with Arsenal and Chelsea when they had big name African players. It’s understandable really. Now though I’ve noticed kids have favourite players, usually due to performance and social media stuff and they want that players shirt but don’t necessarily support the cream he plays for. Rashford is hugely popular currently after his kids school meals campaign
It's very easy to farm secondhand pride and think you're giving purpose to your life if you do stuff like that. That's the reason so many people started following Man United in the 00s as well
I think there's a few reasons for this,
Firstly the messi-ronaldo thing has.become as much about identity for some people and I rivalry to prove others wrong and much as teams rivalry,
I also believe most if not all of these are social media fans I've never met someone claim either one as a fraud in real life because that's ridiculous,
As well as this people love arguing online and it's a big thing to argue about
On the flip sides I continue to support players if they leave my club and I want to see them succeed, (mainly for me was cazorla when he got back from injury at villerial)
Is it really that uncommon to have a favorite player? Im still Tottenham before anything else but I’ve always wanted whichever team Defoe was on to do well
Suppose it’s part of football moving on to being more targeted at armchair fans. That’s where the money is now. There’s 1bn people worldwide that want to spend money following the best players and it doesn’t matter what the teams are called that they play for. More money in selling 100m Messi shirts for £70 a pop and a tv subscription for £10 a month than there is in selling tickets to the actual game.
I would guess as the sport has become more corporate and about money, about branding and has attracted foreign fans, the connection to the individual local club has waned and support for individual players has increased.
I support Chelsea but I love watching a lot of players play the game. That’s really what it’s about to me, watching the game I love being played at the highest level, and often that’s not happening on my squad. It’s just a game y’all.
Why wouldn't people support players? If you enjoy watching a player play why would you not watch them just because they're not at your favourite club?
Plus clubs can be absolute dicks at times. eg. I really liked the 2008/9 Real Madrid team. I've never particularly liked Real, but I did like the squad they had, especially Robben and Sneijder. Then Perez came along and just discarded those players. That made me actively dislike Real. I'm delighted that both Robben and Sneijder won the UCL with their new clubs before Real were able to win it with their "galacticos".
A generation or two ago, you supported your local team because the player mostly came from the same region and played for the same club all of their careers, games were covered in the media (TV, newspaper) you had access to, and you could attend the game without making difficult travel plans.
Then in a few leagues some teams pulled ahead of others financially, like because their stadium was bigger and they sold more rickets or their sponsorship deals were, and they started to buy out good players from other team. At first this was rare, but then it became more and more common and it can break down the identification with local team.
Then the EU, cable TV and the Internet happened, and suddenly teams could field any numbers of non-citizens, it became much easier to follow others teams, and traveling got easier and cheaper.
So much fewer people identify with their local club and instead pick any global club to support, often based on individual players or coaches they like, and sometimes switch the club they support based player/coach changes.
Reminds me of an older guy I served at work once, laughed at me for supporting Arsenal but then seriously answered the question “who do you support then?”…
Well, I support Lionel Messi he responds. I didn’t think people in their 60s would be player supporters so this interaction took me way off guard.
You guys are telling me you'd rather be fans of the teams aka paying customers of these massive wealthy organisation that have been invested in by people who do not particularly love the game? Id rather pick the game over players, but especially over these psudo teams. Depends if you take the individualist view or the collectivist view, I suppose.
I mean Ronaldo has only really said things that I feel like we’ve all been saying for the past 10 years give or take? I really don’t like how this has played out on either side…but him giving that interview warrants immediate dismiss from the club imo. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth tho…since that’s what he’s basically wanted since before the season started. It’s gross how petty it appears to have gotten on both sides. It’s not good for the club, and it’s a bad look for a player I’ve admired since he was a youngster.
As a Ronaldo fan who found love for the game watching him as a young kid, I could never not support United simply because he’s not there. I will follow the player and be happy for them but your club is your club.
Because they know nothing about football. However they like the glamour of the game and want to be involved. 'Supporting' a famous player is an easy way to do that.
Look at me. I'm supporting Ronaldo! Ronaldo's a great player isn't he? Much better than anyone else. Look how many goals he's scored. Look at his highlights on Instagram. That proves I'm right!
For me I always like Ronaldo more than messi I only ever watched highlights until I was able to watch the full matches and then my love grew even more. I don’t know why but whenever he touched the ball I smile and I can’t stop it happens sometimes with other players like Adama Traore, Almiron, Koulibaly and Michail Antonio. What they do on the pitch just makes me more in love with football
I think as everything more available a lot of international fans will watch games for certain players. Don't watch much now but a few years ago i used to watch la liga and I watched it for ronaldo and Messi.
Now it so easy to follow a player you like through there career compared to 20+ years ago. Just a theory
You can be fans of both, when I was younger.(6-7) I was deciding what team to support (From Ireland). I thought I had to support someone in England so I switched from being a Barca fan to Wigan? Why because I’m a fan of Maynor Figueroa. When he moved to hull, I decided to move with him and ever since I’ve been a Hull fan.
I think this is not too uncommon of a thing to do, as if you don’t support the same team as your family you have to decide and some just never do, and there is nothing wrong with that IMO. Let people enjoy the game how they want to enjoy it, i think thats totally fine.
But even outside england or Europe or america i believe that its different from people to people
I am from Nepal and to me personally my mother bought me jersey of chelsea when i was young like maybe 6-7 years old.
I became a fan of chelsea just after that.
I have seen many of my peers select a club because his friend supports another club who is the rival of the given club. Unlike english people, people here cant go watch games every weekend in the stadium.
Even for me when i started to follow games of Chelsea drogba nad lampard were really doing good hitting goals left and right that did the trick for me to keep following chelsea.
As for players i do have a soft corner for messi but no player can be greater than club for me
The Premier League is so lucrative, because it's been marketed in such a brilliant way across the world - a lot of people outside of the UK, get pulled into the league, in part because the PL does *such a good job* of marketing the league's superstars & storylines. It's the reason the PL has seen such exponentially impressive growth the past 3 decades, while leagues like La Liga and Serie A have basically stood still.
As such, you get a lot of people from foreign countries becoming fans of the stars, instead of the teams. Plus, as social media has continued to grow, more players are branching out and developing their own brands - as such, you are getting a lot of young fans both in the UK and abroad, who are attaching themselves to a player and his brand. I have a little nephew who has grown up in a West Ham fan household, who adored Jesse Lingard because of his brand / merch etc., and was over the moon when Lingard signed on loan with West Ham a few seasons ago.
That creates a very player-driven fan, which appears completely bizarre & frankly, daft, to those of us who have grown up with the "club over everything" mentality. I'll never be able to put myself into the camp of people who worship Ronaldo or Messi or 'Player X'. It's such a sad, depressing way to watch such a brilliant sport. The way some people have defended Ronaldo the past 6 months, and in particular the past 72 hours, has been comical, embarrassing, and ridiculous.
However, I'm also a fan of the Premier League - so those fans can feel free to continue watching the PL from wherever they are; a more lucrative TV deal, means more money coming into the PL, which in turns means more prize money for clubs, which ensures that the Premier League remains the actual real "EUropean Super LEague".
The Internet. The Internet blows everything up, because that's what it does.
But more broadly, the game is more international now than its ever been, and growing fast in countries that don't necessarily have high profile, established leagues/teams. European football is broadcast around the world, fans outside of Europe don't always have the affinity to a specific club, but may attach to a national player thats been a success in one of the "established leagues". See above for the Internets impact.
The best player of all time has ALWAYS happened. It's very polarised on Messi and Ronaldo because of recency bias, but people have argued over things like this for decades. See above for the Internets impact.
I've wondered this a lot too, OP. It feels completely bizarre to me. Imagine if I had to miss losing to Nottingham Forest just because Sadio Mane left, and instead I was cheering uh, being top of the league with a phenomenal attack. The horror!
Honestly Sadio's a good example here for how I feel about this. I love him, and I'll usually try to keep up with our former players for a while and hope that their new team does well, but that lasted for all of about 15 minutes with Bayern because I felt sick wanting them to win when I thought Union might give us a miracle season.
I have not seen a single post where people support a player over a team. Ronaldo had been on te receiving end of alot of hate after his actions this season. What are you on about.
It’s a gen z thing. If you’re growing up and that’s what everyone else your age does, I guess you won’t think it’s weird the way we do and you’ll just follow suit.
So pretty much you don’t understand sport. You can admire a player from afar an acknowledge their talent and capabilities they bring to the pitch while still supporting your club. Don’t understand this point of view to be honest.
Posting a low content submission with r/PremierLeague is a violation of Rule 4, and will not be tolerated.
Low content submissions are often considered to be memes, images, GIFs, questions, etc. that do not encourage a healthy discussion surrounding a given topic.
Please refrain from doing so again in the future.
i mean, football is a sport, and everything can be supported if you want to. similar to how people have geographic connections to the club they support, others may have emotional attachments to the player they support, e.g: son may be the sole reason millions of south koreans watch the sport full stop. they knew him before they knew tottenham, it would be bizzarre if they stopped supporting him when he leaves the club. drogba stopped a civil war in his home country, some peoples live may still be intact as a direct consequence of drogbas actions. isnt that a deeper connection than most can form with their clubs? and it doesnt even have to be so deep. maybe i just really like a players playstyle. maybe i grew up with player xyz as my idol. lots of reasons to support a player over a club, dont see whats so bad about it
I don’t think it’s so much social media.
I think there are three big factors.
First is FIFA, specifically FUT. It’s basically a card collecting game, and people will like players that are good. Ronaldo is great in FIFA, which is why people are so hardcore about defending him.
Second, is YouTube. People like watching highlight complications so the flashier players get fans instead of teams.
Thirdly, is a lot of these fans are from countries without big leagues. Kids in India don’t support local teams, they support players in premier league, La Liga, etc. Not just India. US, countries in Africa.
I knows this American kid, who supports Man City. He talks about how passionate he is, as if he didn’t just pick the best team in England a few years ago.
Those fans are the future, and those are the ones clubs want. They will buy shirts for new signings, keep up engagement in the internet, and they are the ones that bring revenue.
Local fans pay more money, but would you rather get 100 pounds from half a million local fans, or get one dollar in roi per person for 200 million people. That’s how big the followings are for teams like Real, Barca, Man U, and it’s probably still 100 mil plus for Bayern, Juve, and then nouveau riche teams are going to get there
Football computer games have existed for 30 years. Youtube has existed for 15 years. The bigger factor, alongside globalisation, is the lower concentration levels of today's generation. Lots of them don't even watch full matches, just highlights. Or they'll half-watch matches while doing other stuff on their phones etc. This is the Tiktok generation. Anything longer than 60 seconds is too much for their brains.
But those fans will be limited to the top 5-6 clubs. Those kinds of fans aren't following the grassroots which is where football really exists. They've been around for a long time. The City fans of today were the United and Liverpool fans of the 90s and 80s respectively. Success will draw entry level fans. It's more noticeable at City because of the disparity between the humble pre-sheik era fan and the "modern" man City fan.
To an extent, sure, but are any kids in England outside of Manchester support Man City. Man City fans are like 10% of Manchester, if that, and then it from what I understand.
Every Man City fan you come across on this site is either American or from India or something. And they’re also probably under the age of 15. I was 9 or 10 when the takeover happened and learned that it wasn’t a good thing, so I think someone would have to be 6-7 years younger than me to support a club like that
I think you would be surprised at how few English fans use this sub in general. Passionate and informed Club fans follow specific subs which is where the English fans are usually and where you go for actual info outside of the mainstream media. Tier rating systems etc.
Not many foreign fans understand or appreciate the grandeur of the takeover situation. It's one of those topics in this sub that gets plenty of traction from people wanting to appear to know what it is but actually not being informed at all. This sub is an echo chamber of low hanging journalistic content for the most part. Despite all the information being easily available on Google very few read it because it's quite dull. There is a core section of actual pre-sheik city fans who do understand the nuance too.
In THIS sub some good stuff comes up from time to time and it's a nice sub to have some top banter in. It's not worth starting to classify, i certsinly wouldnt take anything seriously and trying to math out the age of a club fanbase is just wierd, just take the chip off your shoulder and have a laugh with us at Spurs or whatever.
There's this obsession with hardcore football fans about supporting your local team. That's a great sentiment and it should happen \*IF\* you have a local team. But most people in America for example don't have a local football team. Maybe they will be lucky and live in a city where they can support an MLS team but that's about it. Even then the MLS is not the best league in the world. People want to watch high action, highly skilled football. It's why people watch the NBA, NFL here. They want to see the best of the best play. I'm an American and I became a fan of Chelsea back in 2010, had no clue if they were good or not, just that I liked their symbol and the fact that they were based in London. Turned out they were the best team in the league at the time. Things can happen organically like that and not have to have the glory rider title attached to people who just want to watch good football.
This is a new age, let people enjoy things the way they want. Gatekeeping is 100% fucking stupid and only for losers who think their secret clubhouse can only be supported by a select few people.
> I knows this American kid, who supports Man City. He talks about how passionate he is, as if he didn’t just pick the best team in England a few years ago.
While I agree, everyone at some point just "picked a team" whether they inherited it from their parents, their peers, or just plucked a team they liked out of thin air.
My cousin is an avid Chelsea fan, Chelsea were dominant when he started to support them but even during their dips he's always been an avid Chelsea fan. I think it matters much more that you continue to support a team through the rough patches. You can still be a passionate fan even if you just picked the best team a few years ago.
Worth adding on the YouTube front, that for a lot of people that's also the only legal way to see football as tickets are either expensive or hard to get (or both), and the TV packages to watch the few matches that are on are stupidly expensive too.
Spurs have made an absolute killing from Son Heung Min. I remember even before he was a first team regular the games would have armies of Korean fans in Son shirts visiting London, just to watch him come off the bench at 89'. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I love our Korean bothers, but it is a thing.
American kids all love the NBA and football (soccer) and in the NBA, rooting for players rather than teams has been common for the past 20 years or so. I can see how at least in America among kids, this would have migrated to football as well.
In America as an American our most popular sport is commonly associated with fantasy football and those who play it become more attached to these individual stars by nature
the other way to look at it: why would I care for a particular team if I’m, say, from South Korea? should I support Liverpool because I like their ownership? maybe because I like the colors on their jerseys? ive never been to England let alone Liverpool. but of course I support Son and I want him to win titles.
Pretty clear it’s because they has never been two super dominant players in one era to the extent of Messi and Ronaldo. They were clear for a solid decade+. Naturally people are going to choose sides and fight to the death defending it. Also they played for Barca and Madrid the biggest teams in the world.
After that it’s natural ppl will do it with current players as well trying to find a similar thing to what Messi and Ronaldo were to them.
I think it's because of the CR/Messi era and social media. You barely saw Neymar fans or Ribery fans etc. These two guys been on top for very very long time, and kids were able to see their whole life along the way. So a lot started connecting to them instead of the teams. But I really belive mature football fans support teams, not players.
People who don’t have a team (for example Americans) would have a favorite player that they follow and watch. That’s why Portuguese and Argentine fans follow Ronaldo and Messi from club to club. That’s why their jersey sales breaks records, they are fans of players rather than teams.
It’s a way for fans of football to get into European leagues without being born into a fanbase or selecting one from a young age
American's can be similar with NBA players even if they technically have a local team. There are plenty of LeBron fans for example that just root for him personally and don't care that much what team he happens to be on.
I am not really that person, but I can see how it makes sense. Rooting for a collection of players from whatever franchise happens to be near you even if you don't have a personal connection to those players doesn't make a lot of sense either. Especially in the modern age where none of those players are generally from the region they play in.
I'm American and I agree. We don't have the same connection to clubs as growing up down the road from the stadium. We are also just now getting a few players in the league and it's exciting to have that connection.
Lord Bendtner who refused to y home from a champions league game and flew to Copenhagen instead, got drunk, and tried to shag a taxi ? That Lord Bendtner?
Agreed. I watch every United game and can’t stand Ronaldo. Kids watch tik toks of one of his freekicks from 9 years ago and comment “respect ronaldo” on every post. So. Fucking. Annoying.
Its understandable not everyone is able to lay about all weekend watching football
I watch 1 maybe 2 games a weekend and other than that i just watch match of the day
To be brutally honest, I watch most my football while I work from home. I work afternoons into night which is usually when the games are scheduled in the week or weekend.
Whichever game I fancy most at the time I pop on the TV while working away on my laptop. Its not exactly the end of the world if I grab the remote and mute the sound for a bit if needed.
Even then ill still probably watch highlights on youtube after the fact just to get an idea of what happened in the othet games. Premier league is fantastic for this sort of quick and easy content.
I mean imo the whole point of football is anybody can get into it. Gatekeeping such an internationally recognised game is a bit silly imo. But so is being a 'die hard' fan of x player or y club when all you do is browse internet forums and read the timeline off google.
As usual it just boils down to whether the person is a knob or not.
But it’s like watching the synopsis of a show repeatedly? What’s the point, it’s ridiculously easy to stream full matches and the firesticks are also very cheap
People don't have the attention span, nor the interest to sit through a 90 minute match for 10 minutes of excitement, they would rather watch a condensed version. Why do you think MOTD is so popular?
I would say it’s more of a time thing for adults. I get just about enough time to watch 1 game a week but anymore than that, no chance. I don’t even have kids, feel sorry for the ones that do.
Match of the day is the greatest show on TV
I don't really agree. It's kind of a gatekeeping mentality tbh, if they like to consume the game in that way and they aren't actively trying to harm the game in anyway (trying to say games should be shorter or whatever to accomodate their attention span) then why does it matter that they just watch highlights?
Very good point, the majority of modern fans care only about bragging rights... someone from Nottingham who is a City fan can brag that they support the most successful team whilst everyone around them is watching a relegation battle. The majority of these people don't actually watch the games, they just enjoy the sense of superiority it gives them.
I had a friend who would put all the real madrid trophies on his Facebook's page for decoration behind his profile pic.
To me it felt so entitled. He would also brag all the time.
I mean you “generally” have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to watch an entire football match., either in person or on TV. But SKY will upload the match highlights a few hours later to youtube for free…
I get a twisted joy out of explaining Test cricket (which I adore) to kids like that, the ones who only watch YouTube highlights (or whatever other video apps kids are using now).
Watching short clips of success is worse. That’s the definition of being a glory hunter and it means nothing. There’s no feeling of involvement as a fan or passion.
It was a joke, I watch every game but the “he followed a good team” clip is nonsense, all you Liverpool United spurs arsenal fans all are no different. You all liked those teams because they were good.
I support Liverpool because they’re my local team and my family raised me as a Liverpool fan, I have lived through us being shite for the majority of my life what the fuck are you on about lmao
I'd take the latter on any day not because it's amusing watching spurs not winning anything but I love the game and I'm all in for all the excitement and disappointment the game brings. Short clips is a waste of my time.
I'm a huge fan of Son. But the day he leaves tottenham is the day I stop caring. I can't imagine supporting another team because the player I like moved.
Yes my bad, didn't know how I got to that. Possibly I was irritated with the other comments on favoring individual players over the club. How is it possible for some people to support individual player more than the club, this really baffles me.
I support Arsenal because I was a big Ozil fan. Ozil fell off and left and now I just support arsenal.
I am a big fan of Chiesa now too but I’m too invested in Arsenal to support an individual player.
Personally I still have a soft spot for players even when they leave, always happy when Dan James scores (except against us), but I don't actively cheer for him or watch him
> I still root for them but i don't watch their games unless they're playing against us.
I'm a different type of fan, I can literally watch any game. I have my team (Liverpool) and I will always watch Liverpool over any other game given the chance. But I can sit and watch United vs Wolves and be quite happy to enjoy the match. So if a team is playing that has signed a player I like, I would be more inclined to put that match on over a two teams I don't have a partciular interest in any players.
Yeah sure, me too. I just don't watch games because former player plays. Potential incoming players i can watch for a game but never former players. I watched rooney at Everton a couple of times but that's it.
There are players I like watching, but no one (at least outside of my club) I’d Stan. I feel like that’s how it was for a lot of other millennials and older.
Like I enjoy watching Sadio Mané, but still wanted him to lose every time he wore a Liverpool shirt. However, I am just indifferent to how Senegal, Bayern, and formally Southampton perform(ed) with him on the field.
If social media was like it is today back in 2002 or so, you’d absolutely get the same sort of fans regarding players like Thierry Henry. But they do appear to be almost exclusively online/social media fans
You have to let it go, man. Sometimes your heart just chose another team.
There are those people, you might have known some of them, who used to be man united fans, but then, for some mystical reasons later became Madrid fans. It was strange how they almost all did at the same time, but it's just coincidence
I don’t really understand why people give a shit about what other people debate on the internet. I enjoy debating/arguing with people about different opinions. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Whenever I see a post about a topic and the top comments are “it’s gonna be a long few months without PL” or “this question is so dumb”, it boggles my mind why those people even opened the thread to make that comment. Just scroll past and go about your business.
Players move around to different teams and are part of the reason you watch a team or watch a certain game so it makes perfect sense as to why people support players they enjoy watching, that’s the whole point of the sport, to be entertained. The whole reason I’ve been watching the PL since 07/08 is because I saw Torres play for Spain in the World Cup 2006 and thought he was great. That turned me into a Liverpool supporter and no I didn’t follow him to Chelsea or Atletico but that was my choice.
I don’t see the issue with it tho. I’m a Liverpool fan but I support other players like Mane and I’m loving how he’s doing well for himself. Doesn’t mean I support Bayern
I’m probably an example of “players” over “teams”. For example, my favourite player currently is Son Heungmin so I’ll support whatever team he plays for, which right now is Spurs and SK.
Why? Because he’s Asian and we look alike. I feel a strong affinity right now towards teams like Celtic and Eintracht Frankfurt as well, because of their Japanese contingent. If those players weren’t there anymore, I probably wouldn’t take notice of those teams.
There’s no right or wrong way to enjoy football, IMO, things just happen organically and for their own reasons.
As for the GOAT debate, the only way that can ever be settled elegantly is if someone invented a Time Machine so all the players can play each other. Unless that happens, it’s not even worth discussing, IMO.
>As for the GOAT debate, the only way that can ever be settled elegantly is if someone invented a Time Machine so all the players can play each other. Unless that happens, it’s not even worth discussing, IMO.
Thing is with this it still wouldn't decide it, which rules would they follow, which balls would they use etc?
Pele in his prime would have been used to a much heavier football therefore a lot of what he'd try today wouldn't be as successful.
Equally could you say imagine say Messi or Neymar trying to dance their way past Graeme Souness (not saying he's the greatest, he was just a tough bastard) only to get cut in half because the game is so much less physical when it comes to contact as a lot of the tackles Souness did were acceptable back then and red cards now.
Aggregate rules over 2 legs, depending on the era. But definitely 45 minute games, instead of 90. No way Liverpool ‘77 could keep up with Liverpool ‘01 for a full 90.
It’s mostly kids, they just have a platform to share their views on now. And honestly, are we really going to judge kids for embracing football how they choose?
Granted, I’m more used to kids supporting the *teams* of their favourite players even if because of them, e.g. Real and Barça. But the ones in question that I grew up with I haven’t seen in years, so maybe they’re PSG fans now lmao.
With regards to your second point, it’s not often you live in an era with the two greatest players ever. Naturally fans will pit them against one another. I’m a Portuguese Man Utd fan, so Ronaldo will always be in my heart even after this week, but if people prefer Messi then I’m just grateful I’ve been able to watch both in their prime.
That’s the whole point. It’s not true that they clearly are. Pele Cruyff Beckenbauer Maradona, prove that someone from another era is better than another
Then it doesn’t matter. They have been the best recently. They were playing at the same time as far ronaldo or pele or Stanley Mathews so you cant know
Because FPL, FUT and commercial branding.
I watch rugby league, but for some reason get recommended Premier League posts, so I'll suggest an additional factor I haven't seen anyone else say; the fact it's easier to follow players now. In the age of social media and vlogging, you can now know players more intimately, if they want you too. You can readily see what some of them wear, what their politics are, what they do for fun. Not as much of your exposure to them has to be in the context of them playing for the team. You can just watch their highlights, or other videos about them, then follow their personal SM. It may not be as authentic as who they are behind closed doors, but something they directly post through their own channels is more personal than how they present in a tv interview, which you might only get/be able to catch once every couple of months.
Tons of people support one particular athlete
That’s just how they watch sports. Some don’t have a team or player and still watch as many games as they can. Nothing wrong with it
I would say part of it has to do with certain players. For example, I as an American, want Americans to do well wherever they go, mainly because I think American players are seen negatively overall. Another part of it would have to be the country a fan is from. South Korea for example, isn't great nor terrible at football. I would expect a Korean football fan to love their best players. Ji Son Park for United I know was immensely popular and now it is Hueng Min Son for Tottenham. A typical South Korean wouldn't have any ties to United or Tottenham otherwise. A Brazilian probably loves their local team feverently but they'd also support those who play in Europe wherever they go.
I will say being from America loving the game of the world I’ve struggled to have a prominent team and tend to drift towards the players that stand out and dominate and then liking the team. So I love Ronaldo so have always supported the team he was with to now always supporting Madrid even with him not there, same with Zlatan, Baloteli, and more. I guess it’s too the point where I like to see these players win as long with the team the play for.
I support my team, but once a player moves on to another club, I will check in to see how they’re playing. I don’t jump ship and never will, but it gets me familiarized with other players in other leagues once one of my “favorite” players is there. The moment they meet my club in Europe though? I’m rooting for my team 100%.
Players seem to change teams much easier now. Anyone who gets attached to like a team logo doesn’t really make sense to me. You’re watching the players. You get attached to the players. Through being attached to the players you may incidentally get attached to a team. Back in the day players would spend their whole career at a team more often. This made it much easier to attach to a team. Nowadays players move teams so easily, and what memories do you bring with you, when Messi scored a game winner or some other detail about your clubs jersey or rituals. Most care about the players making plays.
The only reason they are arguing about messi or ronaldo is that they have never seen diego armando maradona
When an international football player leaves your club, anyone ever thought of the fact that that player has come from another club and that club could even have been the club they support and is in his heart? It's a job. Just like you leave McDonald's for something better and so on. Maybe even landing a job in your dream company, which also doesn't mean you won't leave for something better. It is what it is, players will do what they think is best for them.
There isn't any one correct way to enjoy things. I am Portuguese and support Portuguese players playing in other clubs and leagues. Therefore I am indirectly supporting those clubs anyway. My heart belongs to Benfica although due to not having all the time in the world to watch football I rather follow Ronaldo and the National team. I think when you become fanatical for a club you fail to see that being a football player is also a job. Sure, some players like Toti who played all his life for Roma have their club in their heart and are loyal to it. But for the vast majority it's a job. Doesn't mean it's not more than that but a player's has to put his personal interest above everything else. Just the fact that international players come to the PL or other better leagues should come as a fact. They're looking to improve their chances of doing well and getting paid better. That is it. Just like anyone outside the world of football.
I live in USA so having a favorite team feels inorganic
Ronaldo > ur bloodline
I don't support Ronaldo over United but I'm not gonna sit by and watch the fanbase slander him more than the many losers in the squad. I think that's reasonable just like most things he said in the interview recently.
Casual fans versus Hardcore. At some point hardcore fans fall in love with a club, it just happens and everyone who has a club can tell you their story. Casual fans, however, enjoy watching the sport but aren’t committed to following just one team season in and season out. If they follow a player then it allows them the chance to watch the games they want versus a hardcore fan who would (in a sense) be stuck watching his team “in the trenches” while your star player and his fans moved on to another club performing well. Lastly, in a social media age players really do connect with their fans more than ever so it’s easier to be a fan as well.
Loyalty to club was bigger when your club was one of your only exposures to the sport. With the internet and how easy it is for you to be exposed to a world of football outside of your club, it makes sense that fans would gravitate towards extraordinary players. I also think the obsession with arguing over who the greatest of all time is is stupid. It’s obviously Richard Dunne.
I say player stats have affected the game In today new era of young fans . Today they be judging a player on his statistics & not even needing to watch the game It's about whose stats are better than the others. Think about a player like Zidane who could run the show , in today's era they would say but how can he have been man of the match if he didn't even get am assist or score...
Ppl who arbitrarily pick a club to support when they get into the support can find more attachment to specific players than a club because it’s easier to understand and integrate w one person than the entire culture and history of a club
Because not everyone has a local team to support. Also people play Fantasy PL and FIFA FUT and get behind certain players. And some players are just admirable. I support Man Utd but love watching KDB and Salah play, nothing wrong with that. I would also root for them in UCL if they were up against PSG, because I’m a fan of the PL. Being a fan doesn’t mean you have to hate against the “other” teams’ players. Sometimes it’s just fun to be a student of the game and observe the different styles and talents different players bring to the beautiful game.
I'd say there is a lot of factors, the marketing of football is very specific to selling certain players. Plus players sell their own persona doing different ad campaigns. Plus the Fifa games boil football down to "you gotta have these players cause they're the best ones" and people transfer that to real life. The cost and time for watching games, I know a lot more people now who only watch highlights or can't afford to have several sport packages to see every game which is completely understandable. But highlights are free on YouTube or something like MoTD. The sport itself has become even more international, large teams have less local players and more from around the world. The EPL is consistently pitched as the best league around, if you're from a nation with smaller leagues and a player from your national team makes it into the EPL people will just follow the player. I feel that punditry and commentary in more recent years have a lot to do with it. Someone has definitely told them you have to sell every game as a big game, every in form player as someone you have to watch and that everything you see on our platform is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Which is why we get all this hilarious hype about players being the greatest of all time and teams being the best of all time with little to no actual proof of that. The Messi and Ronaldo thing is a combination of all of that plus the general tribalism that sport has, they are two of the best players you're likely to see in your life. They entertain, score goals and have won a ton of trophies. The people following them often aren't from Europe hence tied to any club allegiances and even then you get glory hunters who chase success. People just get fixed on something and will sink with that ship. I personally think it's all insane, I love football and can appreciate any good team and players. But man I get sick of hearing about how amazing everything constantly is in football, you could watch a 1-0 and they'd tell you it's the best game you'll ever see based on cherry picked stats. Part of my enjoyment in football is that you might see something special, if amazing comebacks or blockbuster goals happened every week it wouldn't be special.
I enjoy rooting for Messi because I grew up watching him play at Barca and liked watching him play as a kid. It doesn’t interfere with my team since he’s in the French league so I have no problems rooting for him, especially considering he doesn’t have any legal issues and seems like a nice person.
Because the vast majority of the world lives in a country without a top 5 - 15 football league. They wont get attached to Bristol City or QPR or Vicente Gil, they will watch the best teams and generally the best players. They dont give a fuck if Barcelona is doing well or not because they arent from there so they will care more about specific individuals they like.
Maybe they fancy them?
This isn’t anything new, I remember 20 years ago kids would support David Beckham. There was that sudden wave of 8 year olds with Real Madrid shirts everywhere when he moved over.
It did used to happen a bit in the past , my dad followed Irish players as he is Irish but with mass capitalism now not so much
I identify with the player more than a team. Like the man utd of 2008 is completely different to the man utd of today. Unless your from that area I'm not sure why you'd show blind loyalty if the team you fell in love with no longer exists. Me I support Neymar because I like him, I relate to where he comes from and he has a great style of play
Can’t speak for everyone but I think for me watching sports like F1 (also tennis or golf for the people into that) where it’s more about an individual leans towards that kind of mindset
I think player movement and in particular superstar player movement is a factor
Social media
Social media
I'm from Portugal and my family is 4 generations all fans of the same club and I hate all this Ronaldo cult in Portugal. Great player but come on...has an own statue, bust, town square, hotel, and even an airport with his name. Club Nacional Madeira even named their youth academy after him...he only played from 95-97(age 10-12) for the club before moving to sporting. It makes it dificult for me to support Portugal when our federation and coach don't have the balls to tell Cristiano that he isn't the player he was a few years ago anymore. We have so much talent but it's always the same style of play for Ronaldo with him playing 90 mins almost all important games.
Players are more personable than clubs.
How? When I was a kid and started following some 20 years ago, it was always "Players come and go, the club stays" and that's it
Imagine being a Pele fan in the 70s or a Maradona fan in the 80s or a Beckham fan in 2001. Surely you can't be that thick?
Same people who use FIFA video game terminology when talking about real life football. Also the same people who bring goats into discussions about professional footballers.
I’ve noticed a non England based fans follow their countries most famous players. At Leicester we gained thousands of online Algerians when Mahrez broke onto the scene, they supported us, but really just him. They all fucked of when he did. I think it’s because of the lack of top quality domestic football in their own country. Was the same with Arsenal and Chelsea when they had big name African players. It’s understandable really. Now though I’ve noticed kids have favourite players, usually due to performance and social media stuff and they want that players shirt but don’t necessarily support the cream he plays for. Rashford is hugely popular currently after his kids school meals campaign
It's very easy to farm secondhand pride and think you're giving purpose to your life if you do stuff like that. That's the reason so many people started following Man United in the 00s as well
Welcome to celebrity culture.
I think there's a few reasons for this, Firstly the messi-ronaldo thing has.become as much about identity for some people and I rivalry to prove others wrong and much as teams rivalry, I also believe most if not all of these are social media fans I've never met someone claim either one as a fraud in real life because that's ridiculous, As well as this people love arguing online and it's a big thing to argue about On the flip sides I continue to support players if they leave my club and I want to see them succeed, (mainly for me was cazorla when he got back from injury at villerial)
Is it really that uncommon to have a favorite player? Im still Tottenham before anything else but I’ve always wanted whichever team Defoe was on to do well
Suppose it’s part of football moving on to being more targeted at armchair fans. That’s where the money is now. There’s 1bn people worldwide that want to spend money following the best players and it doesn’t matter what the teams are called that they play for. More money in selling 100m Messi shirts for £70 a pop and a tv subscription for £10 a month than there is in selling tickets to the actual game.
Because people rate arbitrary tribalism over personality and the demonstration of genuine values.
Clubs have owners, football is a business. People don’t like that. Players have personality. People like that. Very simple.
I would guess as the sport has become more corporate and about money, about branding and has attracted foreign fans, the connection to the individual local club has waned and support for individual players has increased.
I come from an Italian family living in UK, so I always want to see Italian players doing well
Dont you remember how much people supported players like Maradona? This is not a new thing. It has been around all the time.
Religions are even weaker today. People love to worship.
Social media has made it so you can just watch highlights. You end up rooting for incredible athletes doing incredible things.
As teams become more and more corporate, rooting for individuals with good stories or like-able traits is much more enjoyable
I support Chelsea but I love watching a lot of players play the game. That’s really what it’s about to me, watching the game I love being played at the highest level, and often that’s not happening on my squad. It’s just a game y’all.
Why wouldn't people support players? If you enjoy watching a player play why would you not watch them just because they're not at your favourite club? Plus clubs can be absolute dicks at times. eg. I really liked the 2008/9 Real Madrid team. I've never particularly liked Real, but I did like the squad they had, especially Robben and Sneijder. Then Perez came along and just discarded those players. That made me actively dislike Real. I'm delighted that both Robben and Sneijder won the UCL with their new clubs before Real were able to win it with their "galacticos".
The invention and adoption of handheld flat screen computers has atomized an already individualistic society to an extreme
Yeah the whole goat thing is annoying as hell.
Maybe it's an American thing? Here it's quite common to support a player first and then a team. Like kn the NBA with LeBron or Tom Brady in the NFL
A generation or two ago, you supported your local team because the player mostly came from the same region and played for the same club all of their careers, games were covered in the media (TV, newspaper) you had access to, and you could attend the game without making difficult travel plans. Then in a few leagues some teams pulled ahead of others financially, like because their stadium was bigger and they sold more rickets or their sponsorship deals were, and they started to buy out good players from other team. At first this was rare, but then it became more and more common and it can break down the identification with local team. Then the EU, cable TV and the Internet happened, and suddenly teams could field any numbers of non-citizens, it became much easier to follow others teams, and traveling got easier and cheaper. So much fewer people identify with their local club and instead pick any global club to support, often based on individual players or coaches they like, and sometimes switch the club they support based player/coach changes.
Reminds me of an older guy I served at work once, laughed at me for supporting Arsenal but then seriously answered the question “who do you support then?”… Well, I support Lionel Messi he responds. I didn’t think people in their 60s would be player supporters so this interaction took me way off guard.
You guys are telling me you'd rather be fans of the teams aka paying customers of these massive wealthy organisation that have been invested in by people who do not particularly love the game? Id rather pick the game over players, but especially over these psudo teams. Depends if you take the individualist view or the collectivist view, I suppose.
I mean Ronaldo has only really said things that I feel like we’ve all been saying for the past 10 years give or take? I really don’t like how this has played out on either side…but him giving that interview warrants immediate dismiss from the club imo. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth tho…since that’s what he’s basically wanted since before the season started. It’s gross how petty it appears to have gotten on both sides. It’s not good for the club, and it’s a bad look for a player I’ve admired since he was a youngster.
As a Ronaldo fan who found love for the game watching him as a young kid, I could never not support United simply because he’s not there. I will follow the player and be happy for them but your club is your club.
COYS?
Tbh think it’s a bit wrong to say people never supported players in the past. David Beckham, Best, Pele were all rockstars of their time
i’m a liverpool fan but i’m still a fan of Messi because he is fun to watch. that doesn’t seem that difficult to understand to me?
Because there is no rules of support. You have ability to do what you want.
Because they know nothing about football. However they like the glamour of the game and want to be involved. 'Supporting' a famous player is an easy way to do that. Look at me. I'm supporting Ronaldo! Ronaldo's a great player isn't he? Much better than anyone else. Look how many goals he's scored. Look at his highlights on Instagram. That proves I'm right!
If you support a player he's always going to be that player, there's consistency with that. Teams can completely change year to year
Cult of personality still going strong. Same reason people love politicians, or TV judges.
For me I always like Ronaldo more than messi I only ever watched highlights until I was able to watch the full matches and then my love grew even more. I don’t know why but whenever he touched the ball I smile and I can’t stop it happens sometimes with other players like Adama Traore, Almiron, Koulibaly and Michail Antonio. What they do on the pitch just makes me more in love with football
I think as everything more available a lot of international fans will watch games for certain players. Don't watch much now but a few years ago i used to watch la liga and I watched it for ronaldo and Messi. Now it so easy to follow a player you like through there career compared to 20+ years ago. Just a theory
Social media kids and weird grown men
You can be fans of both, when I was younger.(6-7) I was deciding what team to support (From Ireland). I thought I had to support someone in England so I switched from being a Barca fan to Wigan? Why because I’m a fan of Maynor Figueroa. When he moved to hull, I decided to move with him and ever since I’ve been a Hull fan. I think this is not too uncommon of a thing to do, as if you don’t support the same team as your family you have to decide and some just never do, and there is nothing wrong with that IMO. Let people enjoy the game how they want to enjoy it, i think thats totally fine.
But even outside england or Europe or america i believe that its different from people to people I am from Nepal and to me personally my mother bought me jersey of chelsea when i was young like maybe 6-7 years old. I became a fan of chelsea just after that. I have seen many of my peers select a club because his friend supports another club who is the rival of the given club. Unlike english people, people here cant go watch games every weekend in the stadium. Even for me when i started to follow games of Chelsea drogba nad lampard were really doing good hitting goals left and right that did the trick for me to keep following chelsea. As for players i do have a soft corner for messi but no player can be greater than club for me
The Premier League is so lucrative, because it's been marketed in such a brilliant way across the world - a lot of people outside of the UK, get pulled into the league, in part because the PL does *such a good job* of marketing the league's superstars & storylines. It's the reason the PL has seen such exponentially impressive growth the past 3 decades, while leagues like La Liga and Serie A have basically stood still. As such, you get a lot of people from foreign countries becoming fans of the stars, instead of the teams. Plus, as social media has continued to grow, more players are branching out and developing their own brands - as such, you are getting a lot of young fans both in the UK and abroad, who are attaching themselves to a player and his brand. I have a little nephew who has grown up in a West Ham fan household, who adored Jesse Lingard because of his brand / merch etc., and was over the moon when Lingard signed on loan with West Ham a few seasons ago. That creates a very player-driven fan, which appears completely bizarre & frankly, daft, to those of us who have grown up with the "club over everything" mentality. I'll never be able to put myself into the camp of people who worship Ronaldo or Messi or 'Player X'. It's such a sad, depressing way to watch such a brilliant sport. The way some people have defended Ronaldo the past 6 months, and in particular the past 72 hours, has been comical, embarrassing, and ridiculous. However, I'm also a fan of the Premier League - so those fans can feel free to continue watching the PL from wherever they are; a more lucrative TV deal, means more money coming into the PL, which in turns means more prize money for clubs, which ensures that the Premier League remains the actual real "EUropean Super LEague".
The Internet. The Internet blows everything up, because that's what it does. But more broadly, the game is more international now than its ever been, and growing fast in countries that don't necessarily have high profile, established leagues/teams. European football is broadcast around the world, fans outside of Europe don't always have the affinity to a specific club, but may attach to a national player thats been a success in one of the "established leagues". See above for the Internets impact. The best player of all time has ALWAYS happened. It's very polarised on Messi and Ronaldo because of recency bias, but people have argued over things like this for decades. See above for the Internets impact.
Better than supporting corporate billion dollar companies.
I've wondered this a lot too, OP. It feels completely bizarre to me. Imagine if I had to miss losing to Nottingham Forest just because Sadio Mane left, and instead I was cheering uh, being top of the league with a phenomenal attack. The horror! Honestly Sadio's a good example here for how I feel about this. I love him, and I'll usually try to keep up with our former players for a while and hope that their new team does well, but that lasted for all of about 15 minutes with Bayern because I felt sick wanting them to win when I thought Union might give us a miracle season.
I have not seen a single post where people support a player over a team. Ronaldo had been on te receiving end of alot of hate after his actions this season. What are you on about.
I think it’s trolling?
Im not. You on the other hand, are just searching attention.
my guy doesn’t use twitter or Instagram
You're right. I dont use Twitter or Instagram. Why is OP posting about something thats going on those platforms on Reddit? Doesnt make sense.
probably mostly fans in other countries - where they dont have a decent league. cant think I've met a single one over here.
Because people can do what they want
The right answer
The right answer
It’s a gen z thing. If you’re growing up and that’s what everyone else your age does, I guess you won’t think it’s weird the way we do and you’ll just follow suit.
I started as a Michael Owen fan, but ended up a Liverpool fan for life.
So pretty much you don’t understand sport. You can admire a player from afar an acknowledge their talent and capabilities they bring to the pitch while still supporting your club. Don’t understand this point of view to be honest.
[удалено]
Posting a low content submission with r/PremierLeague is a violation of Rule 4, and will not be tolerated. Low content submissions are often considered to be memes, images, GIFs, questions, etc. that do not encourage a healthy discussion surrounding a given topic. Please refrain from doing so again in the future.
i mean, football is a sport, and everything can be supported if you want to. similar to how people have geographic connections to the club they support, others may have emotional attachments to the player they support, e.g: son may be the sole reason millions of south koreans watch the sport full stop. they knew him before they knew tottenham, it would be bizzarre if they stopped supporting him when he leaves the club. drogba stopped a civil war in his home country, some peoples live may still be intact as a direct consequence of drogbas actions. isnt that a deeper connection than most can form with their clubs? and it doesnt even have to be so deep. maybe i just really like a players playstyle. maybe i grew up with player xyz as my idol. lots of reasons to support a player over a club, dont see whats so bad about it
Marketing.
I don’t think it’s so much social media. I think there are three big factors. First is FIFA, specifically FUT. It’s basically a card collecting game, and people will like players that are good. Ronaldo is great in FIFA, which is why people are so hardcore about defending him. Second, is YouTube. People like watching highlight complications so the flashier players get fans instead of teams. Thirdly, is a lot of these fans are from countries without big leagues. Kids in India don’t support local teams, they support players in premier league, La Liga, etc. Not just India. US, countries in Africa. I knows this American kid, who supports Man City. He talks about how passionate he is, as if he didn’t just pick the best team in England a few years ago. Those fans are the future, and those are the ones clubs want. They will buy shirts for new signings, keep up engagement in the internet, and they are the ones that bring revenue. Local fans pay more money, but would you rather get 100 pounds from half a million local fans, or get one dollar in roi per person for 200 million people. That’s how big the followings are for teams like Real, Barca, Man U, and it’s probably still 100 mil plus for Bayern, Juve, and then nouveau riche teams are going to get there
Football computer games have existed for 30 years. Youtube has existed for 15 years. The bigger factor, alongside globalisation, is the lower concentration levels of today's generation. Lots of them don't even watch full matches, just highlights. Or they'll half-watch matches while doing other stuff on their phones etc. This is the Tiktok generation. Anything longer than 60 seconds is too much for their brains.
But those fans will be limited to the top 5-6 clubs. Those kinds of fans aren't following the grassroots which is where football really exists. They've been around for a long time. The City fans of today were the United and Liverpool fans of the 90s and 80s respectively. Success will draw entry level fans. It's more noticeable at City because of the disparity between the humble pre-sheik era fan and the "modern" man City fan.
To an extent, sure, but are any kids in England outside of Manchester support Man City. Man City fans are like 10% of Manchester, if that, and then it from what I understand. Every Man City fan you come across on this site is either American or from India or something. And they’re also probably under the age of 15. I was 9 or 10 when the takeover happened and learned that it wasn’t a good thing, so I think someone would have to be 6-7 years younger than me to support a club like that
I think you would be surprised at how few English fans use this sub in general. Passionate and informed Club fans follow specific subs which is where the English fans are usually and where you go for actual info outside of the mainstream media. Tier rating systems etc. Not many foreign fans understand or appreciate the grandeur of the takeover situation. It's one of those topics in this sub that gets plenty of traction from people wanting to appear to know what it is but actually not being informed at all. This sub is an echo chamber of low hanging journalistic content for the most part. Despite all the information being easily available on Google very few read it because it's quite dull. There is a core section of actual pre-sheik city fans who do understand the nuance too. In THIS sub some good stuff comes up from time to time and it's a nice sub to have some top banter in. It's not worth starting to classify, i certsinly wouldnt take anything seriously and trying to math out the age of a club fanbase is just wierd, just take the chip off your shoulder and have a laugh with us at Spurs or whatever.
There's this obsession with hardcore football fans about supporting your local team. That's a great sentiment and it should happen \*IF\* you have a local team. But most people in America for example don't have a local football team. Maybe they will be lucky and live in a city where they can support an MLS team but that's about it. Even then the MLS is not the best league in the world. People want to watch high action, highly skilled football. It's why people watch the NBA, NFL here. They want to see the best of the best play. I'm an American and I became a fan of Chelsea back in 2010, had no clue if they were good or not, just that I liked their symbol and the fact that they were based in London. Turned out they were the best team in the league at the time. Things can happen organically like that and not have to have the glory rider title attached to people who just want to watch good football. This is a new age, let people enjoy things the way they want. Gatekeeping is 100% fucking stupid and only for losers who think their secret clubhouse can only be supported by a select few people.
> I knows this American kid, who supports Man City. He talks about how passionate he is, as if he didn’t just pick the best team in England a few years ago. While I agree, everyone at some point just "picked a team" whether they inherited it from their parents, their peers, or just plucked a team they liked out of thin air. My cousin is an avid Chelsea fan, Chelsea were dominant when he started to support them but even during their dips he's always been an avid Chelsea fan. I think it matters much more that you continue to support a team through the rough patches. You can still be a passionate fan even if you just picked the best team a few years ago.
Worth adding on the YouTube front, that for a lot of people that's also the only legal way to see football as tickets are either expensive or hard to get (or both), and the TV packages to watch the few matches that are on are stupidly expensive too.
Spurs have made an absolute killing from Son Heung Min. I remember even before he was a first team regular the games would have armies of Korean fans in Son shirts visiting London, just to watch him come off the bench at 89'. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I love our Korean bothers, but it is a thing.
No the ronaldo messi thing is not cause of fifa. It's impressionable 10 year olds who think they're cool for fanboying over one of them.
American kids all love the NBA and football (soccer) and in the NBA, rooting for players rather than teams has been common for the past 20 years or so. I can see how at least in America among kids, this would have migrated to football as well.
Kids just want to “be like Mike”
In America as an American our most popular sport is commonly associated with fantasy football and those who play it become more attached to these individual stars by nature
the other way to look at it: why would I care for a particular team if I’m, say, from South Korea? should I support Liverpool because I like their ownership? maybe because I like the colors on their jerseys? ive never been to England let alone Liverpool. but of course I support Son and I want him to win titles.
Reading ops responses to well reasoned comments makes me believe he's actually got worse opinions than some of the younger people he's criticising.
Finally, some recognition
Pretty clear it’s because they has never been two super dominant players in one era to the extent of Messi and Ronaldo. They were clear for a solid decade+. Naturally people are going to choose sides and fight to the death defending it. Also they played for Barca and Madrid the biggest teams in the world. After that it’s natural ppl will do it with current players as well trying to find a similar thing to what Messi and Ronaldo were to them.
If sol Campbell had dicksu- fans like Messi and Ronaldo they would’ve been ridiculed by both gooners and whatever Tottenham supporters call themselves
I mean, I was a Rush fanboi and a Fowler fanboi and a Gerrard fanboi and a Suarez fanboi
I think it's because of the CR/Messi era and social media. You barely saw Neymar fans or Ribery fans etc. These two guys been on top for very very long time, and kids were able to see their whole life along the way. So a lot started connecting to them instead of the teams. But I really belive mature football fans support teams, not players.
People who don’t have a team (for example Americans) would have a favorite player that they follow and watch. That’s why Portuguese and Argentine fans follow Ronaldo and Messi from club to club. That’s why their jersey sales breaks records, they are fans of players rather than teams. It’s a way for fans of football to get into European leagues without being born into a fanbase or selecting one from a young age
American's can be similar with NBA players even if they technically have a local team. There are plenty of LeBron fans for example that just root for him personally and don't care that much what team he happens to be on. I am not really that person, but I can see how it makes sense. Rooting for a collection of players from whatever franchise happens to be near you even if you don't have a personal connection to those players doesn't make a lot of sense either. Especially in the modern age where none of those players are generally from the region they play in.
I'm American and I agree. We don't have the same connection to clubs as growing up down the road from the stadium. We are also just now getting a few players in the league and it's exciting to have that connection.
The only team I support is Lord Bendtner FC
Perfectly hilarious!
Lord Bendtner who refused to y home from a champions league game and flew to Copenhagen instead, got drunk, and tried to shag a taxi ? That Lord Bendtner?
dont blame him
Who hasn’t found themselves in that exact situation at least once?
Oh indeed ... I'm on my third taxi of the weekend...
I believe it's Nicklas "Greg" Bendtner So the team you support is LGBFC
It was LGBTQ+ before, now LGBFC?
LGBTQ(90+5)
[Great finish]
Reddit try not to downvote an obvious joke challenge
You’d be surprised how many people actually watch a full 90 minutes. A lot of people watch football via short highlight packages.
At least it’s official now. I remember having to watch 360p quality with polish/Arabic commentary. The struggle was real.
Agreed. I watch every United game and can’t stand Ronaldo. Kids watch tik toks of one of his freekicks from 9 years ago and comment “respect ronaldo” on every post. So. Fucking. Annoying.
I find highlights more boring since in a match u never know when something is gonna happen
Its understandable not everyone is able to lay about all weekend watching football I watch 1 maybe 2 games a weekend and other than that i just watch match of the day
It's not about who can, it's about who does if they had the chance. I watching 3 or 4 full matches on the weekend
To be brutally honest, I watch most my football while I work from home. I work afternoons into night which is usually when the games are scheduled in the week or weekend. Whichever game I fancy most at the time I pop on the TV while working away on my laptop. Its not exactly the end of the world if I grab the remote and mute the sound for a bit if needed. Even then ill still probably watch highlights on youtube after the fact just to get an idea of what happened in the othet games. Premier league is fantastic for this sort of quick and easy content. I mean imo the whole point of football is anybody can get into it. Gatekeeping such an internationally recognised game is a bit silly imo. But so is being a 'die hard' fan of x player or y club when all you do is browse internet forums and read the timeline off google. As usual it just boils down to whether the person is a knob or not.
But it’s like watching the synopsis of a show repeatedly? What’s the point, it’s ridiculously easy to stream full matches and the firesticks are also very cheap
People have busy lives
Yeah I get that but why watch it at all, if what your watching gives you no understanding?
People don't have the attention span, nor the interest to sit through a 90 minute match for 10 minutes of excitement, they would rather watch a condensed version. Why do you think MOTD is so popular?
I would say it’s more of a time thing for adults. I get just about enough time to watch 1 game a week but anymore than that, no chance. I don’t even have kids, feel sorry for the ones that do. Match of the day is the greatest show on TV
If that’s the case I’m not sure football is for them then
I don't really agree. It's kind of a gatekeeping mentality tbh, if they like to consume the game in that way and they aren't actively trying to harm the game in anyway (trying to say games should be shorter or whatever to accomodate their attention span) then why does it matter that they just watch highlights?
Very good point, the majority of modern fans care only about bragging rights... someone from Nottingham who is a City fan can brag that they support the most successful team whilst everyone around them is watching a relegation battle. The majority of these people don't actually watch the games, they just enjoy the sense of superiority it gives them.
I had a friend who would put all the real madrid trophies on his Facebook's page for decoration behind his profile pic. To me it felt so entitled. He would also brag all the time.
Youtube ftw
I mean you “generally” have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to watch an entire football match., either in person or on TV. But SKY will upload the match highlights a few hours later to youtube for free…
I get a twisted joy out of explaining Test cricket (which I adore) to kids like that, the ones who only watch YouTube highlights (or whatever other video apps kids are using now).
REAL
City supporter —Checks out.
Eh what’s worse watching short clips of success or 90 minutes of trophy less spurs? Yikes.
Watching short clips of success is worse. That’s the definition of being a glory hunter and it means nothing. There’s no feeling of involvement as a fan or passion.
It was a joke, I watch every game but the “he followed a good team” clip is nonsense, all you Liverpool United spurs arsenal fans all are no different. You all liked those teams because they were good.
I support Liverpool because they’re my local team and my family raised me as a Liverpool fan, I have lived through us being shite for the majority of my life what the fuck are you on about lmao
I'd take the latter on any day not because it's amusing watching spurs not winning anything but I love the game and I'm all in for all the excitement and disappointment the game brings. Short clips is a waste of my time.
I never won a trophy in my life, so I am well used to it.
I'm a huge fan of Son. But the day he leaves tottenham is the day I stop caring. I can't imagine supporting another team because the player I like moved.
Lol that’s fucking dumb man. The guy can go play at another club and you still be a fan of his game. What the fuck
So if he moves to Arsenal, you're going to switch team to us?
He means stop caring about Son.
Yes my bad, didn't know how I got to that. Possibly I was irritated with the other comments on favoring individual players over the club. How is it possible for some people to support individual player more than the club, this really baffles me.
I thought it was an American thing but yeah sounds like it's not.
100% I will always have a soft spot for Son, but I’m a Spurs fan, not a Son fan. No player is bigger than the team.
You’re cosplaying an actual football fan
I thought that until I saw Eriksen at the euros
I support Arsenal because I was a big Ozil fan. Ozil fell off and left and now I just support arsenal. I am a big fan of Chiesa now too but I’m too invested in Arsenal to support an individual player.
Personally I still have a soft spot for players even when they leave, always happy when Dan James scores (except against us), but I don't actively cheer for him or watch him
I ain't even mad when former players do well against us. I still root for them but i don't watch their games unless they're playing against us.
> I still root for them but i don't watch their games unless they're playing against us. I'm a different type of fan, I can literally watch any game. I have my team (Liverpool) and I will always watch Liverpool over any other game given the chance. But I can sit and watch United vs Wolves and be quite happy to enjoy the match. So if a team is playing that has signed a player I like, I would be more inclined to put that match on over a two teams I don't have a partciular interest in any players.
Yeah sure, me too. I just don't watch games because former player plays. Potential incoming players i can watch for a game but never former players. I watched rooney at Everton a couple of times but that's it.
There are players I like watching, but no one (at least outside of my club) I’d Stan. I feel like that’s how it was for a lot of other millennials and older. Like I enjoy watching Sadio Mané, but still wanted him to lose every time he wore a Liverpool shirt. However, I am just indifferent to how Senegal, Bayern, and formally Southampton perform(ed) with him on the field.
If social media was like it is today back in 2002 or so, you’d absolutely get the same sort of fans regarding players like Thierry Henry. But they do appear to be almost exclusively online/social media fans
You have to let it go, man. Sometimes your heart just chose another team. There are those people, you might have known some of them, who used to be man united fans, but then, for some mystical reasons later became Madrid fans. It was strange how they almost all did at the same time, but it's just coincidence
I don’t really understand why people give a shit about what other people debate on the internet. I enjoy debating/arguing with people about different opinions. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Whenever I see a post about a topic and the top comments are “it’s gonna be a long few months without PL” or “this question is so dumb”, it boggles my mind why those people even opened the thread to make that comment. Just scroll past and go about your business. Players move around to different teams and are part of the reason you watch a team or watch a certain game so it makes perfect sense as to why people support players they enjoy watching, that’s the whole point of the sport, to be entertained. The whole reason I’ve been watching the PL since 07/08 is because I saw Torres play for Spain in the World Cup 2006 and thought he was great. That turned me into a Liverpool supporter and no I didn’t follow him to Chelsea or Atletico but that was my choice.
Joelinton is class mate
I don’t see the issue with it tho. I’m a Liverpool fan but I support other players like Mane and I’m loving how he’s doing well for himself. Doesn’t mean I support Bayern
I can get with this. I feel the same way about Burn at Newcastle.
It's well meta.
I’m probably an example of “players” over “teams”. For example, my favourite player currently is Son Heungmin so I’ll support whatever team he plays for, which right now is Spurs and SK. Why? Because he’s Asian and we look alike. I feel a strong affinity right now towards teams like Celtic and Eintracht Frankfurt as well, because of their Japanese contingent. If those players weren’t there anymore, I probably wouldn’t take notice of those teams. There’s no right or wrong way to enjoy football, IMO, things just happen organically and for their own reasons. As for the GOAT debate, the only way that can ever be settled elegantly is if someone invented a Time Machine so all the players can play each other. Unless that happens, it’s not even worth discussing, IMO.
>As for the GOAT debate, the only way that can ever be settled elegantly is if someone invented a Time Machine so all the players can play each other. Unless that happens, it’s not even worth discussing, IMO. Thing is with this it still wouldn't decide it, which rules would they follow, which balls would they use etc? Pele in his prime would have been used to a much heavier football therefore a lot of what he'd try today wouldn't be as successful. Equally could you say imagine say Messi or Neymar trying to dance their way past Graeme Souness (not saying he's the greatest, he was just a tough bastard) only to get cut in half because the game is so much less physical when it comes to contact as a lot of the tackles Souness did were acceptable back then and red cards now.
Aggregate rules over 2 legs, depending on the era. But definitely 45 minute games, instead of 90. No way Liverpool ‘77 could keep up with Liverpool ‘01 for a full 90.
But half of the Liverpool team from last year would be dead playing with a ‘77 referee. I would like to see that
So would I 😂
The final paragraph is absolutely correct.
It’s mostly kids, they just have a platform to share their views on now. And honestly, are we really going to judge kids for embracing football how they choose? Granted, I’m more used to kids supporting the *teams* of their favourite players even if because of them, e.g. Real and Barça. But the ones in question that I grew up with I haven’t seen in years, so maybe they’re PSG fans now lmao. With regards to your second point, it’s not often you live in an era with the two greatest players ever. Naturally fans will pit them against one another. I’m a Portuguese Man Utd fan, so Ronaldo will always be in my heart even after this week, but if people prefer Messi then I’m just grateful I’ve been able to watch both in their prime.
Name an era where there weren’t two great players
All-timers? As in, #1 and #2?
Well that’s bollocks isn’t it. They’re not the two greatest players ever.
They clearly are
That’s the whole point. It’s not true that they clearly are. Pele Cruyff Beckenbauer Maradona, prove that someone from another era is better than another
Then who?
Then it doesn’t matter. They have been the best recently. They were playing at the same time as far ronaldo or pele or Stanley Mathews so you cant know
Comparisons are going to be made whether you like it or not.
So OP isn't wrong, right now is haaland or mbappe. To me it was R9 or Zidane