re: How did you become a fan of whatever club team you root for?

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Waiting for MLS Miami

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This, I hope they put the stadium somewhere sick. I know port of miami is done but if that could have happened

Almost was an A.C. fan because one of my best friends grew up there, i was lucky enough to see a game at san siro, and was a huge fan of Shevchenko, Maldini, Nesta, Pirlo, and about 10 more awesome players at the time.

but Manchester United chose me for two main reasons. My soccer coach who coached me for years was born in England and was a huge United fan. At that time, soccer was hard to find on the tube. It was before we had the option of Fox Soccer Channel (or whatever it was before that, can't remember) or GolTv. So i could catch a lot of games on ESPN, they had champions league at the time and i think they had the one Saturday morning game a week which showed united a good bit. Plus, my coach would order the big games at his house and had purchased a lot of soccer packages so we could go over there and watch with his family.

Almost changed allegiances to City right before they bought the world because I went to England to watch a couples of games as a senior trip. Watched a city vs Sunderland game. This was David James, Shaun Wright-phillips days and prior to Robinho. We also went to their practice facility and they were the nicest people in the world. Gave us all kinds of merchandise and allowed us to watch practice and shake hands of players etc. i guess they were shocked they had fans from across the pond.
(we also tried to go to a liverpool and United game but it was impossible to scalp/ pull a hey mister to buy us tickets. and we were niave/ didnt want to spend big bucks to figure out another way)
But i watched a City game sometime after that and a United game and I just knew where my loyalties lied.

edit: its really cool how people and teams connected. Interesting since hardly anyone has a geographical connection like most of us when becoming fans here in the states for NFL and other pro teams

I was stuck in the Crown Room (Atlanta Frequent Flyer Lounge) during the Champions League final between Chelsea and Man U.

I didn't know anything about soccer and wound up watching it with a full room of people and the atmosphere was amazing.

I talked to the guy next to me about the teams and which one I should root for and he said, "You don't want to root for Man United, they buy every one they want to like the Yankees."

Having grown up a Saints fan I decided to root for the plucky underfunded underdogs named Chelsea. Once I picked them, even when I realized how ironic the reason was, I was stuck.

When John Terry slipped in the rain I was hooked.

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My grandfather was born in Italy and was a big fan of Serie A. He was Sicilian but supported Fiorentina because he loved Florence and traveled there frequently. I picked up a bit of Fiorentina fandom from him, but mostly I loved following Serie A and eventually picked out Roma as my team. Mostly because I liked the color scheme initially. This was solidified as I followed Totti's career and he became my favorite player. Bradley's brief time there only enhanced my allegiance.

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I enjoy Serie A. I remember when Shevchenko used to play for Milan. He was a joy to watch.

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I enjoy Serie A. I remember when Shevchenko used to play for Milan. He was a joy to watch.

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This. I wish it would pick back up or at least the Milan teams would as i think its better for the entirety of European football for Serie A to be good.

Those early 2000's milan teams especially AC were stacked.

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It's amazing how many people just happened to choose Man City, PSG, even Chelsea right before they happened to get really good.

Dumb luck I guess...

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Exact opposite for me with Arsenal. They won a ton right before I picked them, then nothing for 9 years...

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delph brah

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He's a boss and is definitely my favorite outfield player. But I love me some Guzan... What if by some miracle I got to meet Guzan and I wasn't wearing either of my Guzan kits? I would die.

im like the reverse of that guy.

hell, im practically the black widow of club football

leeds- 3rd place/champions league semis to administration and league one in the span on about 5 years

river plate- relegated in 2011

hearts- relegated in 2014, extreme financial troubles

my uncle actually gave me one of those badass nike 2002/2003 man utd vodafone shirts along with a customized barthez short sleeved GK shirt (super random)...they won the title that year thanks to leeds beating arsenal on the penultimate weekend of the season

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badass nike 2002/2003 man utd vodafone shirts along with a customized barthez short sleeved GK shirt

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Jealous of both of those jerseys.. Those were prbly the Alan Smith days for Leeds. He was a fun player to watch and i really liked him for united

Yeah it sucked not being able to go to a match but I did get to see the stadium lit up at night on my way back to the Amsterdam airport so that was cool.

It's funny how people can relate to European soccer teams because of their similarities with the American sports teams they grew up watching. I guess as a life long Gamecock I could definitely relate to ADO as the perrenial underdog that is an old team but not a whole lot of trophies to show for it.