Following on from the first post Re. Gambia and following abroad
A following in the developing world tends to depend on the marketing of a club (are they on TV a lot, who is their sponsor, is their a 'brand') and also who their star players are, is their anyone to put on a poster, a shirt, who the fans will love? As football took off in Africa and Asia was the time when the game really became global due to TV deals and star players coming to the Premier League. Right now in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, China, India etc, most fans will follow Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal, as at the time they were introduced to football, these were the teams who were marketed enough to have cheap knock off shirts available, on tv a lot and winning games. (A lot of people also 'follow' Real Madrid or Barca, but almost always have an EPL team too).
This is still relatively intact today as though there is a lot of glory chasing down here, most fans are pretty loyal (liverpool are still very popular in Kenya and Uganda). But about 10 years ago, you would see the odd Chelsea shirt appear, then more as they brought in Drogba and Essien and then the same with City and Spurs when Bale was on fire. However it was never as much as I had expected, city fans int he big sports bars of Nairobi, Dar or Kampala are very few, as are Chelsea.
Someone like Leicester if they were to win the league, I would expect a similar number of new 'fans' down here to perhaps when Man City first won the league. You'll get the glory hunters but not many of them. The main catalyst would be that if someone in China started making the knock off shirts en mass which are everywhere in African towns and markets, as without these then no one would follow a club they couldnt wear the shirt of.
If Leicester were to sign a Yaya Toure or Rooney, then I am sure that replica shirts would suddenly become worth copying, which in turn would lead to a lot of 'new fans' in the developing world, but on the back of one league win, I doubt they will affect things too much.
Just my two cents from Africa!
Ric