A good read (via chardelli on CI)... http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/half-and-half-football-shirts-clive-martin-889
How many English people do you know who have similar shallow, flexible 'attachments' to foreign teams? I am literally the owner of: St Pauli socks, a Napoli gilet, a Dortmund scarf, an 1860 Munich pint glass, a Bayern pint glass, etc. I have Porto and Club Brugge stickers on my laptop. I can't say I've got any attachment to a foreign team. Or bought any merchandising. BumChin is big for AC Milan I believe. We'll let Ellewoods off because he's only got MLS otherwise and he displayed great taste in choosing the mighty tigers.
I enjoy foreign football immensely but don't have any proper attachment with teams, unless a bet is involved. My only proper foreign attachment is to an American Football team, the Atlanta Falcons, as I have connections there and have been many times. I will likely check out the Atlanta MLS team when that begins, but that isn't until 2017. I do own an Inter Milan shirt and a France 98 shirt, but both of those were presents.
"Foreign attachment" sounds like something you'd hear of in A&E. In football the only even remote connection I have is with SM Caen, as I lived there for a year and went a lot. (Amazingly for a yo-yo club, they're third in Ligue 1 right now.) Can't think of anyone else whose results I look out for.
I usually try to pick up a local shirt when I go somewhere as a souvenier, others I've picked up as a consequence of drink/uni/playing football. My shirt collection is as follows: Numerous Hull City shirts (since 2002/3 chronologically, a few random ones before that. I have a framed signed 2003/04 shirt from the promotion season). Hertha Berlin B68 Torshavn (somewhere in my parents loft) New York RB LA Galaxy Newcastle United (the purple one, was a joke gift as I'd lost a bet) Portsmouth (our 5 a side team used to play in their kit for some daft reason) FC Copenhagen Sparta Rotterdam Cercle Brugge CD Tenerife Real Madrid Tom Tomsk There's probably more I'm forgetting. City, B68 and CD Tenerife aside, I don't have any connection to those teams whatsoever. They're just markers of places I've been to and I use football to connect those places and bring back memories. Quite a novel, effective way of doing it. People have reasons for following results, liking other teams etc. As long as their support for their club is true I don't think it's bad to have a connection to somewhere else if that connection has meaning to them. People often get so judgemental about football and to what end? I support City, but if for some reason I can't go or I'm in another country I'll pop along to the nearest ground and take in a game there, even if it's non-league. I once watched Shepshed Dynamo take on Barwell Town just because I had finished my assignments and had **** all else to do. If you love football as a general sport, you shouldn't be discouraged or made to feel like a traitor for going and taking a game in somewhere else. If you switch your allegiance from one team to another (I had a mate who supported Chester but as soon as they dropped out the league he switched to Liverpool) that's different.
I have most bundesliga flags and stadium stuff from about 5 seasons ago , l lived north of Gelsenkirchen, had a season pass for FC Schalke 04 for two seasons , and never missed an away game for both seasons , always picked something up in the away club shop
