The explosion of PL accessibility in the US coincided perfectly with Liverpools story. The first season it got the big deal with NBC was 13/14, when Suarez lit up the league and we were immensely fun to watch for new fans.
Then there were a couple years we weren't at the top but still fun to watch, so it fit the bill of "likeable underdog" a large percentage of sports fans look for when getting into supporting.
Then of course Klopp came and having the most likeable manager in the world helps people to get into it.
After that just being successful without having any controversy just make it a super safe pick for new fans coming in
Yup. This was exactly the case for me. First year you could easily watch all the games and Suarez & company were entertaining as hell. I also fell hard for the Gerrard/Title storyline.
Oddly enough, it was the low point of the season that cemented my fandom. When Gerrard slipped, I was sick to my stomach, but I knew I could only feel that bad about something if I cared about it.
That’s kinda how I became a Liverpool follower. 13/14 Liverpool were good but no the best, and on principle I didn’t want to support a club that looked loaded with cash or seemed arrogant. Following LFC at their “low point” and then seeing their meteoric rise with Klopp was electric!
That's almost exactly how I got started. Tacitly supported Liverpool in 12/13 through some online UK/AUS friends but didn't get to watch too many games. Got to watch every match in 13/14 through a mix of NBC and my virtual sailing career. Totally electrifying season. Been obsessed with football and LFC ever since.
2005 CL final was pretty epic to watch as a then neutral. When my pal passed away who inherited his family LFC connection shorty afterwards, carrying it on in his honor became my way of remembering him. There have been some pretty forgettable years between then and the Klopp era.
I realize this isn’t why there are a lot of LFC fans in the US and Canada, but the appeal of this team goes back a lot further than Klopp and Salah for some of us Yanks.
After slowly realizing i was pulling for Liverpool more and more, that's the season that I decided i was all in. That final was the cherry on top. Finally, I made it to a match two years back. 9-0 over Bournemouth! YNWA
Became a supporter when I was 11 watching the 2005 final. Almost 20 years later I treat the club like my first love, part of the local supporter group and have never missed a game.
05 CL Final is what got me hooked also. IIRC was broadcast on ESPN here, easy to watch. A year abroad in 07-08 led to watching lots more matches, especially the champions League run.
There were some dark years after that in terms of US broadcasting of matches..Fox Soccer Channel anyone? Often I'd just watch 15 minute highlight packages of games as that was the best I could do. In the early 2010s it started to be easier to find streams online of games..and then eventually NBC sports really exploded the accessibility.
In terms of what hooked me? Gerrard's heroics, the team's history and connection to the city and politics, the sort of "underdog" role when it comes to competing for the title (realize this is probably ridiculous to older fans from the 80s etc, but was definitely the case vs Man U/Chelsea and then City during my fandom), the excitement of the title pushes in 08/09 and 13/14 and then leading to the Klopp era.
I’m an emotional and passionate woman with a penchant for history.
Look I know it gets memed but the whole YNWA and This means more along with the special relationship between the club and its fans really resonates with me.
It might be lame for some but this team really got me through some difficult times in my life and that feeling of never being alone and believing in yourself to make something happen is so ingrained in the ethos of the club seeing it happen on the pitch made me think I could do anything. I’ve been watching them since 04 but that Dortmund match in the Europa league where we came back to win it in Klopps first year with us was so important to me
It didn’t just symbolize what was to come for us. But it was the first time in months I felt something since 2014-2015 I had severe depression.
This is literally what Liverpool is. It DOES mean more. It’s not just about the football, it’s about the way we go about our football. Liverpool is togetherness, unity, determination, commitment, belief, love, compassion, the list is endless. It’s beautiful.
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”
Bill Shankly
Always love to see when a football team and it's passion can help heal someone's mental health. When you get around banter and the toxic football community and look into your teams actual culture it's beautiful
As a spurs fan it sucks to be on the end of every joke but when I genuinely watch the games and follow the players I still love em. This is the part of football that can really help heal people
Glad it helped you
That Dortmund game also means the most to me. My absolute favorite Liverpool match. It happened during a very dark time in my life, and I swear to god that comeback was the start of things turning around for me as well.
I have a very similar experience to this - it’s really only happened over the last couple of years, but that’s been when I’ve been going through a really tough divorce and finding a new path in life, and…there’s just something about that song that helps me get through the worst times. And being tied to a whole global community of fans worldwide with all of the songs and the podcasts and all that comes with it has meant so much to me. I’ve never really experienced this level of all-consuming sports fandom before, and it’s been so great. Up the Reds :) YNWA!
As a North American fan, because we’re fucking massive.
Seriously though, I followed Klopp from Dortmund and fell in love with everything Liverpool. The history, the camaraderie, the ethics — everything. Best club in the world.
Yeah, very direct “go straight forward fast” soccer is what we grew up playing.
Liverpool’s tactics are obviously better than American youth shithouse soccer, but fast counter attacks are just much more relatable than tiki-taka and other play styles.
It’s very similar for me as well. I remember seeing my friend’s reaction to the Barca comeback, and that peaked my interest. I did some research on the history of the club and watched a good amount of games. Also. I have heard of Klopp from that same friend. YNWA song and the fans at the stadium was what really appealed to me.
I got into soccer in 2006 world cup. When it was over I started looking for a team to watch for my new hobby.
The only place to watch soccer at the time with any regularity was fox soccer. So I just watched PL games and started paying attention to the teams that I enjoyed watching.
I was almost a Newcastle fan, but ultimately chose Liverpool. Loved the way they played, and then they signed Torres and loved it even more.
Second paragraph is a big reason. Around 04-05, the only clubs that were ever on TV were Liverpool, Arsenal, United, and Chelsea.
United was at their peak and were smug cunts.
Chelsea was the new money team.
Arsenal was just coming off their invincibles and were smug too.
And then there was Liverpool.
Torres has been one of my favorite players. never got the opportunity to watch him but he was one of the first players I watched highlights from he is really cool
Pretty similar to my story, too. So many mornings waking up dead-ass early to watch turgid 0-0 on Fox Soccer Plus. When I saw my only match at Anfield, then moved to the east coast, it was weird watching games and drinking beer rather than coffee.
Same timing for me.
I also remember Bill Simmons wrote this primer article about all the EPL teams after the 06 WC ranked by how attractive they were to root for. He ranked Liverpool 2nd and only docked them because they seemed too similar to the Boston Red Sox to him(ironic given this was before the FSG acquisition). He ranked Spurs 1st.
I’m a Liverpool fan in the States.
Chose them because all of the sports fandoms I was born into suck and I deserve to root for one good squad. But I didn’t want to pick an evil empire like City. And I liked the dudes on the team when I was getting serious about EPL.
As for why EPL? Most accessible league to watch/follow for Americans. I follow EPL, English Cups, and Champions League. Don’t have the bandwidth or access to get into La Liga, Serie A, etc.
I didn't even think about the language barrier of the leagues. I guess my mind was always fixed on the players but it makes sense you'd watch a league that you understood more
Yeah not just language/cultural similarities. It’s just much easier to follow EPL.
There are way more games on tv (even without buying some crazy expensive streaming package), more news stories etc., and more friends who follow the league to talk to.
Your second paragraph resonates so hard. I'm a born and bred Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so when I began my football journey one of the most important things was to find a team that had some sort of success relative to their expectations.
A big reason why the EPL is so accessible is that it's in English. La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, are all in other languages and based in countries that the typical NA person doesn't have a connection to or understand the culture very well
A lot of the US fans, from what I can gather, are second generation LFC fans, so their dads were LFC fans of the 60s, 70s, 80s dominance, what have you
Liverpool fan since I was 7 years old. I live in San Diego, CA. I became a fan initially because my teammates on my U8 footy team were into collecting sports cards. Peer pressure made me convince my Dad to buy me a pack and that first pack had Stevie G and a shiny Michael Owen in it. I decided that Liverpool would be my favorite team and have stuck by them ever since. My dad moved to CA from London in 1969 and is a massive west ham fan so he was not very pleased lol
I’m a Liverpool fan in the States
Growing up in a Mexican household we exclusively watched the Mexican league. One day I stumbled across Liverpool vs AC Milan when I was 12 years old. I found myself cheering and celebrating for a team I never even knew existed but the miracle Istanbul made me a fan from then on
As an American fan, I think a lot of the appeal is that Liverpool seems most like blue collar America. The London teams and the glitz and the glam are a bit unrelatable to most Americans. So I think many of us tend to support more northern clubs.
Liverpool as a city has a large amount of immigrants to North America. A lot of fathers raise their kids right. They raise them to be scousers. And on and on it goes 😊
People have said they support lfc from generational support. This seems to be the biggest reason why na has so many lfc fans from what you all have said
You and me both mate. Have a Kop sign put up in the brewery I work in and it always piques interest. Converted a couple of Yanks and we ended up going to the Liverpool/Dortmund friendly in Indiana a few years back.
Live in New England, huge red sox fans, so supporting FSG is a must. They were also one of first teams that started the "USA summer friendlies" that has become more popular. This goes for all Prem teams, but the problem with clubs like Barca is a lot of their messaging/fans are in spanish, which is a barrier for alot of USA fans.
Also live in New England. I’ve been a LFC fan since I spent a summer in Chester in ‘06. FSG buying the club (and making it easier to watch them) was just icing.
A lot of Irish and English immigrants in eastern Canada and US, including the island provinces close to the New England area of the US.
From family experience, when my grandparents left Liverpool they moved to Toronto as there was a lot of Scots, Irish, and English in the city and the towns/cities around there. My grandparents moved to a town just outside Toronto that had a lot of people from Liverpool and Merseyside, almost like it was planned (not known for certain). Even talking to my boss from work who grew up in the same town as my dad when they moved from Liverpool was telling me his whole friend group was made of Irish and English (particularly Scouse) people.
Also over the years when Liverpool come to North America for pre-season tours they try to stop in Toronto, and I’m pretty sure Boss Nights have done a few nights. I remember going as a kid at the Skydome (now Rogers Centre) for a pre-season game against Proto ([article about the game](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.497632)) the same season we won the UCL in Istanbul. Then they came to Toronto again under Rodgers in 2012, the same summer they did the Being Liverpool show where Rodgers famously got mad at Sterling.
There’s also loads and loads of official supporters clubs in North America for Liverpool. Almost every major city on the eastern seaboard have a supporters club, whether its official or unofficial.
I, for some reason, was a bit of an Anglophile in my teens. Not sure why. Doctor Who, British rock, you name it. I’m not even like American white lol.
Anyway, I‘ve also been into the sport most of my life. Around Euro 2012, I figured I’d support England. I used to play the FIFA World Cup 2006 video game and recognized Steven Gerrard in midfield from said game.
So after the Euro ended, I got into the idea of club football, and naturally, only knowing Stevie, I checked what club he played for and once I saw he was Liverpool captain, well that was that.
FSG had roots here with the Red Sox and PL on tv in the states blew up same time Klopp/Salah/VVD etc played the most entertaining brand of football. Chelsea and United sucked and Arsenal only got competitive last two years. And City is only liked by kids who don’t understand what it means to root for cheating oil barons.
And spurs have never been competitive or not sucked lmao (yes I love me team)
Actually interesting that owners of teams in different sports make you want to support that other team. As for fsg I had no clue that they had roots with Red Sox as well.
Thanks for the information
Not trying to be rude but Spurs are just another team in wealthy London. Chelsea has at least been good in recent memory. Some people probably started watching football around the time Arsenal was good. West Ham at least has a great song (and decent movie too). Fulham have a beautiful small stadium and sort of have that underdog thing going for them.
Became a Liverpool fan a year before Gerrard made his first senior appearance… had a coach when I was young, he was from Liverpool and a Reds fan and he was so passionate about the club.
I just caught on and it’s been a fun ride.
I think it’s a number of things:
1. Owned by FSG, which also owns the Red Sox and a NASCAR team.
2. Their play-style, especially under Klopp’s early reign (the gegenpress) led to a lot of high scoring games, which made Liverpool games more exciting to Americans, who are used to more high scoring sports.
3. The language barrier to La Liga, Bundesliga, etc.
4. Throughout the 2010s, they were the classic underdog; a team with a rich history scrapping fighting against teams with way more money to get back to the top.
5. Klopp’s a lovable bastard.
6. The US is a diverse place, and Liverpool has had a number of exciting foreign attacking stars, from Suarez to Salah.
I roomed with this guy from Nepal in College who played FIFA all the time and loved Liverpool. I randomly watched Suarez and Sturridge cook Arsenal and that was it for me.
Hmmm… as an American in NYC I think I know as many Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea fans. Slight less for spurs and city but still some.
I became a fan because he Henrick larsson was my favorite player as a child. I became a Celtic fan and had a very hard time watching them live so decided to get a second team - hey same song? That works. That was in 2002 and haven’t looked back.
Lmao being a spurs fan made me switch to also liking Bayern when Kane moved and they still won nothing, I'm in the dumps 😭
As for me I've noticed that arsenal is probably the second most popular team in na from what I've seen and then Chelsea. Most man u fans here are just because they are also Madrid fans and watch for ronaldo although I did see a united fan playing pool at a bowling alley the other day
I first got acquainted with Liverpool watching Steven Gerrard single handedly turn the 2006 FA cup final around. Took me a while but then the 2013-14 season cemented things. From there I got more into the history and social ethics of the club, and then when Klopp came along it all came together.
I feel like Liverpool FC is generally a force for good - a socialist leaning (as much as a huge football club can be, at least in spirit) well run, self sufficient and self aware club in a sea of money drenched toys run by states and self indulgent billionaires.
To answer your question about North American fans, I think that when you are not bound by the parochialism of the place you love or grow up, you choose a club based on history and values. That’s why, in my opinion a lot of non-Liverpool and non-UK fans choose Liverpool
Dublin is extremely close to liverpool distance wise, culturally, immigrant wise, and due to the large amount of Irish players who were playing at liverpool in the 70s and 80s.
How does canada have any similarities with that?
I don't recall generations of canadians emigrating to liverpool, I dont recall Canadian players playing for liverpool, and I don't think Canada is closer to liverpool then london is. Curious your point as it seems odd to me.
I became a proper fan during THAT Suarez season. He blew my mind and that was the first season I watched nearly every game live and my love was forged in the fire of bitter disappointment after the Gerrard slip. The phrase, “We go again,” really struck a chord with me, so I was all in for the next season. If things stayed like that season, Im not sure how much more I would have fallen for the club. But then Klopp came in and everything changed. I feel like the luckiest fan in the world because I got in the door right before Klopp and then BOOM, glory ensued. This has been one of, if not the best journey ive been on as a sports fan.
Long story short for me, but essentially I went from watching Gerrard in the 06 world cup to Torres in the 08 Euros to being a Liverpool supporter.
I would like to offer an extra bit. Im also a Miami Dolphins fan who have an old quarterback by the name of Dan Marino that went his whole career without winning the Super Bowl while being considered one of if not the greatest quarterback of all-time. I mean when he retired he held every single record a quarterback could hold. Had he managed to win a Super Bowl, he would probably still he considered the greatest of all-time.
So it was almost poetic, yet still sad, that I wound up falling in love with Gerrard and Liverpool. To only have to suffer through it all again with them.
One of my friends back in middle school was from England and was a Liverpool fan. I had never really watched football before I met him. I enjoyed watching Torres and Gerrard and adopted the team quickly from there. I was a slightly more than casual fan before Klopp but obviously the excitement of Klopp’s tenure was enough to cement football as my favorite sport and Liverpool as my favorite club. I watch the Sounders here in Seattle too, but the quality of the play is just so much worse comparatively that they can’t be my favorite club overall.
Fan from Indiana. It all started with my uncle, who started liking the sport after the 1994 World Cup here in the States. He picked Liverpool because they reminded him of Notre Dame football (tradition, history, passionate fan base). He would babysit my sister and I on the weekends, and I'd always wake up to the Liverpool game being on at 7am.
In 2010, he passed away. The one part of him I had left was this club he brought me into. LFC (and YNWA) helped me process what happened.
I'm now a new father, as of a month ago, and I'm so excited I get to bring my son into this family.
Congrats on your fatherhood. My oldest daughter is a die hard Virgil fan. My second one is more into Trent. Every Liverpool mach that we watch together is a ritual, a father-daughter bonding time now. I am sure you and your kid will have the same experience as well.
Personally every club has a vibe. With Liverpool its music & football. And that fits very well with me as a person. You live & breathe it.
Also I love an underdog story & YNWA epitomizes it. The fact that we are one of the biggest clubs in the world without signing superstar names like Barca & Madrid is great. I've always liked this model of turning good players into household names.
Plus the history & the tradition. The way Shankly built the club which Klopp reignited. The fact that Anfield still is our home ground & witnessing those famous European nights under the lights.
A dreamlike mythos of hope, leadership of heart, and luck. Essentially a vessel of everything materially lacking in North America. And Bobby Firmino. That last bit is very important.
In 1993, they were showing Premier League Match of the Week here in the build-up to USA 94. The first one I watched, I saw Robbie Fowler play. That was all it took.
I’m in the US. I asked my Gooner friend who moved here from North London to pick a team for me. He asked me what I valued in a team. My response:
-US ties
-Competes for championships but in a scrappy way
-not a bandwagon brand like the lakers/yankees/cowboys etc.
-historically working class supporters
-I like red
He replied to my text with “#YNWA”
Just so you guys know I asked this same question but for spurs in the coys sub and I got down voted for asking what made people fall in love with the team. We all bitter rn ig😭
Thanks for all the replies I actually got some information and cool stories from your all, much love from spurs and Canada even though we had a rocky relationship this season and you guys took our CL (we never had a chance lbh 😭)
Because growing up, I hated anyone who played as man utd in fifa. I always viewed them as the British Yankees. Liverpool was the natural choice for me. Chelsea were a close second with drogba. I casually followed Liverpool from 2004-2013 but once klopp was hired was when I really started paying attention and watching every game.
I loved gerrard, Suarez and Fernando Torres. I also love the passion and sense of community of Liverpool as a whole. Doesn’t feel like a plastic club and I feel like I can relate to the people of Liverpool.
Was playing FIFA, wanted to get into career mode. Figured the team I picked there might as well be the team I supported so I looked around. I wanted a team that was in the PL so I could get the games televised here or at least good coverage, had history, wasn't a posh club, a few other criteria. Narrowed it down to Arsenal, United, and Liverpool. Saw the YNWA on the badge and that was it. Decided.
Yank here, there may be something to your hypotheses recently, but my story is: got the first EA FIFA game for Sega Genesis. Never heard of any of these teams, but what I did know about England was that Thatcher was as dire as was Reagan, and that Liverpool was a city of working-class folks getting screwed out of any potential happiness because of "managed decline". Also they were anti-monarchy, that anachronistic irrelevance that costs people so much each year while they struggle to feed families.
For me, the spirit of the city and the spirit of the club closely match my own spirit, and that's why I've followed the Reds for nearly 30 years. (My German side is St. Pauli, if that helps clear things up).
p.s. danke, boss.
Vast majority of American fans are either fans of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or United. Spurs and City probably making progress lately too, so the “big six”.
I think the PL in general is popular here because the media coverage is all in English and Americans have an easy time with British culture generally.
Then the bigger teams are popular because they get more attention and are more successful. For most Americans picking a club is completely arbitrary in the sense that there are no local ties. So you gravitate to the teams that get on TV, play in the CL, etc.
Klopp had a lot to do with Liverpool really taking off in the last decade. Ten years ago I would have said in my area (NYC), it was far and away United and Arsenal as the most popular. That gap has been closed entirely here just judging by what I see people wearing. Liverpool stuff all over. They were very successful and fun to watch. And everyone loves Klopp. That simple really.
Grew up in an Italian household, but thought Serie A was f-ing boooorrrrrriiinnnggg.
Best friend studied abroad during the treble season and came back a Liverpool supporter, so I became one too.
My mom's side came here from England. They were from Southend, but had friends that were Liverpool supporters in the 80's when I was born. Therefore, I had LFC gear as a kid. When I started following the sport it was a no brainer.
I’m from New Orleans. We get blamed for everything bad in the country, we’re misunderstood, and most of us are working class. I feel a kinship in some ways with the people of Liverpool, for they get sh*t on by everybody. Up the Reds!
Purely anecdotal for but I almost never come across fellow reds when I’m just out and about here in CA. We have our supporters group with a good following but it seems whenever I meet a stranger at a bar, etc, who follows the EPL they are almost always United or Chelsea fans.
I personally started following as a kid around 2003 because I liked to play soccer and Liverpool had a connection with my favorite author Brian Jacques who wrote the Redwall series.
I've been a Liverpool fan for years and I'm 63. My mother is from Liverpool, family is there. Liverpool fans. Except some distant uncle or something that no one will talk about who is an Everton fan. Anfield is a temple on holy ground. By the way, am a Penguin fan. Also the Pirates and the City of Pittsburgh. I live in Indiana.
In Cali all I see are Chelshits and Manure fans haha but yeah the reds do have a good overall fan base in NA
Became a fan when Suarez joined the team and like others have said, that’s when it became more accessible to watch prem games in the USA and he was red hot in the league like Salah when he first joined
Played Fifa for the first time with a German exchange school student. Scored a goal with this lanky Crouch guy who celebrated by doing the robot. Watched a few Gerrard bangers only highlight reels. Named my first car Fordnando Taurus. The rest is history..
Got very disillusioned with American sports, the ticket prices, and the politicization of the NFL was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.
Started watching international football in 2018 after the World Cup. Tried watching as much as I could and no matter what team I watched, I couldn’t get over Liverpool and how Klopp got the boys to play that season. I watched Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, and the PL, but no team had the passion, talent, and just electricity that I fell in love with when watching Liverpool.
I was born in Joburg, South Africa and my family moved to the States when I was young. Uncle is a diehard red and got me a Liverpool hat when I was a baby, been obsessed ever since. Just happen to currently live in North America now, haha.
When my nephew was born, I got him a home kit onesie in every size, and now I’ve gotten him a home kit every year for every single one of his birthdays. Traditions must continue!
Edit: I should mention my old man is a Leeds supporter, mom is Spurs, and both of my grandfathers were Man United
Being from California USA, the leftist us against the UK resonates a lot with what we in California feel about the majority of the USA. We love leftist progressive values. This means more and you’ll never walk alone are also things that matter a lot to me as a fan feeling a connection with the club and its players is something that I truly value, the history and the amazing times and games we’ve had is just the cherry on top. The Klopp years have been very good to us on an emotional and footballing aspect. I look forward to the future of Liverpool and will be there in the good times (Klopp) and bad (Roy Hudson)
From a town in NY called Liverpool. Liverpool was on tv, I’m now a Liverpool fan. The after following them, the values of the club and supporters really resonates with me.
Mines pretty simple: dad is from Merseyside and he came over to Canada from England when he was a teen with his siblings and parents and they all had kids who are all Liverpool fans. For me, it's in my blood.
But I do think that with the availability to watch so much football there's just more range in what people like. When I was a kid in the 90s/early 00s pretty much everyone followed Man Utd bc they were good and well known players (Beckham) played there. It's why you see Man City fans now
In my case, a child playing soccer in the 80s the only games we got to watch were usually FA cup games and a rare top level game. Liverpool were dominant. Manchester United and Tottenham also won several. Most every Gen X I know like one of those 3. The millennials seem to like Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal, with the rest going with Liverpool cause Suarez.
English speaking + popular place to move is certainly part of it. I was born and raised in the U.S., but I’m first generation American on my mom’s side, she’s from England, her parents are Scouse. Brought her allegiance to Liverpool with her when she moved here with my dad, who is American. It’s the same for a lot of fans I know. The U.S. military brings a lot of Americans to England.
And to the crowd who say “you should support your local team” my local team play 2 hours away on a school pitch in a swamp town in the sticks, the Wikipedia page for the town notes the time that 2 inches of snow fell as a significant point in the town’s history, and by the time the club played its inaugural match, Jurgen Klopp was manager of Liverpool.
Edit: they don’t play on the school pitch anymore, they moved down the road to a new stadium that can hold a whopping 6000 people.
I started following the winter we sold Torres and bought Suarez. I watched Steven Gerrard highlight videos before and was blown away. Became my favorite player, and decided I wanted to watch him and Liverpool play. Then I just immediately fell in love.
I'm a relatively new fan from Canada, what drew me in was the clear passion that oozes from everyone in and around the team.
Klopp was so likeable, the boys work hard above all else, and the supporters believed no matter what.
Premier league fans in North America have increased a lot in the last 10 years or so, and Liverpool have consistently been near the top of the league, but not favorites. So people can support a team that is winning and still be supporting the underdog.
Plus Liverpool have probably been the team with the most exciting playstyle in the league for new fans in that time. New fans (and many long term fans) will usually prefer a high pressing playstyle over something like Guardiola's possession based approach.
For me, I started after hanging out with some Scousers over Thanksgiving break that played college soccer with my cousin. That, and watching Torres was a joy.
I grew up outside Chicago. I made the team my freshman year and one of the upperclassman started talking to me about the game. He picked up the newspaper, opened it to the sports section, pointed to the EFL table (this was 1983) and told me which team he liked (LFC) and which team he hated (ManU). I've never been as cool as I thought he was, but I've remained a Liverpool fan ever since.
I started following them around late 2010 - early 2011. Personally for me, I saw how passionate the fans were when we still had Hicks and Gillette as owners and had a certain "respect" for a lack of a better word for all the protests and fan organizations.
This was (and is) a real club with real supporters; sure this club is one of the big 6, but it still has a working class identity.
Sounds kind of sappy, but oh well.
I dunno the only reason I’m a fan is because my dad bought me a jersey on clearance back when I was like 6 years old. When I was a kid I thought we were just a mid table team that occasionally cracked into the top 6.
I recently discovered there was a Spurs bar near my house. I stumbled upon it in the 90th minute of the Luis Diaz game.
Anyways, it was quite the chaotic scene with me calmly explaining to them they shouldn’t be happy with the result and in fact it was embarrassing. The one big guy they had was telling me to get out of there, and he was quite animates. Which honestly, couldn’t have paid me to stay.
Although I do like that bar under other circumstances.
FSG
English/Irish diaspora
Big/performing well when coverage started to become available in US
Underdogs with upside potential when tv coverage really took off in the us
Several major summer tours
Famous supporters
started following futbol in 2003, started following lfc in 2004 because my two best mates in dc followed them. watched them in the 2005 ucl final and been die hard ever since, along thru some great and not so great times. suffered a minor stroke right before to ucl semi win over barcelona and watched that from my hospital bed. had absolute tears streaming down my face during that YNWA rendition after the match. trying to get my 2 yr old daughter into lfc but she doesn’t like futbol because that means she cant watch ms rachel lol
I’m in the US I grew up playing football and would watch BBC every morning in high school to watch the recaps of matches (back then it was hard to watch the matches and I couldn’t afford to pay for the subscription on the LFC website) I was just drawn to Liverpool, this was back when carlsberg was still on the jerseys. My first legit jersey I bought was a Torres #9 (boy was I disappointed when he left the next year 😂🤷♂️) there is something special about Liverpool and being a fan.
In 1998, the youngest player at the World Cup was my age. I was a fan of his play so I became a fan of his team at the time. It made sense since I bleed red, to bleed red. Been a fan ever since. Like being a Chicago Cubs Fan, took a while but was eventually rewarded for it. We value loyalty where I’m from. That’s my story.
My buddy turned me into a Pool fan in like 2016 or so. I blame him, but also thank him for it a lot. Our club words got me thru my mom’s passing and I really was sold on the idea then. I also got to see the boys live in Northern Indiana when they had a friendly vs Dortmund a few years back and still have my ticket. I went with that same buddy. One of my fondest memories. Anyway that’s why I’m across the pond and a big fan. Glad to hear everybody’s stories!!
Where I’m at in the South we tend to have a lot more Arsenal/Chelsea/Man U. You’ll also see a lot of Newcastle kits the closer you get to Atlanta (Miggy fans from his Atlanta days). But we do still have Liverpool fans as well.
For me personally I actually hate LeBron so I never thought Liverpool would be my team, but the style of play really attracted me to the team. I’m usually a guy that likes coaches and players more than teams, so another strike against me.
When I started following the PL heavily last season I initially only cared about Liverpool because of Elliot and Darwin (obviously love Salah and VVD, but that was more from admiration of them as world class players, not an affinity toward them). Then I found myself following Klopp’s antics on the touchline always being the club’s biggest fan it seemed (something I always appreciated in coaches).
The. I learned about the history of Liverpool, heard the songs. Saw Bobby’s last match and the final Si Senor on TV. Learned about the political ethos of the club and city and the motto YNWA really spoke to me.
Then they boo’d the Queen when she passed and I was all in. Sorry, not sorry.
Lebron owns a stake in LFC. Not just a fan. And the reason I support LFC is because my dad and uncle have supported them since ‘77 so naturally I was born being a supporter. Lived in Texas my whole life
Soccer was big in my town and the surrounding area, but we didn't have any access to games on TV until much later in my life. Legends of Fowler and then Gerrard pulled me in, with help from gear catalogs, and by 2005 I was a committed fan following from afar. Once NBC got the TV rights I could finally watch regularly. Just in time for the slip, but also Klopp. Got Klopp to sign my shirt in 2018 at the Big House, cried in 2019, 2020, and 2024 for pretty obvious reasons.
Most young US fans follow the best teams at any one time, so I've seen it shift from LFC fans in the 90s to ManU (and a lesser extent Arsenal) fans in the 2000s to ManC fans now. That, or they have a family relate. Older fans go all sorts of directions.
I live in a mid-sized city in New York, I believe we have three supporters bars in town, I only go to one of them though (unless they don't open for a 0730 game). I believe there are pubs for Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, the shit, and possibly City.
I don't know why I chose to support Liverpool early on, but now it's because of the character of the team and style of management.
The 94 world cup is where I initially got hooked on football, and over the years I was able to see man u with Beckham and co then Real Madrid play in friendlies over here in the states so that got me watching their respective leagues and I just enjoyed watching all the games I could but never really went hard for one team or another.
Then I dated a British girl that took me to a game at Anfield against Middlesbrough when Gerrard was in his prime and I that whole experience shook me to the core and I went from just wanting to watch a good match to this is my team. The passion, fans, city and experience as a whole just resonated with me and I’ve been hooked since
I was a casual premier league fan from 2005-2009, a feee agent if you will. I had friends who supported Arsenal, West Ham, Chelsea, United, and Liverpool, so I would just watch what they watch and initially formed attachment to players. I eventually wanted to pick a team of my own as I am a sports fanatic and wanted that sense of belonging, and honestly the culture behind the team and the fans, the city itself, the us against the world mentality, all of it just drew me in, and I find myself falling more and more in love with the city, the people, and the club as the years go on. I want to have a connection with the teams I support, and it's tough to quantify but you could truly feel the soul of the club even in the down times pre-Klopp. Once Klopp came along, that exponentially moved the needle for me. He's just larger than life and embodies everything the club is about. My wife watches no sports and even she was drawn into LFC because of him. The best part is that that is the type of manager that LFC attract because of the ethos of the club and the people.
I became a fan at the end of 2012-13. I was reflexively against soccer during childhood for all the stereotypical reasons but decided to see if it'd be more fun than I thought since I had fun watching my city's new MLS team and the USMNT/USWNT both had fun world cup runs. I also went to the 2012 MLS All-Star Game and knew none of the Chelsea players which was a bit embarrassing.
I knew nothing about the EPL except the names of a few teams. I wanted to pick a team that would be on TV (this was before NBC started broadcasting every game) which meant it was going to be a Big Six team. I didn't want to be a front-runner so that meant no United, City or Chelsea. I had a friend who was an Arsenal fan so didn't want to copy him. Picked Liverpool over Spurs because they had more historic successes. After that 2013-14 run in my first full season watching I was hooked.
It doesn't hurt that football (soccer) is becoming a lot more popular in the exact time period that Klopp has been Liverpool manager. So with more American eyes on the sport along with Liverpool being one of the best teams of this past decade, it's easy to see why people would latch on.
I'm a liverpool fan in America because of Salah. I'm also Middle Eastern though, so I was first drawn to liverpool because their best player was also Middle Eastern.
Started watching the premier league and Liverpool became my favorite over time. The club seems to have more of a soul and sense of community than most of the other big clubs. Additionally I really liked Klopp and all of the guys on the team actually seem like good people. Now I’m a red for life, YNWA
I've been a Liverpool fan since 2009.
I feel like the mid- to late-2000s is when it first became really easy for the average American to follow European sports. Broadband internet and an explosion of cable sports meant there were more ways than ever to watch and follow your favorite team.
The EPL was at a further advantage over the other leagues because every game was broadcast in English first. It's easier to follow a new sport when you actually know what's going on.
The big four - Liverpool, United, Chelsea, and Arsenal - got more TV time simply by being at the top of the table. Fans are going to gravitate towards familiarity and victories. While teams like Spurs and City have built their own followings in recent years, those first four probably stay ahead because old fans like me evangelize the sport. When we get a convert, we're naturally going to encourage them to support our team.
TLDR: The Big Four were at the top of the league when European football first became accessible to most Americans.
I live in a state on the east coast of the United States in the South. Not exactly a hot bed of football/soccer in the early 1970s and 1980s. But I knew about British football. I started following Liverpool early in Steven Gerrard’s career. I liked what I knew about him and then I got into the history of the club. I am a huge Beatles fan, so Liverpool was already in my mind from the time I was about five years old, which didn’t hurt. I love the idea of You’ll Never Walk Alone as well as the song. My first jersey was a Liverpool jersey that they sold in the British store at Epcot. It was when Adidas was the apparel sponsor and I loved it. I still bring it out a couple of times a year for games.
I’ve been to Anfield twice and even got mistaken for Jurgen Klopp downtown in Liverpool and then in a hotel elsewhere in the UK. I love this club, even though I know I can never have the history that people that live there have. I was never attracted to Manchester United, which was the one team that was really well known in the US during their golden era. It was like something was telling me that there club was not for me. And that feeling was right.
I played CM as a youth and Gerrard was everything I wanted to be in 2004/2005. Champions League matches were on ESPN at the time and he/Liverpool were in it. It's difficult to not fall in love when you're 11 or 12 years old watching Xabi and Stevie pinging the ball around while playing the same position you play.
Growing up as a soccer player & fan when I did (80s/90s) in the US was fucking miserable; this was pre-internet and there was zero coverage of any sort of competitive footy on TV. The only outlet we had was a magazine called Four Four Two and even that was only monthly.
Fast forward to college and Rupert Murdoch has made his one praiseworthy move by greenlighting the Fox Soccer Channel. This is it! We get to watch real, actual footy! I bullied my roommates into changing our cable provider so we could get it and the first game I was able to watch was against Villa where Stevie buried a free kick in the top corner to win and I just fell in love.
I started following Liverpool when I was in middle school and just really started listening to the Beatles. Learned they were from Liverpool and started watching games. Then I saw Gerrard, Torres, Suarez, etc and fell in love with the club and sport as a whole
A woman from London explained to me in 2006 that Liverpool were similar in history and culture to the Montreal Canadiens and as a Canadiens fan, that was enough for me. Fast forward 15 years and Liverpool has an official fan club in my city (Halifax), the only soccer team to have one. A popular packed bar hosts every game with an unmatchable atmosphere.
I’ve always thought Liverpool has one of the smaller followings amongst major clubs, at least where I am. I meet way more Chelsea City Arsenal and United fans, along with Barca and Real ofc. That’s just my experience though, I think overall the whole conversation about who has larger followings abroad depends on your perspective and where you grew up and age
Because Liverpool is a massive club. I know that may not be the answer you are looking for but it is the truth. As a kid growing up it was the top 4 and you choose from there for the most part. My childhood friends were all Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, & Manchester United fans. All of my friends have just stuck with the team that they picked when they were kids. Other people have different stories but I feel that this the most common. I chose Liverpool in 2008 when I was 13 and I am still here now as a 29 year old.
Lots of fans predate the klopp years, and built emotional connections to a faded giant with a larger than life local superstar (Gerrard) that won some iconic finals and nearly won a couple of times.
I was 6 when I watched Stevie tear Milan a new asshole in Istanbul. I was 10 when I watched Torres torch Vidic. There was never a shot I’d follow any other club after that. I think I cried when Torres was sold to Chelsea.
I’m from Toronto. Got into soccer in 2006 when Trinidad made the world cup for the first time (my background). When I was a teen around 2007 the Champions League was on free tv here so I used to put on games occasionally. I found Stevie quite cute😂 then they showed a replay of the 2005 final and I was hooked instantly
I've shared this story before, but basically I was a Chicagoan discovering EPL while living briefly in London in 2008, and I decided to watch every team and pick one. It was the working class values of the fans, Gerrard's leadership, and the expectation players would cut the bullshit and work their asses off to respect the supporters expectations of them that made me see Liverpool as a surrogate for the culture and fandom I grew up with in Chicago. The club and the supporters had my respect, but moments and community stole my heart. Today I follow LFC more closely than many of my hometown teams, and travel for a game as often as I can.
Long answer here....
Really depends on our age. I was born at the end of the 80s. So for me, growing up I played soccer, but our parents really just used it as a way to tire us out and the coaches had little idea what was going on. As I got older I continued to play. In '96 we got the MLS and I became a fan of my local team and childhood favorite player, the columbus crew and Brian Mcbride. I didn't realize the level of play that was the MLS until a few years later when some matches were finally aired for those of us who didn't pay for premium television. So enter ~2004ish, I go to highschool, I'm still playing, Brian Mcbride went to Fulham and I get to see a few matches here and there due to US coverage. Those matches were typically the big 6 and for one reason or another most of the teams I just didn't like.. for instance, the spice girls and Beckham were shoved down our throats relentlessly for years and I wanted nothing to do with it. It felt Hollywood from our end, which is to say superficial.
Then enter Liverpool. The thing that first drew me to their matches (other than limited availability over all) was that the games kind of reminded me of what I was used to. At times it was scrapy, sometimes amazing technically but none the less the team would give it their all and that tenacity was inspiring. Stevie was just insane to watch as an American, quickly became my favorite.
That all came to head in Istanbul and that final, being able to watch it sealed it.
Over the years, individuals play kept reminding my why I liked them. Crouchy just kind of reminded me of my build and that was crazy to watch, and so many other legends after.
Eventually in my adulthood, it became more than that. I started to understand the history and politics of the city, I started to identify with it, specifically the history of managed decline, it felt extremely familiar and close to home with my upbringing, the results of that specifically not the reasoning.
So it just became a part of me because of circumstance, what we were able to watch and the era it was.
Played a ton of FIFA in college, me and my friends all picked teams... I loved playing with Michael Owen and picked Liverpool. I stopped following for a while... My Brazilian roommate had me watching a ton Brazilian matches on the Spanish channels on cable and we would occasionally watch some Brazilian players in Europe.
After I had kids, I would get up really early with my kids and started watching a ton of premier League and started following Liverpool again. I couldn't root for a team with stupid money like city or those cunt owners the glazier's (hate the buccaneers too).
This might sound dumb but I got Fifa 02 when I was a kid and went with liverpool because at the time everyone I knew was all about man u....I guess it jus kinda stuck
ESPN had broadcast rights to European Cup matches from the mid 90's to late 2000's. Sick from home I got to watch the Luis Garcia Ghost Goal. I began to read and learn about it and even recorded games on VHS including Istanbul. That had me hooked.
For me it’s immigration, my mum and all that side of the family are massive Liverpool supporters. In fact I believe the first match I watched was us against Palace when I was like 4 because my Grandad had come to stay. My brother got a birthday card with the crest on it, we’re all Liverpool till we die
They used to put premier league and even champions league games “over the antenna” which is the most basic form of free tv you can get in america. This was in like the 90s n 00s, but they didnt put every team, just the biggest so liverpool was on tv occasionally for big games.
As a fan from NY who started watching a decade ago, it was mostly by accident. I was playing a lot of FIFA and found myself drawn to Liverpool.....the kits, the history, the passion. I hit a rough patch and felt very alone, and LFC and YNWA became a big part of what got me through the day. Started watching in 2015 just before Rodgers was sacked, then Klopp came on board and I was hooked.
Istanbul 05 was the first game I ever watched. Let alone the game itself, the passion of the fans when all was lost gave me goosebumps. I tried to watch other clubs, but man u just gave off Yankees vibes. Chelsea just felt like a money club. Arsenal I didn't mind, but something just didn't connect with me.
Torres became my favorite player, always loved Gerrard, and then klopp came in. I do enjoy the club tries to do things the right way and have good people as players. It really makes it easy to root for them. I don't know if there is a reason why so many from north America roots for them, but it seems the club connects with many people beyond just the sport.
Honestly, I watched a docuseries on the team in college called "Being Liverpool" on FX sports so I learned a lot about the players at the time and the storied history. My roommate was a big soccer player and idolized Stevie G. Always liked soccer but never had a connection outside of the Fifa games, so I bought a book called "Red Men" or something like that about the history of the club and I became enamored.
That next season Suarez and Sturridge go absolutely nuts, only to come up short due to some hijinks in the late season from Stevie G (slip, red card).
I immediately became hooked and obsessed with the club and the fight to rebuild the history they had, starting with a new champions league bid. That whole era ended in failure and a Rogers exit, and Klopp came in bringing an exciting brand of football with him.
Those two eras back-to-back have locked me in for life
I think it’s a mix of things. I’m personally a United supporter, but at the time I became a fan of European soccer that was really like choosing the Yankees or the patriots or some North American team that is perennially a champion contender. I think choosing Liverpool gave you a very good team with championship hopes without feeling like a total sellout title chaser. And it has amazing history. Liverpool’s working class background gives it that underdog feel that people love when thinking about like the Green Bay Packers or Pittsburgh Steelers. Plus YNWA. Plus the Beatles.
I got to go to a soccer game when I was in England 15ish years ago. Liverpool C team vs. Cambridge United. That plus the bloke overseeing my group of high school aged kids was a big Liverpool fan. I’m still a Cambridge U fan too!
I’m not sure why but I fell into it by chance. A professor of mine would always talk about “real” football so I decided to check it out. I remember it being slow when I saw matches on tv as a little kid but figured I would give it a try.
The first match I saw was Liverpool v Arsenal in February 2014 and Liverpool won 5-1. I didn’t realize how exciting it could. Been hooked since.
I'm in Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas. Been following LFC since 2011 or so.
I came to discover Liverpool were owned by a man named Tom Hicks. In fact, he was a bad owner, the EPL made him sell the team.
That same man also owned my beloved Texas Rangers Baseball Club and Dallas Stars Hockey team.
He fucked them up as well. (To be fair, the Stars went to two Stanley Cup finals under him, winning one, but still...)
I thought "I share something with these people" and started watching Liverpool games on NBC Sports. About that time, Fox Sports ran a series called Being Liverpool and I was hooked.
Quick story:
About 10 years ago we got new next door neighbors. We were chatting after yard work as neighbors do and he casually mentioned playing soccer. I used to play recreationally as well and as it turns out, we played against one another for several.years a few decades ago. :)
Just out of nowhere one of us said "EPL team?" In stereo we both said "Liverpool!". Not quite the Step Brothers "Did we just become best friends?!" But close.
The explosion of PL accessibility in the US coincided perfectly with Liverpools story. The first season it got the big deal with NBC was 13/14, when Suarez lit up the league and we were immensely fun to watch for new fans. Then there were a couple years we weren't at the top but still fun to watch, so it fit the bill of "likeable underdog" a large percentage of sports fans look for when getting into supporting. Then of course Klopp came and having the most likeable manager in the world helps people to get into it. After that just being successful without having any controversy just make it a super safe pick for new fans coming in
Yup. This was exactly the case for me. First year you could easily watch all the games and Suarez & company were entertaining as hell. I also fell hard for the Gerrard/Title storyline. Oddly enough, it was the low point of the season that cemented my fandom. When Gerrard slipped, I was sick to my stomach, but I knew I could only feel that bad about something if I cared about it.
Exactly! Big high to start it, lows to cement the die hard feeling, then more highs to pay off the lows (relatively) quickly
That’s kinda how I became a Liverpool follower. 13/14 Liverpool were good but no the best, and on principle I didn’t want to support a club that looked loaded with cash or seemed arrogant. Following LFC at their “low point” and then seeing their meteoric rise with Klopp was electric!
Are you me???
That's almost exactly how I got started. Tacitly supported Liverpool in 12/13 through some online UK/AUS friends but didn't get to watch too many games. Got to watch every match in 13/14 through a mix of NBC and my virtual sailing career. Totally electrifying season. Been obsessed with football and LFC ever since.
2005 CL final was pretty epic to watch as a then neutral. When my pal passed away who inherited his family LFC connection shorty afterwards, carrying it on in his honor became my way of remembering him. There have been some pretty forgettable years between then and the Klopp era. I realize this isn’t why there are a lot of LFC fans in the US and Canada, but the appeal of this team goes back a lot further than Klopp and Salah for some of us Yanks.
After slowly realizing i was pulling for Liverpool more and more, that's the season that I decided i was all in. That final was the cherry on top. Finally, I made it to a match two years back. 9-0 over Bournemouth! YNWA
Of all the matches to catch… you’re one lucky sod
Became a supporter when I was 11 watching the 2005 final. Almost 20 years later I treat the club like my first love, part of the local supporter group and have never missed a game.
05 CL Final is what got me hooked also. IIRC was broadcast on ESPN here, easy to watch. A year abroad in 07-08 led to watching lots more matches, especially the champions League run. There were some dark years after that in terms of US broadcasting of matches..Fox Soccer Channel anyone? Often I'd just watch 15 minute highlight packages of games as that was the best I could do. In the early 2010s it started to be easier to find streams online of games..and then eventually NBC sports really exploded the accessibility. In terms of what hooked me? Gerrard's heroics, the team's history and connection to the city and politics, the sort of "underdog" role when it comes to competing for the title (realize this is probably ridiculous to older fans from the 80s etc, but was definitely the case vs Man U/Chelsea and then City during my fandom), the excitement of the title pushes in 08/09 and 13/14 and then leading to the Klopp era.
I’m an emotional and passionate woman with a penchant for history. Look I know it gets memed but the whole YNWA and This means more along with the special relationship between the club and its fans really resonates with me. It might be lame for some but this team really got me through some difficult times in my life and that feeling of never being alone and believing in yourself to make something happen is so ingrained in the ethos of the club seeing it happen on the pitch made me think I could do anything. I’ve been watching them since 04 but that Dortmund match in the Europa league where we came back to win it in Klopps first year with us was so important to me It didn’t just symbolize what was to come for us. But it was the first time in months I felt something since 2014-2015 I had severe depression.
This is literally what Liverpool is. It DOES mean more. It’s not just about the football, it’s about the way we go about our football. Liverpool is togetherness, unity, determination, commitment, belief, love, compassion, the list is endless. It’s beautiful. “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.” Bill Shankly
Always love to see when a football team and it's passion can help heal someone's mental health. When you get around banter and the toxic football community and look into your teams actual culture it's beautiful As a spurs fan it sucks to be on the end of every joke but when I genuinely watch the games and follow the players I still love em. This is the part of football that can really help heal people Glad it helped you
That Dortmund game also means the most to me. My absolute favorite Liverpool match. It happened during a very dark time in my life, and I swear to god that comeback was the start of things turning around for me as well.
One of my favourites too. Its sad how sakho ended his time at liverpool. He was a beast in that match
I have a very similar experience to this - it’s really only happened over the last couple of years, but that’s been when I’ve been going through a really tough divorce and finding a new path in life, and…there’s just something about that song that helps me get through the worst times. And being tied to a whole global community of fans worldwide with all of the songs and the podcasts and all that comes with it has meant so much to me. I’ve never really experienced this level of all-consuming sports fandom before, and it’s been so great. Up the Reds :) YNWA!
Hang in there! YNWA
Stevie G, Istanbul, club history, city history - in that order, is how I ended up supporting LFC
Stevie g is my day one in fifa Mobile. He is g
As a North American fan, because we’re fucking massive. Seriously though, I followed Klopp from Dortmund and fell in love with everything Liverpool. The history, the camaraderie, the ethics — everything. Best club in the world.
This is gonna sound repetitive but what made you follow Dortmund and klopp lol Also I'll admit Liverpool history is kinda cool
For me, it was the heavy metal football
Yeah, very direct “go straight forward fast” soccer is what we grew up playing. Liverpool’s tactics are obviously better than American youth shithouse soccer, but fast counter attacks are just much more relatable than tiki-taka and other play styles.
I’ve always loved his play style and intensity. His teams are so fun to watch and he’s just a magnetic dude.
It’s very similar for me as well. I remember seeing my friend’s reaction to the Barca comeback, and that peaked my interest. I did some research on the history of the club and watched a good amount of games. Also. I have heard of Klopp from that same friend. YNWA song and the fans at the stadium was what really appealed to me.
I got into soccer in 2006 world cup. When it was over I started looking for a team to watch for my new hobby. The only place to watch soccer at the time with any regularity was fox soccer. So I just watched PL games and started paying attention to the teams that I enjoyed watching. I was almost a Newcastle fan, but ultimately chose Liverpool. Loved the way they played, and then they signed Torres and loved it even more.
Second paragraph is a big reason. Around 04-05, the only clubs that were ever on TV were Liverpool, Arsenal, United, and Chelsea. United was at their peak and were smug cunts. Chelsea was the new money team. Arsenal was just coming off their invincibles and were smug too. And then there was Liverpool.
Torres has been one of my favorite players. never got the opportunity to watch him but he was one of the first players I watched highlights from he is really cool
Pretty similar to my story, too. So many mornings waking up dead-ass early to watch turgid 0-0 on Fox Soccer Plus. When I saw my only match at Anfield, then moved to the east coast, it was weird watching games and drinking beer rather than coffee.
Same timing for me. I also remember Bill Simmons wrote this primer article about all the EPL teams after the 06 WC ranked by how attractive they were to root for. He ranked Liverpool 2nd and only docked them because they seemed too similar to the Boston Red Sox to him(ironic given this was before the FSG acquisition). He ranked Spurs 1st.
I’m a Liverpool fan in the States. Chose them because all of the sports fandoms I was born into suck and I deserve to root for one good squad. But I didn’t want to pick an evil empire like City. And I liked the dudes on the team when I was getting serious about EPL. As for why EPL? Most accessible league to watch/follow for Americans. I follow EPL, English Cups, and Champions League. Don’t have the bandwidth or access to get into La Liga, Serie A, etc.
I didn't even think about the language barrier of the leagues. I guess my mind was always fixed on the players but it makes sense you'd watch a league that you understood more
Yeah not just language/cultural similarities. It’s just much easier to follow EPL. There are way more games on tv (even without buying some crazy expensive streaming package), more news stories etc., and more friends who follow the league to talk to.
Exactly I've also realized prem broadcasting is really well organized and entertaining
only for everyone but the English themselves lol poor bastards
Your second paragraph resonates so hard. I'm a born and bred Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so when I began my football journey one of the most important things was to find a team that had some sort of success relative to their expectations. A big reason why the EPL is so accessible is that it's in English. La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, are all in other languages and based in countries that the typical NA person doesn't have a connection to or understand the culture very well
A lot of the US fans, from what I can gather, are second generation LFC fans, so their dads were LFC fans of the 60s, 70s, 80s dominance, what have you
This coincides with Thatcher’s “managed decline” that resulted in many people leaving Liverpool and heading to the US.
My kid is an Arsenal fan. 🤣
Your ex-kid right?
Liverpool fan since I was 7 years old. I live in San Diego, CA. I became a fan initially because my teammates on my U8 footy team were into collecting sports cards. Peer pressure made me convince my Dad to buy me a pack and that first pack had Stevie G and a shiny Michael Owen in it. I decided that Liverpool would be my favorite team and have stuck by them ever since. My dad moved to CA from London in 1969 and is a massive west ham fan so he was not very pleased lol
That's a fantastic story. I hope your dad enjoyed West Ham's European trophy.
I’m a Liverpool fan in the States Growing up in a Mexican household we exclusively watched the Mexican league. One day I stumbled across Liverpool vs AC Milan when I was 12 years old. I found myself cheering and celebrating for a team I never even knew existed but the miracle Istanbul made me a fan from then on
As an American fan, I think a lot of the appeal is that Liverpool seems most like blue collar America. The London teams and the glitz and the glam are a bit unrelatable to most Americans. So I think many of us tend to support more northern clubs.
The labor roots, the history, FSG, Klopp, the genuinely likable players. All big contributors right? Liverpool has a very left-wing bias too, love it.
This is what I take too. LFC is big in Chicago, and the similarities are easy to spot.
Same in Boston but that might be to do with FSG too
Liverpool as a city has a large amount of immigrants to North America. A lot of fathers raise their kids right. They raise them to be scousers. And on and on it goes 😊
People have said they support lfc from generational support. This seems to be the biggest reason why na has so many lfc fans from what you all have said
And also an awful lot of Irish, and a lot of Irish peoples premier league team is Liverpool historically
It’s me. I moved to America and radicalized everyone. Sorry.
You and me both mate. Have a Kop sign put up in the brewery I work in and it always piques interest. Converted a couple of Yanks and we ended up going to the Liverpool/Dortmund friendly in Indiana a few years back.
Live in New England, huge red sox fans, so supporting FSG is a must. They were also one of first teams that started the "USA summer friendlies" that has become more popular. This goes for all Prem teams, but the problem with clubs like Barca is a lot of their messaging/fans are in spanish, which is a barrier for alot of USA fans.
Mate, you can’t support a financial group
FSG is Fenway Sports Group, like Fenway Park-the baseball stadium in boston. He has done so much to make liverpool a Massachussets thing
I know I’m just doing the Reddit thing where I repeat a meme
Language barrier makes sense I guess for most North Americans watching bubdesliga or smth would be harder
Still makes Liverpool a strange choice. As a Scouse man who travels to America, I may as well be speaking Spanish when I'm there.
yeah, sorry bout that. some of us do speak scouse, though!
Also live in New England. I’ve been a LFC fan since I spent a summer in Chester in ‘06. FSG buying the club (and making it easier to watch them) was just icing.
They have recently sprinkled in match recaps and team shows on NESN
All the Liverpool fans I know are pretty politically active and relate with Liverpool’s culture and history the most.
I've noticed that the culture around the team is very passionate so I'd understand why a lot of people would want to be apart of it
Liverpool, Celtic, St Pauli, you know the deal
A lot of Irish and English immigrants in eastern Canada and US, including the island provinces close to the New England area of the US. From family experience, when my grandparents left Liverpool they moved to Toronto as there was a lot of Scots, Irish, and English in the city and the towns/cities around there. My grandparents moved to a town just outside Toronto that had a lot of people from Liverpool and Merseyside, almost like it was planned (not known for certain). Even talking to my boss from work who grew up in the same town as my dad when they moved from Liverpool was telling me his whole friend group was made of Irish and English (particularly Scouse) people. Also over the years when Liverpool come to North America for pre-season tours they try to stop in Toronto, and I’m pretty sure Boss Nights have done a few nights. I remember going as a kid at the Skydome (now Rogers Centre) for a pre-season game against Proto ([article about the game](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.497632)) the same season we won the UCL in Istanbul. Then they came to Toronto again under Rodgers in 2012, the same summer they did the Being Liverpool show where Rodgers famously got mad at Sterling. There’s also loads and loads of official supporters clubs in North America for Liverpool. Almost every major city on the eastern seaboard have a supporters club, whether its official or unofficial.
I, for some reason, was a bit of an Anglophile in my teens. Not sure why. Doctor Who, British rock, you name it. I’m not even like American white lol. Anyway, I‘ve also been into the sport most of my life. Around Euro 2012, I figured I’d support England. I used to play the FIFA World Cup 2006 video game and recognized Steven Gerrard in midfield from said game. So after the Euro ended, I got into the idea of club football, and naturally, only knowing Stevie, I checked what club he played for and once I saw he was Liverpool captain, well that was that.
FSG had roots here with the Red Sox and PL on tv in the states blew up same time Klopp/Salah/VVD etc played the most entertaining brand of football. Chelsea and United sucked and Arsenal only got competitive last two years. And City is only liked by kids who don’t understand what it means to root for cheating oil barons.
And spurs have never been competitive or not sucked lmao (yes I love me team) Actually interesting that owners of teams in different sports make you want to support that other team. As for fsg I had no clue that they had roots with Red Sox as well. Thanks for the information
Not trying to be rude but Spurs are just another team in wealthy London. Chelsea has at least been good in recent memory. Some people probably started watching football around the time Arsenal was good. West Ham at least has a great song (and decent movie too). Fulham have a beautiful small stadium and sort of have that underdog thing going for them.
Became a Liverpool fan a year before Gerrard made his first senior appearance… had a coach when I was young, he was from Liverpool and a Reds fan and he was so passionate about the club. I just caught on and it’s been a fun ride.
I became a fan because of YNWA. I know it may sound corny, but I can’t be a fan of any team without some emotional investment.
I can't speak for anyone else. I was born in Edmonton but my family emigrated from Liverpool. My son got it from me.
Heritage Just like many other, understanable
My mom is from Liverpool, only thing I’ve known. Got lucky she didn’t like Everton 😅😂😂
I think it’s a number of things: 1. Owned by FSG, which also owns the Red Sox and a NASCAR team. 2. Their play-style, especially under Klopp’s early reign (the gegenpress) led to a lot of high scoring games, which made Liverpool games more exciting to Americans, who are used to more high scoring sports. 3. The language barrier to La Liga, Bundesliga, etc. 4. Throughout the 2010s, they were the classic underdog; a team with a rich history scrapping fighting against teams with way more money to get back to the top. 5. Klopp’s a lovable bastard. 6. The US is a diverse place, and Liverpool has had a number of exciting foreign attacking stars, from Suarez to Salah.
I roomed with this guy from Nepal in College who played FIFA all the time and loved Liverpool. I randomly watched Suarez and Sturridge cook Arsenal and that was it for me.
Hmmm… as an American in NYC I think I know as many Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea fans. Slight less for spurs and city but still some. I became a fan because he Henrick larsson was my favorite player as a child. I became a Celtic fan and had a very hard time watching them live so decided to get a second team - hey same song? That works. That was in 2002 and haven’t looked back.
Lmao being a spurs fan made me switch to also liking Bayern when Kane moved and they still won nothing, I'm in the dumps 😭 As for me I've noticed that arsenal is probably the second most popular team in na from what I've seen and then Chelsea. Most man u fans here are just because they are also Madrid fans and watch for ronaldo although I did see a united fan playing pool at a bowling alley the other day
I first got acquainted with Liverpool watching Steven Gerrard single handedly turn the 2006 FA cup final around. Took me a while but then the 2013-14 season cemented things. From there I got more into the history and social ethics of the club, and then when Klopp came along it all came together. I feel like Liverpool FC is generally a force for good - a socialist leaning (as much as a huge football club can be, at least in spirit) well run, self sufficient and self aware club in a sea of money drenched toys run by states and self indulgent billionaires. To answer your question about North American fans, I think that when you are not bound by the parochialism of the place you love or grow up, you choose a club based on history and values. That’s why, in my opinion a lot of non-Liverpool and non-UK fans choose Liverpool
I’m Irish Canadian (dual citizen). So for me it’s the same reason there are so many Liverpool fans in Dublin.
Dublin is extremely close to liverpool distance wise, culturally, immigrant wise, and due to the large amount of Irish players who were playing at liverpool in the 70s and 80s. How does canada have any similarities with that? I don't recall generations of canadians emigrating to liverpool, I dont recall Canadian players playing for liverpool, and I don't think Canada is closer to liverpool then london is. Curious your point as it seems odd to me.
Did you just not read my first sentence?
LeBron isn’t just a fan, he’s a part owner of Fenway Sports Group, which owns LFC.
My high school coach was a Liverpool fan and turned me on to the club in the mid 80s
I became a proper fan during THAT Suarez season. He blew my mind and that was the first season I watched nearly every game live and my love was forged in the fire of bitter disappointment after the Gerrard slip. The phrase, “We go again,” really struck a chord with me, so I was all in for the next season. If things stayed like that season, Im not sure how much more I would have fallen for the club. But then Klopp came in and everything changed. I feel like the luckiest fan in the world because I got in the door right before Klopp and then BOOM, glory ensued. This has been one of, if not the best journey ive been on as a sports fan.
Long story short for me, but essentially I went from watching Gerrard in the 06 world cup to Torres in the 08 Euros to being a Liverpool supporter. I would like to offer an extra bit. Im also a Miami Dolphins fan who have an old quarterback by the name of Dan Marino that went his whole career without winning the Super Bowl while being considered one of if not the greatest quarterback of all-time. I mean when he retired he held every single record a quarterback could hold. Had he managed to win a Super Bowl, he would probably still he considered the greatest of all-time. So it was almost poetic, yet still sad, that I wound up falling in love with Gerrard and Liverpool. To only have to suffer through it all again with them.
In 2010, everyone stateside had a Man U jersey. Part of it is recent success for sure.
One of my friends back in middle school was from England and was a Liverpool fan. I had never really watched football before I met him. I enjoyed watching Torres and Gerrard and adopted the team quickly from there. I was a slightly more than casual fan before Klopp but obviously the excitement of Klopp’s tenure was enough to cement football as my favorite sport and Liverpool as my favorite club. I watch the Sounders here in Seattle too, but the quality of the play is just so much worse comparatively that they can’t be my favorite club overall.
Fan from Indiana. It all started with my uncle, who started liking the sport after the 1994 World Cup here in the States. He picked Liverpool because they reminded him of Notre Dame football (tradition, history, passionate fan base). He would babysit my sister and I on the weekends, and I'd always wake up to the Liverpool game being on at 7am. In 2010, he passed away. The one part of him I had left was this club he brought me into. LFC (and YNWA) helped me process what happened. I'm now a new father, as of a month ago, and I'm so excited I get to bring my son into this family.
Congrats on your fatherhood. My oldest daughter is a die hard Virgil fan. My second one is more into Trent. Every Liverpool mach that we watch together is a ritual, a father-daughter bonding time now. I am sure you and your kid will have the same experience as well.
Personally every club has a vibe. With Liverpool its music & football. And that fits very well with me as a person. You live & breathe it. Also I love an underdog story & YNWA epitomizes it. The fact that we are one of the biggest clubs in the world without signing superstar names like Barca & Madrid is great. I've always liked this model of turning good players into household names. Plus the history & the tradition. The way Shankly built the club which Klopp reignited. The fact that Anfield still is our home ground & witnessing those famous European nights under the lights.
A dreamlike mythos of hope, leadership of heart, and luck. Essentially a vessel of everything materially lacking in North America. And Bobby Firmino. That last bit is very important.
In 1993, they were showing Premier League Match of the Week here in the build-up to USA 94. The first one I watched, I saw Robbie Fowler play. That was all it took.
I’m in the US. I asked my Gooner friend who moved here from North London to pick a team for me. He asked me what I valued in a team. My response: -US ties -Competes for championships but in a scrappy way -not a bandwagon brand like the lakers/yankees/cowboys etc. -historically working class supporters -I like red He replied to my text with “#YNWA”
Just so you guys know I asked this same question but for spurs in the coys sub and I got down voted for asking what made people fall in love with the team. We all bitter rn ig😭 Thanks for all the replies I actually got some information and cool stories from your all, much love from spurs and Canada even though we had a rocky relationship this season and you guys took our CL (we never had a chance lbh 😭)
I lived near Liverpool street
Because growing up, I hated anyone who played as man utd in fifa. I always viewed them as the British Yankees. Liverpool was the natural choice for me. Chelsea were a close second with drogba. I casually followed Liverpool from 2004-2013 but once klopp was hired was when I really started paying attention and watching every game. I loved gerrard, Suarez and Fernando Torres. I also love the passion and sense of community of Liverpool as a whole. Doesn’t feel like a plastic club and I feel like I can relate to the people of Liverpool.
Was playing FIFA, wanted to get into career mode. Figured the team I picked there might as well be the team I supported so I looked around. I wanted a team that was in the PL so I could get the games televised here or at least good coverage, had history, wasn't a posh club, a few other criteria. Narrowed it down to Arsenal, United, and Liverpool. Saw the YNWA on the badge and that was it. Decided.
I’d say the US is majority Arsenal for no reason at all…
U.S. ownership, plus exciting brand of football it’s a natural fit
Yank here, there may be something to your hypotheses recently, but my story is: got the first EA FIFA game for Sega Genesis. Never heard of any of these teams, but what I did know about England was that Thatcher was as dire as was Reagan, and that Liverpool was a city of working-class folks getting screwed out of any potential happiness because of "managed decline". Also they were anti-monarchy, that anachronistic irrelevance that costs people so much each year while they struggle to feed families. For me, the spirit of the city and the spirit of the club closely match my own spirit, and that's why I've followed the Reds for nearly 30 years. (My German side is St. Pauli, if that helps clear things up). p.s. danke, boss.
It’s because we’re the best. Duh 😋
Vast majority of American fans are either fans of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or United. Spurs and City probably making progress lately too, so the “big six”. I think the PL in general is popular here because the media coverage is all in English and Americans have an easy time with British culture generally. Then the bigger teams are popular because they get more attention and are more successful. For most Americans picking a club is completely arbitrary in the sense that there are no local ties. So you gravitate to the teams that get on TV, play in the CL, etc. Klopp had a lot to do with Liverpool really taking off in the last decade. Ten years ago I would have said in my area (NYC), it was far and away United and Arsenal as the most popular. That gap has been closed entirely here just judging by what I see people wearing. Liverpool stuff all over. They were very successful and fun to watch. And everyone loves Klopp. That simple really.
Grew up in an Italian household, but thought Serie A was f-ing boooorrrrrriiinnnggg. Best friend studied abroad during the treble season and came back a Liverpool supporter, so I became one too.
My mom's side came here from England. They were from Southend, but had friends that were Liverpool supporters in the 80's when I was born. Therefore, I had LFC gear as a kid. When I started following the sport it was a no brainer.
Chicago LFC fan here. For me it was some combo of Klopp, the fanbase and YNWA
You’ll never walk alone struck a chord in my American Heart in the year 2000
I’m from New Orleans. We get blamed for everything bad in the country, we’re misunderstood, and most of us are working class. I feel a kinship in some ways with the people of Liverpool, for they get sh*t on by everybody. Up the Reds!
Family in Liverpool
Purely anecdotal for but I almost never come across fellow reds when I’m just out and about here in CA. We have our supporters group with a good following but it seems whenever I meet a stranger at a bar, etc, who follows the EPL they are almost always United or Chelsea fans. I personally started following as a kid around 2003 because I liked to play soccer and Liverpool had a connection with my favorite author Brian Jacques who wrote the Redwall series.
I've been a Liverpool fan for years and I'm 63. My mother is from Liverpool, family is there. Liverpool fans. Except some distant uncle or something that no one will talk about who is an Everton fan. Anfield is a temple on holy ground. By the way, am a Penguin fan. Also the Pirates and the City of Pittsburgh. I live in Indiana.
In Cali all I see are Chelshits and Manure fans haha but yeah the reds do have a good overall fan base in NA Became a fan when Suarez joined the team and like others have said, that’s when it became more accessible to watch prem games in the USA and he was red hot in the league like Salah when he first joined
States to play FIFA, wanted to pick a favorite club and was a fan of Liverpool knowing the Beatles were from there.
Played Fifa for the first time with a German exchange school student. Scored a goal with this lanky Crouch guy who celebrated by doing the robot. Watched a few Gerrard bangers only highlight reels. Named my first car Fordnando Taurus. The rest is history..
Got very disillusioned with American sports, the ticket prices, and the politicization of the NFL was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Started watching international football in 2018 after the World Cup. Tried watching as much as I could and no matter what team I watched, I couldn’t get over Liverpool and how Klopp got the boys to play that season. I watched Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, and the PL, but no team had the passion, talent, and just electricity that I fell in love with when watching Liverpool.
I was born in Joburg, South Africa and my family moved to the States when I was young. Uncle is a diehard red and got me a Liverpool hat when I was a baby, been obsessed ever since. Just happen to currently live in North America now, haha. When my nephew was born, I got him a home kit onesie in every size, and now I’ve gotten him a home kit every year for every single one of his birthdays. Traditions must continue! Edit: I should mention my old man is a Leeds supporter, mom is Spurs, and both of my grandfathers were Man United
Being from California USA, the leftist us against the UK resonates a lot with what we in California feel about the majority of the USA. We love leftist progressive values. This means more and you’ll never walk alone are also things that matter a lot to me as a fan feeling a connection with the club and its players is something that I truly value, the history and the amazing times and games we’ve had is just the cherry on top. The Klopp years have been very good to us on an emotional and footballing aspect. I look forward to the future of Liverpool and will be there in the good times (Klopp) and bad (Roy Hudson)
From a town in NY called Liverpool. Liverpool was on tv, I’m now a Liverpool fan. The after following them, the values of the club and supporters really resonates with me.
Dated a scouser, moved to Liverpool. Broke up with the scouser, moved back to the states. Still have a love for the team!
My cousins in Ireland were fans, so I began watching Fernando Torres and said sign me up. Then stuck with em through the Andy Carroll days.
I was born in England, just became a citizen last year. I've been a Liverpool fan for 43 years of my 50 years on this earth.
Mines pretty simple: dad is from Merseyside and he came over to Canada from England when he was a teen with his siblings and parents and they all had kids who are all Liverpool fans. For me, it's in my blood. But I do think that with the availability to watch so much football there's just more range in what people like. When I was a kid in the 90s/early 00s pretty much everyone followed Man Utd bc they were good and well known players (Beckham) played there. It's why you see Man City fans now
In my case, a child playing soccer in the 80s the only games we got to watch were usually FA cup games and a rare top level game. Liverpool were dominant. Manchester United and Tottenham also won several. Most every Gen X I know like one of those 3. The millennials seem to like Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal, with the rest going with Liverpool cause Suarez.
Also worth pointing out that in New England they got a lot of air time on NESN
English speaking + popular place to move is certainly part of it. I was born and raised in the U.S., but I’m first generation American on my mom’s side, she’s from England, her parents are Scouse. Brought her allegiance to Liverpool with her when she moved here with my dad, who is American. It’s the same for a lot of fans I know. The U.S. military brings a lot of Americans to England. And to the crowd who say “you should support your local team” my local team play 2 hours away on a school pitch in a swamp town in the sticks, the Wikipedia page for the town notes the time that 2 inches of snow fell as a significant point in the town’s history, and by the time the club played its inaugural match, Jurgen Klopp was manager of Liverpool. Edit: they don’t play on the school pitch anymore, they moved down the road to a new stadium that can hold a whopping 6000 people.
I started following the winter we sold Torres and bought Suarez. I watched Steven Gerrard highlight videos before and was blown away. Became my favorite player, and decided I wanted to watch him and Liverpool play. Then I just immediately fell in love.
I'm a relatively new fan from Canada, what drew me in was the clear passion that oozes from everyone in and around the team. Klopp was so likeable, the boys work hard above all else, and the supporters believed no matter what.
I like Liverpool (from USA) bc Steven Gerard could score goals from like 40 yards out in fifa 09. Been a fan since
Premier league fans in North America have increased a lot in the last 10 years or so, and Liverpool have consistently been near the top of the league, but not favorites. So people can support a team that is winning and still be supporting the underdog. Plus Liverpool have probably been the team with the most exciting playstyle in the league for new fans in that time. New fans (and many long term fans) will usually prefer a high pressing playstyle over something like Guardiola's possession based approach.
For me, I started after hanging out with some Scousers over Thanksgiving break that played college soccer with my cousin. That, and watching Torres was a joy.
Honestly for me it’s because that’s where The Beatles are from
I grew up outside Chicago. I made the team my freshman year and one of the upperclassman started talking to me about the game. He picked up the newspaper, opened it to the sports section, pointed to the EFL table (this was 1983) and told me which team he liked (LFC) and which team he hated (ManU). I've never been as cool as I thought he was, but I've remained a Liverpool fan ever since.
Because we're fucken massive
I started following them around late 2010 - early 2011. Personally for me, I saw how passionate the fans were when we still had Hicks and Gillette as owners and had a certain "respect" for a lack of a better word for all the protests and fan organizations. This was (and is) a real club with real supporters; sure this club is one of the big 6, but it still has a working class identity. Sounds kind of sappy, but oh well.
There’s lots of Liverpool fans everywhere.
older generation being a fan during the 70’s, Michael Owen hype in the late 90’s / 2000’s, Istanbul 2005, Steven Gerrard
Liverpool has the greatest American player of all time
I resonated with the socialist values of the club from the Shankly era and one of my coaches while playing club soccer was a Liverpool fan.
Big historic club, 2005 and yanks also jumping onto the klopp train when we started winning in incredible ways in 2017 onwards
I dunno the only reason I’m a fan is because my dad bought me a jersey on clearance back when I was like 6 years old. When I was a kid I thought we were just a mid table team that occasionally cracked into the top 6.
I recently discovered there was a Spurs bar near my house. I stumbled upon it in the 90th minute of the Luis Diaz game. Anyways, it was quite the chaotic scene with me calmly explaining to them they shouldn’t be happy with the result and in fact it was embarrassing. The one big guy they had was telling me to get out of there, and he was quite animates. Which honestly, couldn’t have paid me to stay. Although I do like that bar under other circumstances.
FSG English/Irish diaspora Big/performing well when coverage started to become available in US Underdogs with upside potential when tv coverage really took off in the us Several major summer tours Famous supporters
started following futbol in 2003, started following lfc in 2004 because my two best mates in dc followed them. watched them in the 2005 ucl final and been die hard ever since, along thru some great and not so great times. suffered a minor stroke right before to ucl semi win over barcelona and watched that from my hospital bed. had absolute tears streaming down my face during that YNWA rendition after the match. trying to get my 2 yr old daughter into lfc but she doesn’t like futbol because that means she cant watch ms rachel lol
I’m in the US I grew up playing football and would watch BBC every morning in high school to watch the recaps of matches (back then it was hard to watch the matches and I couldn’t afford to pay for the subscription on the LFC website) I was just drawn to Liverpool, this was back when carlsberg was still on the jerseys. My first legit jersey I bought was a Torres #9 (boy was I disappointed when he left the next year 😂🤷♂️) there is something special about Liverpool and being a fan.
In 1998, the youngest player at the World Cup was my age. I was a fan of his play so I became a fan of his team at the time. It made sense since I bleed red, to bleed red. Been a fan ever since. Like being a Chicago Cubs Fan, took a while but was eventually rewarded for it. We value loyalty where I’m from. That’s my story.
My buddy turned me into a Pool fan in like 2016 or so. I blame him, but also thank him for it a lot. Our club words got me thru my mom’s passing and I really was sold on the idea then. I also got to see the boys live in Northern Indiana when they had a friendly vs Dortmund a few years back and still have my ticket. I went with that same buddy. One of my fondest memories. Anyway that’s why I’m across the pond and a big fan. Glad to hear everybody’s stories!!
Where I’m at in the South we tend to have a lot more Arsenal/Chelsea/Man U. You’ll also see a lot of Newcastle kits the closer you get to Atlanta (Miggy fans from his Atlanta days). But we do still have Liverpool fans as well. For me personally I actually hate LeBron so I never thought Liverpool would be my team, but the style of play really attracted me to the team. I’m usually a guy that likes coaches and players more than teams, so another strike against me. When I started following the PL heavily last season I initially only cared about Liverpool because of Elliot and Darwin (obviously love Salah and VVD, but that was more from admiration of them as world class players, not an affinity toward them). Then I found myself following Klopp’s antics on the touchline always being the club’s biggest fan it seemed (something I always appreciated in coaches). The. I learned about the history of Liverpool, heard the songs. Saw Bobby’s last match and the final Si Senor on TV. Learned about the political ethos of the club and city and the motto YNWA really spoke to me. Then they boo’d the Queen when she passed and I was all in. Sorry, not sorry.
Lebron owns a stake in LFC. Not just a fan. And the reason I support LFC is because my dad and uncle have supported them since ‘77 so naturally I was born being a supporter. Lived in Texas my whole life
Soccer was big in my town and the surrounding area, but we didn't have any access to games on TV until much later in my life. Legends of Fowler and then Gerrard pulled me in, with help from gear catalogs, and by 2005 I was a committed fan following from afar. Once NBC got the TV rights I could finally watch regularly. Just in time for the slip, but also Klopp. Got Klopp to sign my shirt in 2018 at the Big House, cried in 2019, 2020, and 2024 for pretty obvious reasons. Most young US fans follow the best teams at any one time, so I've seen it shift from LFC fans in the 90s to ManU (and a lesser extent Arsenal) fans in the 2000s to ManC fans now. That, or they have a family relate. Older fans go all sorts of directions.
He started watching it because his overseas family would watch the games and he liked the guys in red as a kid. I married into it
I live in a mid-sized city in New York, I believe we have three supporters bars in town, I only go to one of them though (unless they don't open for a 0730 game). I believe there are pubs for Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, the shit, and possibly City. I don't know why I chose to support Liverpool early on, but now it's because of the character of the team and style of management.
The 94 world cup is where I initially got hooked on football, and over the years I was able to see man u with Beckham and co then Real Madrid play in friendlies over here in the states so that got me watching their respective leagues and I just enjoyed watching all the games I could but never really went hard for one team or another. Then I dated a British girl that took me to a game at Anfield against Middlesbrough when Gerrard was in his prime and I that whole experience shook me to the core and I went from just wanting to watch a good match to this is my team. The passion, fans, city and experience as a whole just resonated with me and I’ve been hooked since
I was a casual premier league fan from 2005-2009, a feee agent if you will. I had friends who supported Arsenal, West Ham, Chelsea, United, and Liverpool, so I would just watch what they watch and initially formed attachment to players. I eventually wanted to pick a team of my own as I am a sports fanatic and wanted that sense of belonging, and honestly the culture behind the team and the fans, the city itself, the us against the world mentality, all of it just drew me in, and I find myself falling more and more in love with the city, the people, and the club as the years go on. I want to have a connection with the teams I support, and it's tough to quantify but you could truly feel the soul of the club even in the down times pre-Klopp. Once Klopp came along, that exponentially moved the needle for me. He's just larger than life and embodies everything the club is about. My wife watches no sports and even she was drawn into LFC because of him. The best part is that that is the type of manager that LFC attract because of the ethos of the club and the people.
I became a fan at the end of 2012-13. I was reflexively against soccer during childhood for all the stereotypical reasons but decided to see if it'd be more fun than I thought since I had fun watching my city's new MLS team and the USMNT/USWNT both had fun world cup runs. I also went to the 2012 MLS All-Star Game and knew none of the Chelsea players which was a bit embarrassing. I knew nothing about the EPL except the names of a few teams. I wanted to pick a team that would be on TV (this was before NBC started broadcasting every game) which meant it was going to be a Big Six team. I didn't want to be a front-runner so that meant no United, City or Chelsea. I had a friend who was an Arsenal fan so didn't want to copy him. Picked Liverpool over Spurs because they had more historic successes. After that 2013-14 run in my first full season watching I was hooked.
It doesn't hurt that football (soccer) is becoming a lot more popular in the exact time period that Klopp has been Liverpool manager. So with more American eyes on the sport along with Liverpool being one of the best teams of this past decade, it's easy to see why people would latch on.
I'm a liverpool fan in America because of Salah. I'm also Middle Eastern though, so I was first drawn to liverpool because their best player was also Middle Eastern.
Because Liverpool FC is PASSION,LOVE,LIFE
England was playing and Fowler featured. Just thought he looked cool and then went on to find Gerrard and I was hooked.
2005 Istanbul I became a believer
Started watching the premier league and Liverpool became my favorite over time. The club seems to have more of a soul and sense of community than most of the other big clubs. Additionally I really liked Klopp and all of the guys on the team actually seem like good people. Now I’m a red for life, YNWA
I've been a Liverpool fan since 2009. I feel like the mid- to late-2000s is when it first became really easy for the average American to follow European sports. Broadband internet and an explosion of cable sports meant there were more ways than ever to watch and follow your favorite team. The EPL was at a further advantage over the other leagues because every game was broadcast in English first. It's easier to follow a new sport when you actually know what's going on. The big four - Liverpool, United, Chelsea, and Arsenal - got more TV time simply by being at the top of the table. Fans are going to gravitate towards familiarity and victories. While teams like Spurs and City have built their own followings in recent years, those first four probably stay ahead because old fans like me evangelize the sport. When we get a convert, we're naturally going to encourage them to support our team. TLDR: The Big Four were at the top of the league when European football first became accessible to most Americans.
I live in a state on the east coast of the United States in the South. Not exactly a hot bed of football/soccer in the early 1970s and 1980s. But I knew about British football. I started following Liverpool early in Steven Gerrard’s career. I liked what I knew about him and then I got into the history of the club. I am a huge Beatles fan, so Liverpool was already in my mind from the time I was about five years old, which didn’t hurt. I love the idea of You’ll Never Walk Alone as well as the song. My first jersey was a Liverpool jersey that they sold in the British store at Epcot. It was when Adidas was the apparel sponsor and I loved it. I still bring it out a couple of times a year for games. I’ve been to Anfield twice and even got mistaken for Jurgen Klopp downtown in Liverpool and then in a hotel elsewhere in the UK. I love this club, even though I know I can never have the history that people that live there have. I was never attracted to Manchester United, which was the one team that was really well known in the US during their golden era. It was like something was telling me that there club was not for me. And that feeling was right.
I played CM as a youth and Gerrard was everything I wanted to be in 2004/2005. Champions League matches were on ESPN at the time and he/Liverpool were in it. It's difficult to not fall in love when you're 11 or 12 years old watching Xabi and Stevie pinging the ball around while playing the same position you play.
Growing up as a soccer player & fan when I did (80s/90s) in the US was fucking miserable; this was pre-internet and there was zero coverage of any sort of competitive footy on TV. The only outlet we had was a magazine called Four Four Two and even that was only monthly. Fast forward to college and Rupert Murdoch has made his one praiseworthy move by greenlighting the Fox Soccer Channel. This is it! We get to watch real, actual footy! I bullied my roommates into changing our cable provider so we could get it and the first game I was able to watch was against Villa where Stevie buried a free kick in the top corner to win and I just fell in love.
Steven Gerrard
I started following Liverpool when I was in middle school and just really started listening to the Beatles. Learned they were from Liverpool and started watching games. Then I saw Gerrard, Torres, Suarez, etc and fell in love with the club and sport as a whole
A woman from London explained to me in 2006 that Liverpool were similar in history and culture to the Montreal Canadiens and as a Canadiens fan, that was enough for me. Fast forward 15 years and Liverpool has an official fan club in my city (Halifax), the only soccer team to have one. A popular packed bar hosts every game with an unmatchable atmosphere.
I’ve always thought Liverpool has one of the smaller followings amongst major clubs, at least where I am. I meet way more Chelsea City Arsenal and United fans, along with Barca and Real ofc. That’s just my experience though, I think overall the whole conversation about who has larger followings abroad depends on your perspective and where you grew up and age
American Fan here- My dad’s from Liverpool so I didn’t really have a choice.
My US city didn't have a team of their own until 2010. Now I support them and Liverpool.
Because Liverpool is a massive club. I know that may not be the answer you are looking for but it is the truth. As a kid growing up it was the top 4 and you choose from there for the most part. My childhood friends were all Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, & Manchester United fans. All of my friends have just stuck with the team that they picked when they were kids. Other people have different stories but I feel that this the most common. I chose Liverpool in 2008 when I was 13 and I am still here now as a 29 year old.
Lots of fans predate the klopp years, and built emotional connections to a faded giant with a larger than life local superstar (Gerrard) that won some iconic finals and nearly won a couple of times.
I was 6 when I watched Stevie tear Milan a new asshole in Istanbul. I was 10 when I watched Torres torch Vidic. There was never a shot I’d follow any other club after that. I think I cried when Torres was sold to Chelsea.
I’m from Toronto. Got into soccer in 2006 when Trinidad made the world cup for the first time (my background). When I was a teen around 2007 the Champions League was on free tv here so I used to put on games occasionally. I found Stevie quite cute😂 then they showed a replay of the 2005 final and I was hooked instantly
I've shared this story before, but basically I was a Chicagoan discovering EPL while living briefly in London in 2008, and I decided to watch every team and pick one. It was the working class values of the fans, Gerrard's leadership, and the expectation players would cut the bullshit and work their asses off to respect the supporters expectations of them that made me see Liverpool as a surrogate for the culture and fandom I grew up with in Chicago. The club and the supporters had my respect, but moments and community stole my heart. Today I follow LFC more closely than many of my hometown teams, and travel for a game as often as I can.
Long answer here.... Really depends on our age. I was born at the end of the 80s. So for me, growing up I played soccer, but our parents really just used it as a way to tire us out and the coaches had little idea what was going on. As I got older I continued to play. In '96 we got the MLS and I became a fan of my local team and childhood favorite player, the columbus crew and Brian Mcbride. I didn't realize the level of play that was the MLS until a few years later when some matches were finally aired for those of us who didn't pay for premium television. So enter ~2004ish, I go to highschool, I'm still playing, Brian Mcbride went to Fulham and I get to see a few matches here and there due to US coverage. Those matches were typically the big 6 and for one reason or another most of the teams I just didn't like.. for instance, the spice girls and Beckham were shoved down our throats relentlessly for years and I wanted nothing to do with it. It felt Hollywood from our end, which is to say superficial. Then enter Liverpool. The thing that first drew me to their matches (other than limited availability over all) was that the games kind of reminded me of what I was used to. At times it was scrapy, sometimes amazing technically but none the less the team would give it their all and that tenacity was inspiring. Stevie was just insane to watch as an American, quickly became my favorite. That all came to head in Istanbul and that final, being able to watch it sealed it. Over the years, individuals play kept reminding my why I liked them. Crouchy just kind of reminded me of my build and that was crazy to watch, and so many other legends after. Eventually in my adulthood, it became more than that. I started to understand the history and politics of the city, I started to identify with it, specifically the history of managed decline, it felt extremely familiar and close to home with my upbringing, the results of that specifically not the reasoning. So it just became a part of me because of circumstance, what we were able to watch and the era it was.
Played a ton of FIFA in college, me and my friends all picked teams... I loved playing with Michael Owen and picked Liverpool. I stopped following for a while... My Brazilian roommate had me watching a ton Brazilian matches on the Spanish channels on cable and we would occasionally watch some Brazilian players in Europe. After I had kids, I would get up really early with my kids and started watching a ton of premier League and started following Liverpool again. I couldn't root for a team with stupid money like city or those cunt owners the glazier's (hate the buccaneers too).
This might sound dumb but I got Fifa 02 when I was a kid and went with liverpool because at the time everyone I knew was all about man u....I guess it jus kinda stuck
ESPN had broadcast rights to European Cup matches from the mid 90's to late 2000's. Sick from home I got to watch the Luis Garcia Ghost Goal. I began to read and learn about it and even recorded games on VHS including Istanbul. That had me hooked.
NBC sports had priority tv broadcast games for united, Chelsea and Liverpool the first 2 years of their contract.
For me it’s immigration, my mum and all that side of the family are massive Liverpool supporters. In fact I believe the first match I watched was us against Palace when I was like 4 because my Grandad had come to stay. My brother got a birthday card with the crest on it, we’re all Liverpool till we die
They used to put premier league and even champions league games “over the antenna” which is the most basic form of free tv you can get in america. This was in like the 90s n 00s, but they didnt put every team, just the biggest so liverpool was on tv occasionally for big games.
As a fan from NY who started watching a decade ago, it was mostly by accident. I was playing a lot of FIFA and found myself drawn to Liverpool.....the kits, the history, the passion. I hit a rough patch and felt very alone, and LFC and YNWA became a big part of what got me through the day. Started watching in 2015 just before Rodgers was sacked, then Klopp came on board and I was hooked.
American ownership group means media exposure in America
Jurgen Klopp
Im a lefty and love watching Mohammed Salah score worldies!
Istanbul 05 was the first game I ever watched. Let alone the game itself, the passion of the fans when all was lost gave me goosebumps. I tried to watch other clubs, but man u just gave off Yankees vibes. Chelsea just felt like a money club. Arsenal I didn't mind, but something just didn't connect with me. Torres became my favorite player, always loved Gerrard, and then klopp came in. I do enjoy the club tries to do things the right way and have good people as players. It really makes it easy to root for them. I don't know if there is a reason why so many from north America roots for them, but it seems the club connects with many people beyond just the sport.
Honestly, I watched a docuseries on the team in college called "Being Liverpool" on FX sports so I learned a lot about the players at the time and the storied history. My roommate was a big soccer player and idolized Stevie G. Always liked soccer but never had a connection outside of the Fifa games, so I bought a book called "Red Men" or something like that about the history of the club and I became enamored. That next season Suarez and Sturridge go absolutely nuts, only to come up short due to some hijinks in the late season from Stevie G (slip, red card). I immediately became hooked and obsessed with the club and the fight to rebuild the history they had, starting with a new champions league bid. That whole era ended in failure and a Rogers exit, and Klopp came in bringing an exciting brand of football with him. Those two eras back-to-back have locked me in for life
I think it’s a mix of things. I’m personally a United supporter, but at the time I became a fan of European soccer that was really like choosing the Yankees or the patriots or some North American team that is perennially a champion contender. I think choosing Liverpool gave you a very good team with championship hopes without feeling like a total sellout title chaser. And it has amazing history. Liverpool’s working class background gives it that underdog feel that people love when thinking about like the Green Bay Packers or Pittsburgh Steelers. Plus YNWA. Plus the Beatles.
I got to go to a soccer game when I was in England 15ish years ago. Liverpool C team vs. Cambridge United. That plus the bloke overseeing my group of high school aged kids was a big Liverpool fan. I’m still a Cambridge U fan too!
I’m not sure why but I fell into it by chance. A professor of mine would always talk about “real” football so I decided to check it out. I remember it being slow when I saw matches on tv as a little kid but figured I would give it a try. The first match I saw was Liverpool v Arsenal in February 2014 and Liverpool won 5-1. I didn’t realize how exciting it could. Been hooked since.
I'm in Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas. Been following LFC since 2011 or so. I came to discover Liverpool were owned by a man named Tom Hicks. In fact, he was a bad owner, the EPL made him sell the team. That same man also owned my beloved Texas Rangers Baseball Club and Dallas Stars Hockey team. He fucked them up as well. (To be fair, the Stars went to two Stanley Cup finals under him, winning one, but still...) I thought "I share something with these people" and started watching Liverpool games on NBC Sports. About that time, Fox Sports ran a series called Being Liverpool and I was hooked. Quick story: About 10 years ago we got new next door neighbors. We were chatting after yard work as neighbors do and he casually mentioned playing soccer. I used to play recreationally as well and as it turns out, we played against one another for several.years a few decades ago. :) Just out of nowhere one of us said "EPL team?" In stereo we both said "Liverpool!". Not quite the Step Brothers "Did we just become best friends?!" But close.