On the inside of my right arm, I have a tiny tattoo of the number eight, just over two centimeters in size. It’s my favorite number and the one I’ve always worn for volleyball. Why? Because I grew up in the Steven Gerrard era of Liverpool FC. Supporting Liverpool wasn’t a choice for me; it was a family inheritance, decided generations ago.
My dad’s grandparents were Scousers, Liverpool natives. His grandfather was a devout Everton fan, while his grandmother supported Liverpool. Both clubs are Liverpool-based, with their stadiums only a mile apart, making the annual Merseyside derby matches between the two teams particularly intense. Both of my dad’s grandparents tried tirelessly to sway him to their side, but it was the red scarves my great-grandmother knitted for him that finally sealed his allegiance to Liverpool. I count my blessings every day that he did.
In the UK and much of Europe, football loyalty is inherited. It is passed through generations, with family, local ties, community and even religion playing crucial roles. Supporting a team in the UK isn’t just a preference; it’s rooted in family history and regional identity — a lifelong commitment, no matter where you end up living.
For many, Premier League clubs, some over a century old, are inseparable from their community’s identity. Liverpool FC, founded in 1892, embodies that connection with its storied history of triumphs, tragedies and miracles, all binding its fans to the club. It is a moral duty as much as a passion to remain loyal. Of course, it is not always romantic — football hooliganism and fan violence remain serious issues.
But all of this had me thinking: how on earth do American fans of the Premier League choose their team? Without geographical or familial ties, what goes into the decision? Is it really the glory-hunting and bandwagon-hopping that it may seem from the outside? I interviewed a handful of fans around the college to get to the bottom of it.
For many, like Cole Clark CM ’26, an avid Arsenal fan, team choice is driven by admiration for specific players.
“Growing up, when I first started watching and getting into soccer and looking at highlights, one player that always popped up in highlights and film was Thierry Henry, and he quickly became my favorite player,” Clark said. “And seeing, of course, that he was an Arsenal legend, it only made sense for me to make Arsenal my favorite team.”
Tori Holden CM ’25, a Liverpool supporter, had a similar approach to Clark in choosing her team.
“My parents are both from England, so my dad had a team, but they weren’t in the Premier League, so I kind of just chose a team … and I really liked Steven Gerrard as a player,” she said. “I had all his jerseys, and then I just kind of stuck with it.”
When Gerrard retired from Liverpool and moved to the Major League Soccer (MLS), an American professional soccer league, Holden kept an eye on LA Galaxy — the team to which he moved — but remained focused on Liverpool despite Gerrard’s absence.
Similarly, Clark’s love for the club has only grown stronger.
“I watch Arsenal play every week, every time they have a game, [even if] it’s 4:30 a.m. out here … I always tune in,” Clark said.
For many fans in the United States, the allure of club success plays a major role. For Tanveer Chabba CM ’25 and Lukas Huntington CM ’25, it was watching Chelsea’s victory in the epic Champions League final of 2012 that sealed their allegiance to the club.
“Growing up, I liked [Manchester] United, I liked Chelsea, I liked all these teams … but that Champions League final … that’s when I knew Chelsea was my team,” Huntington said.
Shaan Malik CM ’26 had much to say regarding how success shaped his support for Manchester United. Growing up in an era when this team was a dominant force in football, Malik said he was naturally drawn to their winning culture.
“I supported Man[chester] United from a young age, probably because they were successful,” Malik said. “You just fell in love with their success.”
For Malik, this early exposure to a powerful team created a sense of loyalty that he still holds today, even as United’s dominance has waned.
Tommy Brown CM ’25, another Manchester United fan, weighed in on the psychology of choosing a successful club.
“I think that especially in America if you aren’t geographically tied to a team, you’re gonna be more attracted to teams that have success because it’s fun to watch teams win,” he said. “I think that a lot of times people attach parts of their own identity to the teams that they support … it’s like you’re winning through them.”
This makes perfect sense. You cannot blame Americans, who do not have a team to inherit from family or geography, for choosing a team that wins and plays exciting football — as long as they stay loyal.
For British fans of football, switching teams is unthinkable, no matter where life takes you. It’s a cultural taboo to change allegiances based on a move to a new city or even a country. When you support Liverpool, Arsenal or any other club, that loyalty sticks. Whether you end up in London, New York or halfway around the world, it doesn’t change the unwavering allegiance that being a Premier League fan requires. Nearly every UK family has a team they are at least loosely tied to, even if they don’t follow the sport closely.
For NBA or NFL fans, this kind of fandom certainly exists in places like Boston, but it’s less embedded in the cultural identity, as not everyone has a team by birthright. It could be perhaps because the leagues are not as old.
Huntington and Brown weighed in on this topic.
“It’s more if you didn’t know about the NBA before, if you were less tuned in, and then you move and then there’s this team in your town, then you start following them,” Brown said. “But it’s still not acceptable to switch teams.”
Huntington disagreed.
“I don’t know, I mean if I’m gonna be in Chicago after school, I’ll root for the Bears. I don’t care,” Huntington said.
The fact this is even up for debate is the difference. The unmatched loyalty in the Premier League is something Huntington and Malik could find common ground on.
“If I was living in Merseyside, I’m not going to no Liverpool games, I’ll tell you that,” Huntington said.
Malik echoed this sentiment, calling it a “U.S. mindset” to just go watch the sport you enjoy no matter who’s playing.
“If I enjoy the sport, I’ll go to an MLS game, I’ll go to a San Jose Earthquakes game, whatever game is in my area even if I’m traveling,” Malik said. “But I think in Europe, you’re a lot more invested in your team and it’s a lot more your identity”
This brings me to another big topic of conversation: jerseys. Walking around CMC, you will see mainly jerseys of the “Big Six” — Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea. When I interviewed Chabba, a Chelsea fan, I was surprised to see him show up wearing an Everton jersey. When asked about it, he confessed he collects jerseys, although he would never wear a rival team’s jersey. Huntington follows a similar rule.
“I’d wear a Jamie Vardy jersey…I’d wear any non-rival. For sure. I don’t care,” Huntington said.
In the UK, this would be totally unconventional, even with a non-rival team’s jersey. Wearing another Premier League team’s badge is to dilute the allegiance that defines your relationship with your club. If you admire a player on another team in the Premier League, the only socially acceptable way to wear their name is on their national team shirt, or if they’ve played in a different league. My Jude Bellingham jersey, for instance, would be acceptable since he plays in La Liga, not the Premier League.
Perhaps in the U.S., this flexibility is acceptable because of Malik’s ideas about the “US mindset.” Wearing multiple teams’ jerseys is a way to express a love for the game itself and the sport as a whole. Perhaps it is also safer to do so in the U.S. without territorial conflict.
Ultimately, American and British fans of the Premier League share an intense passion for the game, but the differences in expressing loyalty reveal something deeper about each culture’s relationship to fandom. For Americans, fandom can be more fluid, often shaped by individual players, exciting moments or city pride. For British fans, it is inherited, woven into family identity and tied to a single club, permanent like the tattoo on my arm, regardless of where life takes you or who is on the pitch.
Without a birthright, American fans must make their own choice. And who can really blame them for choosing the best teams? Their passion is unmistakable, and their appreciation for the sport genuine. Although our expressions of fandom differ, they’re still rooted in a love for the beautiful game, even from a distance. And that in itself is something to be admired.
Georgia McGovern CM ’24 was meant to graduate in the spring but decided three seasons of volleyball were not quite enough for her. Like all British people, she loves soccer: She is a passionate Liverpool FC fan and, yes, despite never having played a single minute of soccer in her life, she knows the offside rule.
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