15 years

[Scarecrow]

Today marks my 15-year anniversary as a United fan. On 23.04.2003 I watched my first game. We won 4:3 against Real Madrid. Beckham scored two goals off the bench and O'Shea nutmegged Figo. An absolute classic.

When did you become a fan? What are the earliest moments you remember?

 

[redchamp]

1996 - first day of the season. Beckham scores from behind the halfway line.

All over from that point on, my heart was set. The man is a legend.

 

[Laurentiu amt]

99 UCL final. My dad is a huge Dinamo Bucharest fan. In the 80's Liverpool dumped Dinamo in the UCL quarters or semis and my father hated Liverpool ever since.
He knew the 99 UCL final was on TV and asked me to watch it with him because the biggest liverpool rival was playing. We're both fans since then.

 

[Luffy]

The away match against city in the 93/94 season. Cantona scored a brace, and Roy Keane netted the winner minutes away from the final whistle. Oh, we did come back from two nil down, forgot to mention that. I consider Cantona the best United player ever.

 

[VeevaVee]

Since I was born. Passed on from my Dad. Earliest things I remember are watching games in the sun with my Dad. Remember threatening to start supporting Blackburn (when they were good) once when he pissed me off. Must've been about 6 or 7. Also have a memory of looking through the Megastore catalogue for stuff. I had United wallpaper, bedspread and curtains.

Must've been around then that we started going to watch reserve games. There would always be one first team player playing, usually coming back from injury (guessing they don't still do that?). Remember being excited to see Ole was playing, and saw Cantona's first game back from his ban in the reserves too.

 

[2cents]

First United memory is the 91 CWC final. But it's only really from Cantona's arrival onward that the memories are clear.

 

[stubie]

4-1 Arsenal opening day of the season (1989)

 

[the unknown one.]

The 27th of August 1932 Old Trafford.

MUFC 0 Stoke City 2.

Through the mists of time I still remember two goals by Joe Mason .

 

[donkeyfish]

96 FA cup final.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Oh man, it's been that long .. @Scarecrow that CL match is also one of my earliest and favorite United memories.

I was mostly a cricket fan growing up in Australia, and wound up starting to follow United once I moved to the US. It was after the treble...I vaguely recall my reason for following then being Bosnich.. Affinity to the fellow Aussie. And of course while he was terrible, fell in love with the team. It was also that you didn't get many other football teams being broadcast in the states then. Certainly not with the basic channels we had on the antennas . Now that I'm jogging the memory I actually watched a ton more of Juve and Milan on Rai tv

 

[rotherham_red]

Tbh, I can't really distill it down to a specific date. My family traditionally were never into football. My older brother was the first person who was, and he was a fan of the Scouse (Rush was his favourite player) until he shamelessly switched to supporting Utd (he must have been around his teens at this point). I have vague recollections of the early days of Football Italia on C4 and I remember Euro96 vividly - I was definitely a Utd fan around that time having been influenced by my brother, but for the life of me I don't have any concrete recollections or memories until Becks' halfway line goal vs Wimbledon a couple of months later. So if I had to choose a date with a gun to my head, it would be that.

 

[prath92]

First I remember about united was reading in the newspaper ‘United March on’ when we had 71 points. Think it was 02/03. Then I watched the next season opener. Bolton 4-0

 

[el3mel]

I started following the club nearly at the same period as yours as well.

 

[cyberman]

Not having a go but I sometimes forget theres fans like you where one game later in life pulls you in. There isn't anybody in real life that I know who started like that.
Since birth for me. Cheering when my Dad cheered and booed who he booed.
I still remember our Utd fans v Liverpool fans kick abouts when I was 7/8.

 

[adexkola]

2004-05 FA Cup final. Remember United throwing the kitchen sink at Arsenal that game and despite the loss, decided to stick with them.

I think I watched the Chelsea game live (the one where Darren Fletcher scored that header). Also remember the narrow yet definitive losses against Milan, home and away.

 

[Scarecrow]

Not having a go but I sometimes forget theres fans like you where one game later in life pulls you in. There isn't anybody in real life that I know who started like that.
Since birth for me. Cheering when my Dad cheered and booed who he booed.
I still remember our Utd fans v Liverpool fans kick abouts when I was 7/8.

I imagine it's quite different when you're a local. I'm not from the UK, so didn't grew up with it. There had to be "a moment" to draw me in. Wasn't really later in life though, I was 8 years old and this is the first football game I remember, apart from the 2002 WC.

I watched the game with my grandfather who is a big Real Madrid fan since the Puskas days. He basically told me that United had no chance and painted it as a sort of David - Goliath affair, which wasn't entirely wrong, in fairness. Those were peak Galactico days for them and they'd won 3:1 in the first game. So, obviously I couldn't just jump on the bandwagon and had to be for the underdog. Us coming from behind to win it, against the absolute best players at the time, made it unforgettable. I didn't care / understand that we were out of the tournament.

 

[lysglimt]

The day we signed Stapleton - despite only being like 8 years old, I still remember one of my friends Reading it in the paper and I decided to change allegiance to United. Needless to say - Stapleton was my idol!

 

[Yagami]

I honestly can't remember when I first started getting the love for United. I'm Mancunian, have lived in Manchester my entire life and grew up in a family of 90% reds and 10% city.

My earliest memory is probably watching the 93/94 season review with my dad.
I used to wait hours for my dad to get home from work to watch this with him daily. The opening song was amazing and I sang along with it everytime!

Not having a go but I sometimes forget theres fans like you where one game later in life pulls you in. There isn't anybody in real life that I know who started like that.
Since birth for me. Cheering when my Dad cheered and booed who he booed.
I still remember our Utd fans v Liverpool fans kick abouts when I was 7/8.

Same. Being from Manchester, everyone here has been a United/City fan since, well, birth. Like you said, there's nothing wrong with not being, though.

Being a big supporter of the local players being given chances here I was sure you were Mancunian @Scarecrow !

 

[Deleted member 101472]

@Scarecrow if you weren’t there we would have won that game 6-3.


Hell of a first game to be at, easily the best of the 200 or so games I’ve been to

 

[Red Star One]

99 UCL final. My dad is a huge Dinamo Bucharest fan. In the 80's Liverpool dumped Dinamo in the UCL quarters or semis and my father hated Liverpool ever since.
He knew the 99 UCL final was on TV and asked me to watch it with him because the biggest liverpool rival was playing. We're both fans since then.

Same date for me. Dad is a huge BVB fan, so he was cheering against Bayern. I watched the game with him and couldn't believe what just happened there. Since then football was all about United for me.

 

[DonFerguson]

I started following the club nearly at the same period as yours as well.

I thought you were born in 99? How could you possibly have started following football in 2003?
Gifted child?

 

[Jim Beam]

Uncle is to blame, filled my head with Big Norm, Robson and a club who despite not winning the league in ages is the biggest club in England. Can remember posters of Pallister and Sharpe in the bedroom also. As I'm from Croatia, not sure what made my uncle love the club so much and I never got the chance to properly ask him later, unfortunately.

Whiteside goal against Everton is my earliest memory watching it over and over on his VCR (amazing goal). The first game that I've watched on television and clearly remember would be CWC final against Barcelona.

That Real Madrid game is pretty special despite not going through (one of the very few in that sense). Was feeling proud after the game as it was a proper go until the last minute. Usually, it's only sadness or shit feeling. Not that game, though.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Must have been 1997 or 1998 during some random game in the CL.

 

[Mr Anderson]

When I realised what football was, I've only ever known United - didn't watch them a lot as a kid as I didn't have access to those channels - sometimes delayed coverage on RTE when they had a game. So teletext, radio and newspaper was all I knew really. It was all thanks to Roy Keane, signing for United was huge in my hometown of Cobh.

So wasnt a particular game, just a legend of an Irishman <3

 

[Retrokicks]

I must be old, as I never had the priviledge of choosing a team, it was chosen for me

 

[Frank Grimes]

Supporting United since as long as I can remember but the first game I really remember vividly was a 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Arsenal in Highbury in 1988. We went 2-0 down but eventually had a penalty to equalise but McClair ballooned it over.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I was at the game in the OP. One of the best games of football I've seen. It was mental.

It was never a choice for me to be a United fan. The rest of the family was, so I was. It happened before I can remember, I had shirts gifted to me when I was younger, usually hand me downs from my older cousins. I do remember going to a game around '91 so (I'd have been about 5 or 6) and not being able to see anything. Had a burger and a can of Lilt at half time, and when everyone cheered, I cheered, even though I had no idea why. There were a few cheers as far as I can remember, and a chant about "who ate all the pies". Classic. Great game.

 

[Ødegaard]

Not sure why, no clue when. It's just always been, despite a family of Spurs, pool and Chelsea supporters.

 

[YouOnlyLiveTwice]

I got interested in football pretty late, think i was 16. Began watching PL at the end of 11/12. Watched pretty much every United game in 12/13. It just came natural that i supported United for some reason.

 

[Scarecrow]

Being a big supporter of the local players being given chances here I was sure you were Mancunian @Scarecrow !

Glad I've made that impression. I am a big supporter of it.

 

[Scarecrow]

@Scarecrow if you weren’t there we would have won that game 6-3.


Hell of a first game to be at, easily the best of the 200 or so games I’ve been to

Oh, I wasn't there mate, although I wish it was the case.

My first OT game was the 3:0 against Villa in SAF's last season. We won the title that day, as it happens. RVP hattrick. Not too bad, all things considered.

It was actually on the 22.04.13, so basically my 10th anniversary.

 

[Ban]

I'm not 100 percent sure but I think this was the first one:

I remember asking my dad how come it's 4:0 and he said it's cause the ones in black are pretty bad.

 

[Eckers99]

I don't remember ever choosing United but I do remember buzzing off Whiteside's winner in the '85 Cup Final. If there was any doubt it was silenced that day.

 

[el3mel]

I'm not 100 percent sure but I think this was the first one:

I remember asking my dad how come it's 4:0 and he said it's cause the ones in black are pretty bad.

Pretty damning start though.

 

[Trizy]

Was born into an United supporting family so I was always bought jerseys and stuff but I never really watched United (that I can remember) until I was 7, in 1996/7. That's my earliest memories. I just wanted to be Canonta, I wore the collar up too!

Ronny Johnsen was my favorite player after Cantona for some reason .

 

[marjen]

United v Liverpool at OT in 96.

Beckham winning the game with a great strike, which I sadly didn't catch at the time due to the broadcast being interrupted.

Heard all the commentary and sound, though. And got to see it at half time. Good times.

 

[Moonred]

‘99 CL group stages. A Glory Hunter was born.

 

[Catt]

2006 although I had been following a few years before that. 06/07 season was the first I really watched all games.

 

[Scarecrow]

Beckham and Cantona in the lead so far, with 4 mentions each.

 

[MadMike]

Didn't really get much choice over it, since dad supported United. But the season I actually remember becoming a fan was the 93/94 season.

Cantona might have been the jewel on the crown but that was one hell of team and such a joy to watch.

Schmeichel, Bruce, Pallister, Irwin, Giggs, Keane, Kanchelskis, Cantona and Hughes... hard to not become a fan.