15 years

[RedDevil@84]

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.

If you are not born or live in UK, you need a solid reason to pull you in. It could be a player, a game you saw on TV or just loving the current winners. You kinda start with something like that and then it sticks.

I was a cricket loving fan from India, who used to stay late nights to watch FIFA WCs. That was probably the only football I used to watch or follow.
I think PL TV broadcast started sometime in 2002 in India. I can't really recollect how I came about watching Utd, but I used to watch Utd more often than others. RvN was my most noticed player. As my friends in college became fans of Chelsea and Liverpool, I slowly sensed a love for United over next 1-2 years. I would say reading about the Munich disaster gave me some kind of push towards supporting United. I had no easy access to TV or high speed internet to watch Utd play week in week out during my college years, but I still managed to watch some matches and follow news regularly. Maybe 2006 was the year I did watch almost every match and have been watching United since then.

 

[Swift Football]

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 .

wow...thats a long time back.

I used to watch world cups only. I started watching the league matches since 2002. Van Nisterlooy, Beckham were the stars I noticed more that time.

 

[eondo1]

1985 fa cup final. I was 11 at the time (showing my age I know)
I was totally hooked.

 

[Grylte]

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 .

Wow.... you're really almost 100 years?
If true, and you're not pretending to be Johnno, you must have many great memories from our history, Busby etc.

 

[Grylte]

My uncle told me to support United from the day i was born, so i don't really have any memories of what game, year, and so on, but pretty much since 1980. I got shirts, cups, bed sheets, pictures, and VHS movies from him, remember us watching them together.

 

[Ban]

Pretty damning start though.

Haha, yeah, but something attracted me to the guys in black and the rest is, as they say, history.
Eric Cantona and attacking way of playing attracted me from the start.

 

[RedMilo]

I remember and still have somewhere the 1985/86 season review on VHS, and I fell in love with the team, my favourite player was Sparky who scored some amazing volleys and used to pretend I was him, but as time went on and after he had moved to Villa, I most of all appreciated how good a player Paul McGrath was. My dad had always been a Utd fan but my mum's family are all Derby County fans, so whilst I went a few times to the Baseball Ground as a kid, nothing could beat the feeling of watching MUFC - I'm now a season ticket holder and so is my son.

 

[Bubz27]

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 .

How old are you?

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

The first time I ever saw United play was on the 1st of December 2001....We got thumped 3-0 against Chelsea at Oldtrafford,but for some reason it just felt right to support the team in red....

 

[711]

About 1963 age 9 or so. All the kids at school rooted for different top league clubs, as well as the local town one, but my family didn't follow football and I knew feck-all about it. A discussion was held and it was found none of the other kids followed United, so I was duly allocated to them. Completely random, yet, how lucky was that?

 

[the unknown one.]

Wow.... you're really almost 100 years?
If true, and you're not pretending to be Johnno, you must have many great memories from our history, Busby etc.

How old are you?

wow...thats a long time back.

I used to watch world cups only. I started watching the league matches since 2002. Van Nisterlooy, Beckham were the stars I noticed more that time.

Was my grand-fathers first game.

Just asked him when I saw the thread.

 

[fergies coat]

1991 ECWC final against Barcelona. Mark Hughes scoring twice, everyone in the family cheering.

I got my first United shirt after that game I was only 8 years old and it’s been a great 27 years.

Thank god my dad and the rest of the family didn’t support city.

 

[The Brown Bull]

1968, vague but happy recall of a game against some Portuguese side in Wembley, we won 4-1 and got a great big shiny cup.Everyone seemed very happy.

 

[McGrathsipan]

I didn't have a specific date... just inherited it from my childhood surroundings and people.
First clear memory is Kevin Moran getting a red card in a cup final about 348 years ago.

 

[pacifictheme]

I've always been a united fan. There wasn't a moment i started. My dad bought me kits and took me to matches. He bought me every man united magazine (we have every issue from the first 12 years at least) without me ever asking. He did everything in hisbpower to brainwash me and as a result i still watch just about every united match i can with him.

 

[SirAF]

20 years in august for me. The Treble season was my first full season as a United fan, what a start

That said I started following United sometime during the 1997/98 season and had to watch Arsenal win the double

 

[Achilles McCool]

1985 fa cup final. I was 11 at the time (showing my age I know)
I was totally hooked.

Exact same game and same age for me! (Born in ‘74)
Watching Whiteside curl it in from the right was beautiful, but Robson became my favourite player!

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

First real match I remember watching is the 'Cup Winners Cup' final in 1991, Hughes arrowing it in from that mad angle still sticks in the memory.

 

[Moriarty]

23/2/63 versus Blackpool at home. I was a young boy and my dad took me to the game. Finished 1-1 with a goal from David Herd. Paddy Crerand made his debut after signing from Celtic. To be honest, my memories of that game are a bit fuzzy on the details but I've still got the programme somewhere. Kennedy was the President of the USA, Harold MacMillan was PM, and the Queen had been on the throne for just under a decade.

 

[Ian Reus]

I watched this with my granda and again later that night.

 

[matherto]

Somewhere in 1993/94. I loved the kits first.

Perfect they were, red home, black away and yellow/green third.

I vaguely remember Cantona scoring a special goal in the yellow/green kit and see him with his collar up and that was that. My sister had the black away shirt and I wanted it.

Ended up having my mum take me to Old Trafford the year after for the new home shirt with Giggs on the back. Hooked from then on.

 

[Bubz27]

Was my grand-fathers first game.

Just asked him when I saw the thread.

You fraud! Only kidding, not, but I am really.

 

[AshRK]

Same here. I used to follow before that game but the 4-3 game made me love United.

 

[CallMeV]

I guess the defining moment was the 1996 FA cup final against Liverpool. That goal by Cantona

In the summer a certain Norwegian striker signed and I've followed the club closely ever since.

 

[Ballache]

I was born as a United fan, dad's been a fan since the 80's (he really liked Bryan Robson). I do remember Cantona playing but my first vivid memory is 99 vs Arsenal. Favorite player growing up was Becks.

 

[davidmichael]

My Dad grew up on our “Holy Trinity” so I had it drummed into me from birth but my first lasting memory and when I knew for sure United are in my heart was the 1990 FA Cup final against Crystal Palace when we drew 3-3, I hated Ian Wright from that moment on as I thought we were going to lose after he’d come off the bench and scored twice but Mark Hughes equalised 5 minutes from the end in extra time and we won the replay.

 

[diarm]

I've been United mad since I was old enough to know what football was. My dad was a United fan and I was never going to be anything else!

The earliest match I can remember properly is the 94 FA Cup final against Chelsea when I was 7. I remember Irwin getting nailed for a stonewall penalty and then us grabbing a second, softer one just afterwards. Finished 4-0 which would do very nicely again in a few weeks time!

 

[TsuWave]

funny enough i just watched this video before seeing this thread:

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[eldoherz]

Been a fan by default from birth thanks to my Dad (I'd have been disowned if I supported anyone else.) However the moment I remember best from being a young fan is the 99 UCL win, the scenes as the winner was scored and then final whistle being down the local pub will stay with me forever.

To a seven year old kid who'd lived a sheltered life seeing such pure unbridled joy take over a whole pub was amazing. I never looked back, been watching and attending games as often as I can ever since in order to feel that same depth of feeling.

Its been nearly 19 years since that day and I can still vividly remember it in a way that I can't really remember anything else at that age. I'll likely remember that night until the day I die and gladly so because its the night that I remember as the distinct beginning of my love for football and this club.

 

[Scarecrow]

funny enough i just watched this video before seeing this thread:

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

What a team those cnuts had and still couldn't win it.

Champions League was something else back then though, wasn't it? It's not been the same since fecking Di Matteo won it. It just hasn't.

 

[Twisted Nerve]

Kind of by accident for me. I wasn't really into football as a kid but around a year after the 77 cup final I picked up a bundle of football magazines for 2p at a school jumble sale (Shoot! .. that type of thing)
In the centerfold was a United team photo which I thought looked like a good thing to stick on my bedroom wall, so I did and it was Utd for me ever since.
I was one of few Utd fans at my school, most were Liverpool supporters of course what with them being the successful team of that era, that's what most of the kids latched onto.
There were some Arsenal, Leeds and Plymouth Argyle (I grew up in mid Cornwall) We'd all have our school bags with the team name of our choice.

 

[Achilles McCool]

My Dad grew up on our “Holy Trinity” so I had it drummed into me from birth but my first lasting memory and when I knew for sure United are in my heart was the 1990 FA Cup final against Crystal Palace when we drew 3-3, I hated Ian Wright from that moment on as I thought we were going to lose after he’d come off the bench and scored twice but Mark Hughes equalised 5 minutes from the end in extra time and we won the replay.

Spoiler Alert!!! Jeez!

 

[DeGea]

1996 for me. 11 years old. Cantona goal vs Liverpool FA Cup, hooked ever since.

 

[Member 99369]

First live game I ever watched was the 1983 cup final replay & we beat Brighton 4-0. Bryan Robson scored twice, so Utd became my favourite team and Robson my favourite player!
My dad took me to my first live match (against Leicester) a year later.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

94 FA Cup Final.
4-0 versus the Chavs. Cantona with two cool as a cucumber penalties, Hughes and then McClair.

Was absolutely smitten.

 

[Robertd0803]

Lee Sharpes hat trick at Highbury.

 

[cyril C]

1977 FA Cup final, heart broken in 1979 FA Cup final....

 

[meamth]

I remember it clearly, August 16th 2003 when I was 13. A skinny, poorly dyed blonde hair Ronaldo made a debut and showcased his skills against Bolton.

Such a big thing in Malaysia that everyone talked about it, I read everything about it and that's when I fell in love with football and Manchester United.

 

[vivaronaldo]

1990 fa cup final - as a 9 year old living in Sydney , Australia , the only game we would get live in oz would be the fa cup finals which back then , would always screen at midnight - stayed up , watched a thrilling 3-3 draw , woke up 4 days later to see lee martin get the winner in the replay and the rest is history

still remember ian wright scaring the crap out of me in that final

first and only live game I ever watched at old Trafford - that 4-3 Manchester derby
yes I know im a very very lucky boy

 

[The Mad Manc]

Red for as long as I can remember but I have a standout memory from 1990 when we beat Arsenal 6-2 at Highbury in the League Cup. Lee Sharpe absolutley destroyed them. He definitely got a hat trick, might even have got 4.