Do today's kids follow players rather than clubs (more than previous generations did)?

[sullydnl]

Listening to a discussion on Irish radio about whether one of the presenters should get their 7 year old kid an England jersey they asked for (which is a whole other debate).

Presenter explained that the kid wanted the shirt because he's a fan of individual players (Kane, Grealish, etc.) and gets the shirts of those individuals rather than being particularly concerned about the team they play for.

It was suggested that this is fairly typical of this younger generation of football fans who often follow players rather than clubs. For example, if they have a Ronaldo Real Madrid shirt and Ronaldo moves to Juventus, they get a Ronaldo Juventus shirt rather than a Real shirt with a different player. Similarly, someone like Pogba is popular with kids as a general personality/player first and foremost rather than being popular because he's a Manchester United player specifically.

Which given the advent of social media, sort of makes sense to me. It's now very easy for kids to follow individual players as opposed to clubs as players have their own personalised media structures often directed at those younger age groups.

Is this a trend you've noticed? Is it a generally accepted thing I was unaware of? Or is it nonsense? Obviously kids still follow football clubs as well but I'm wondering if it has shifted a bit towards individual players when compared to the fandom of previous generations of children.

 

[acnumber9]

You see it on this forum with players constantly being pitted against each other.

 

[laughtersassassin]

Nope. There have always been certain people that have done that.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

Yeah it's trend that's been picking up. Onset of celebrity culture and players being bigger brands than clubs. Very NBA esque.

 

[Chipper]

When the teams are announced do they not watch if their guy is unbeknownst to them injured or gets rested?

 

[calodo2003]

Listening to a discussion on Irish radio about whether one of the presenters should get their 7 year old kid an England jersey they asked for (which is a whole other debate).

Presenter explained that the kid wanted the shirt because he's a fan of individual players (Kane, Grealish, etc.) and gets the shirts of those individuals rather than being particularly concerned about the team they play for.

It was suggested that this is fairly typical of this younger generation of football fans who often follow players rather than clubs. For example, if they have a Ronaldo Real Madrid shirt and Ronaldo moves to Juventus, they get a Ronaldo Juventus shirt rather than a Real shirt with a different player. Similarly, someone like Pogba is popular with kids as a general personality/player first and foremost rather than being popular because he's a Manchester United player specifically.

Which given the advent of social media, sort of makes sense to me. It's now very easy for kids to follow individual players as opposed to clubs as players have their own personalised media structures often directed at those younger age groups.

Is this a trend you've noticed? Is it a generally accepted thing I was unaware of? Or is it nonsense? Obviously kids still follow football clubs as well but I'm wondering if it has shifted a bit towards individual players when compared to the fandom of previous generations of children.

YT / instant gratification culture promotes this. It has always existed to some degree, burgeoned in the past couple of decades.

 

[Spoony]

This place is full of Cristiano fans.

 

[Samid]

Not only players but a lot of people also have a hard on for certain managers.

 

[sullydnl]

You see it on this forum with players constantly being pitted against each other.

True. There are definitely people here who seem to be fans of particular players as much as they are fans of particular clubs.

Thinking of the Ronaldo v Messi debates in particular, which are a feature of online football discussion generally rather than a caf-specific phenomenon. Obviously there have always been arguments about whether player X is better than player Y but this rivalry had a particular "Team Messi v Team Ronaldo" feel that was in line with other aspects of social media culture, I think.

Maybe it's a reflection of the same shift of focus to individuals rather than teams. In fact thinking about it, maybe the ever-increasing significance the Ballon d'Or seems to hold for footballers reflects that too.

 

[Lay]

Maybe. My 7 year old seems quite indifferent to football, he loves playing it, loves FIFA but would rather watch highlights than a full game. He likes Man City due to De Bruyne but also likes United due to Martial.

He seems to care more about them individuals scoring or playing well than the result.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I didnt and I find it weird how people are basically ‘stans’ for players. Celebrity worship is a weird concept to me, with people vicariously living through them and following their every turn like some voyeur.

Giggs was a childhood favourite of mine but after his 2011 revelations, coupled with hearing stories about footballers in general, I take a cynical view towards them as just seeing them as cogs in a machine rather than people to like, since there’s a good chance they’re complete dickheads in real life.

When Ronaldo left (arguably the best player I’ve seen play for Utd) I didn’t give a shit about following him and wouldn’t have cared what he did. He could have dominated football like he did or he could broke his legs getting off the plane landing in Madrid when he left and never played again.

 

[WakeAndBeek]

Not in the U.K or other traditional football countries, it does seem to be a big thing in places like South Asia, the Middle East and Africa judging by social media, especially the tired Messi vs Ronaldo debate or supporting players from their home country and switching from club to club as that player does eg Algerians with Mahrez.

I think South Africans have been flooding Brighton’s social media’s with Tau related stuff too.

 

[saivet]

Possibly, though my dad has said he used to watch Maradona whenever he could and in the early 2000s he would try to watch Barca with Ronaldinho and Madrid with R9, Zidane and Figo.

I think the accessibility of football and social media highlight this a lot more than it ever has been.

 

[OleBoiii]

Not only players but a lot of people also have a hard on for certain managers.

Someone might as well make PochCafe at this stage.

 

[harms]

Absolutely. Every decent player has millions of followers on his own personal social media, stars have tens (of even more than a hundred) of millions if we combine all different platforms. You get an absolutely insane amount of exposure, while before that you were lucky if they'd give even an interview per month or appear on some kind of a fan event. Clubs (and the international football, obviously) were the only point of entry into football for young kids, now it's actually a secondary one — it's less likely that a blank account will get recommended, say, overview of United's goals of the year but you'll certainly get Bruno/Rashford/Pogba compilations if you'll even get the football/United/EPL theme in your search request/viewership history.

 

[Spaghetti]

Pretty sure this has always happened, but there’s more exposure and more movement now than ever before.

I reckon most United fans kept an eye on Hughes at Barça and Bayern, Beckham at Madrid etc.

Amongst football fans who don’t go to the stadium, I think there’s more of a tendency to support players (as well as a team).

 

[NecssryEvil]

When the teams are announced do they not watch if their guy is unbeknownst to them injured or gets rested?

Or, if your guy scores in the last minute but his team loses 4-1 do you still run around screaming like a nut?