I live in Kazakhstan. Local football culture is virtually non existent, so those of us who enjoy quality football have to chose other nations to support.
I started to support England since 1990 when I was 11. Remember that team? Lineker, Gazza, Shilton...Lost to Germans in the semis.
Then Germany won 1996 Euros in England. They were a powerhouse back in 1990s. By 1999 I had become quite a hater of German football.
May 26, 1999. My University mates who supported United invited me to the bar to watch that game.
I never liked club football. The game was boring as shit.
There was a group of middle aged men next table in the bar who were drinking Bavaria (a beer), and praising “German machine”. “Germans always win”, “Nobody stand a chance against Germany because they make Mercedes, and, therefore, they are good at machines”. Weird, nonsensical, “racist-ish” but very (almost universal) common opinion from the people who like football as a garnish for their alcohol.
1.5 hours into the game, I realized that everything I wanted in my life in that particular evening was that “the machine” would be beaten. I wanted nothing more.
In 2 minutes, United turned me into the happiest person in the world. After the game, we left the bar into pouring rain, we were walking wet through and sang songs and chants. That was a completely new, exciting experience.