What made you support United?

brian017

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Saw Irwin and Keane playing for United during Sports Stadium (it was the Irish version of Grandstand). My mind was blown to see them playing for another team other than Ireland. I didn’t realise club football existed
 

Kopral Jono

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Late grandfather. From Indonesia, he studied in Switzerland in the 60s and fell in love with Best, Charlton and Law through news articles and stuff. He returned to Indonesia in the early 70s and went many years of his life not watching United apart from the odd FA Cup final, which he cherished.

We were living in the same house when the Premier League became a thing in early 90s. The rest is history.
 
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Granddad was a United fan, Dad was a United fan... I don't remember choosing anything, I guess it was assumed it would happen and it did.

It wasn't an individual player though Buchan was my first hero and certainly helped cement my love for the club. It also certainly wasn't any season/period of success.... first season I can remember was 75. But regardless of how successful it was, loved that team as much (or almost as much) as any other team over the last 40+ years... introduced me to United's never say die attitude and achieving what appeared to be impossible/unlikely
 

Inigo Montoya

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Dad following the Busby Babes. When I was old enough he told all about Munich,and along came Best. I was hooked

Never looked back
 

Majima

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No-one in my family even likes football, so it was simply Sir Alex Ferguson's winning mentality, never say die attitude, that drew me to football in the first place & Utd as a kid back in 01. Even if 3-0 down, we believed we would always come back.

The Tottenham away game in 01, i was hooked as a 9 year old watching on Sky. Winners, who played attacking football, whilst taking no prisoners. I loved that about us.


I can safely say, if it wasn't for SAF, i doubt i would have become as big a fan of football as i have today.
 
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Can7onA

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Most of my family are from Salford but my immediate family grew up in Wolverhampton as this is where my Ma is from and we moved here when my Dad left the army. My Dad, his Dad and his Dad all supported Man Utd so it wasn't like I had a choice.

It was rough in the 80's as no one I knew supported United, plenty of Liverpool/Arsenal and obviously Wolves but it wasn't until we started becoming successful again that I saw another United shirt! It's even worse now as Wolves are a decent team and so I get a fair amount of stick nowadays but it's all good fun.

It's why I don't throw my toys out the pram at the current squad, I've seen worse :D
 

ben.heff10

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I remember my dad (Liverpool fan) watching a lot of the England matches at the 2006 World Cup (mom and dad are from Dublin but we live in Canada). I was 5 at the time and remembering really liking Rooney (I think my dad had told me he was their best player). Then after watching the England-Portugal match with the infamous Rooney stamp and Ronaldo's wink my dad begrudgingly told me that they both played for United. I decided I was going to support them and my granny sent me over a Rooney 8 06-07 home shirt from Ireland.

That first year supporting United was magical - the 5-1 win against Fulham first day of the season, O'Shea going in goal at White Hart Lane, watching us lose 2-1 to Roma then coming home from school expecting to see us losing the second leg but turning on the TV and seeing us up 5-1, crying my eyes out after seeing us lose at the San Siro and the FA Cup final, so many more.

The rest is history now I suppose!
 
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My father watched united, so did my Auntie; as I gained wealth and my family grow, we chose united to unify, talk and spend time together. i pay for 2 seats in the south stand and encourage family to spend time together..
 
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Marzo

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Being from South Africa, I was a huge Gary Bailey fan and supported United when he joined, 1977 I think.I have been a fan every since!
 

Vanrouge

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Family in Manchester. One side of the family were matchgoing reds, the other side non-matchgoing blues. It was a no-brainer. The mystique of Manchester United was planted in me very early. Like your religion, it was pretty much picked for you at birth back then.
 

SungSam7

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I was bought my first United kit at 8 months by my godfather/uncle. Every birthday till I was 10 I got the new jerseys from him, wasnt until 2001 when I actually started to sit down and watch games, I was 9 at that stage.
 

Adisa

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I honestly can't remember. Think it was Fergie. He had this mystique.
 

ajay1002

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My older brother was a Liverpool fan in the late 80s when we were kids. I had a choice of supporting Utd or Everton in order to wind him up the most. I made the right decision!
 

Shaw Mee Tah Mané

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1995, I was 9. My uncle introduced me to Championship Manager. It was in english, so I could only play it with him in the beginning, and he insisted on managing Blackburn. I picked United, and started to watch all the games on TV. Cantona, Beckham, Giggs.. I was in love.

Imagine if my uncle picked United instead!
 

sparky

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My Mum. My friends were trying to get me to support Liverpool, but my mum said- oh no you don't, you support Manchester United. Your Great Uncle Tom Jones played for them. That was just before the FA cup replay in 1983 and never looked back. In fact this forum provided me with some brilliant pics of him. He played in the 1920's early 30's 201 appearances. My Nan was so proud. I remember visiting him in an assisted living bungalow and nearly pulling the assistance cord in the toilet!
 

Josh 76

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My older brother was a Liverpool fan in the late 80s when we were kids. I had a choice of supporting Utd or Everton in order to wind him up the most. I made the right decision!
Bet you can't shut him up now
 

The Original

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2002 wc was the first time I saw the game. I was 10 and became a huge fan of that Brazilian side. The way they played football was beautiful. In the same tournament I also became a fan of Beckham and scholes. After that I watched them sparingly as PL got more coverage than other leagues. But the game that made me their fan was the 4-3 win over Madrid. Even though we got knocked out but really started to love the team. Since then I have been following them.
I started out supporting all the teams that wore red, which basically meant Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.

That Man Utd Real Madrid game was one of two that I remember being iconic in my journey to becoming a strict Manchester Utd fan. The other was a game against Arsenal about the same period in time. I do not remember quite clearly but I think it was the game were Arsenal's unbeaten streak was ended.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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I was born in Stockport so apparently I should be a city fan, then lived most of my life in Bolton and was encouraged to support them too but grandad put his foot down and made me a red.
 

GazTheLegend

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From a town with a tiny football team and I started to become a goalie young. Watched Schmeichel in the Euro 1991 final where he was absolutely amazing against Germany, and later there was a Munich documentary on tv talking about Man Utd legends and they hadn’t won the league for 26 years so that was that. They played exciting football and I got mocked because United only bought “fast players”.

My friends switched to Aston Villa the year after Leeds won because they were winning the league and I was like “you can’t switch your team once you pick one, that’s not how it works” so i stuck by them and everywhere I’ve been since they’ve been with me. Been to OT to see them a few times but I’m not a regular, last game I saw was vs Alkmaar. Easier to get tickets these days because we’re so bad, but I still love Old Trafford to bits and the Stretford end fans are amazing.

So it’s a Mixture of tradition, world class players at the right time, them being the underdog when I started following them (lol) and the attitude to football in Manchester.
 

Red Devil

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I was a huge rugby fan back in the days of VCR's and would set my timer to record New Zealand matches and United seemed to be the match after so I would just start watching and it only took a few matches to get me hooked!
 

Pavl3n

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Dimitar Berbatov and Ronaldo.

I am from Bulgaria and my first memories of football were the '94 WC.
Stoichkov was a sensation and everyone around me was supporting him, rather than Barcelona. So that mentality of supporting my fellow country men stayed around for some years as I was growing up. Barcelona with Stoichkov, Stutgart with Balakov, Bayern while Kostadinov was there, then was Wolsburg with M Petrov (who later moved to City, just before the money injection).
But I wasn't really into one team. Then Berbatov's star rose and I started following him very close at Tottenham.

But what really grabbed me was the CL win over Chelsea, Ronaldo's top performances throughout the season and all the rumours of Berba joining in made me choose a side.
After he moved to United I was really excited about him, unfortunately he wasn't as influential as everyone hoped he would be and he had to leave. But by then I was grabbed by Manchester United and I kept supporting the team afterwards. It really helped that during Berba's first year my assistant manager (I was wworking abroad) was a scouser.
 

U-N-I-T-E-D

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Family. My Dad’s side of the family are all United. My Uncle was one of the people who ‘found’ Paul Scholes too
 

Rafaeldagold

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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.
Had a similar experience at Uni in 2008 European Cup final. Bar was mainly United fans, as it went down to Pens and all John had to do was put it away i remember turning away thinking I couldn’t look but then I did at the last moment thinking you have to see this through to the end. The scenes when he missed. Knew we were going to win when Anderson just smashed it down the middle- best & most crucial thing he ever did for us.

And singing viva John terry songs into the night. Good times
 

Tom Cato

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My dad is a MUFC fan. Him, me and my brother all went to OT in December, and have made the flight over from Norway several times in the past. I've always been a fan since i can remember since my dad used to watch the game on TV every single week. I'm 37, so let's say I've been a conscious and engaged fan of the club for 30 years now. Peter Smeichel was my earliest footballing hero. Then of course King Eric.
 

Russky14

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Unfortunately Best was before my time.

Derby County semi-final. Don't know why something about Coppell & Hill as flying wingers. My late mum then bought me an annual that Xmas and that was it. I come from Lincoln originally and yes I do support them too (went to Burnley on the cup run the other year), but I was the oddball, all my friends supported the Scouserpudlians due their dominance at that time.

Years of hurt followed by joy and now being miserable again, hoping that the the Scallywags current rosey period is just a blip.
 

.Phil1968

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Born in Salford Dads a red so was Grandad. It was inevitable really. When I took my kids on the Stretford End for the first time they were 4th generation reds. I've often told them about the grim late 80s, I think they'll tell their kids about this era.
 

DoctorDark

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My dad worked for a firm in Trafford Park. A friend at work had some spare tickets for the game against Wolves. Early 1965 it was. He wasn’t much interested in football. Boxing was his sport but he agreed to take me.

It was my first ever football match and coming up the staircase into a packed stadium was amazing to me. It was the pre cantilever stadium with the open scoreboard end, so capacity would be circa 40,000 I suppose and there i was watching Bobby Charlton, George Best, Paddy Crerand, Nobby Stiles and Denis Law et al.

I was hooked but my mam wouldn’t let me go on my own until I was fourteen.

The thing I remember most was that we had a big Irish Fella in goal called Pat Dunne and I will swear he kept goal in his bare hands.
 
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Canuckred64

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A long and strange story for somebody born in Canada who had no connection to Manchester. My parents where born in Sheffield and emigrated to Canada in 1948, but my mom had a hard time settling and we basically yo yoed between England and Canada between 1956 and 1970. It was different times when I first lived and went to school in England, and it took awhile for a kid from Canada to get accepted. I took a lot stick at school, being the only kid in school not born on the council estate or anywhere nearby and one way to get back at my classmates was to support a different club than they did.

We lived in North Sheffield not far from Hillsborough and just up the road from Barnsley. It was only a few years after Munich and memories were stil fresh. I used to listen to relatives and people I knew talk about the Busby Babes, Munich and especially a couple of Barnsley schoolboys Jones and Taylor. I remember United winning the 63 FA Cup final and reading about and watching when I could Best ,Law and Charlton. So I guess it was a process that took a few years, one that has last for close to 60 years.
 

Red00012

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My dad supported them. He brought me over to OT for the 1st time and it went from there.
 

momo83

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Dad supported them. Earliest memories often included Man Utd things.
 

Cloud7

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Being from T&T, I started watching United initially when Dwight Yorke started playing for United, because I thought it was so cool that someone from our little island was playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world. As it turned out United were quite fun to watch, so I stuck around and grew to love the club.
 

Rhyme Animal

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Grew up with my family based in and around Manchester (Stockport etc), my Mum was born in Manchester.

Just loved Manchester as a kid and would spend all my school holidays up there.

Was blown away when I went to Old Trafford.

Ironically, despite the 'glory hunter' tag associated with Utd, the 'glory' team of the time were Liverpool! And everyone in my junior school supported Liverpool, so supporting Utd was actually like an alternative thing to do - as will increasingly be the case for young kids choosing United now!

Then as I got older, SAF was almost like a celeb father figure to me. Just a huge, dominant personality of how to be a man and a winner and my Love for Utd became deeper as I loved Fergie so much as a manager.

I find now that since SAF retired, I really do resent how the club has been / is being run, and I think that Utd need to remove Woodward immediately and start again, as Woodward has become the omnipresent figure at Utd in the void that's Fergie's huge influence left when he stepped down and retired.
 

KennyBurner

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Primary school tournament in Nigeria (1996). My set was divided into different teams named after the biggest clubs int he world. Teams were Arsenal, Inter milan, United, Liverpool, Ac milan, barcelona that I can remember. I was very lucky! Imagine if I had been put under Arsenal or even worse the scouse. I wish I knew the teacher that placed me under United. They really gave me a great childhood. My twin brother was unlucky with arsenal and has been miserable till this day :lol: . I remember loving playing football but was never really exposed to watching league games. When I did start watching league games with my dad (arsenal fan) I just remember wanting to support United because they of that tournament. Times were great back then because all i knew was winning.Hopefully we get are shit together soon because these past few years is all new to me.