I'm betting Barcelona or Man United aren't the most popular teams in Germany. If the MLS was actually competitive with European leagues the most popular team in the US would probably be a MLS team.
I'm shocked the Sounders aren't listed. That's over a year old and I wonder where NYCFC would rank now. I'm guessing Bayern Munich is the popular club in Germany, but for most of the countries whose top clubs rarely or never reach the Champions League Round of 16, I could see Barcelona or Manchester United being the most popular club in those countries.
I can't edit my post. In case it wasn't clear, I meant the underlined word "popular" to say "most popular."
In the US Manchester United is definitely top spot. In NYC I went to Nevada Smiths with the Barca peña and it was very cool but other days Man Utd was the main thing always. With tons of people.
Have to agree with this. I grew up with South American immigrants, mostly Argies and Brasilians. You had your usual suspects Boca, River, Flamengo, Fluminese, Worked with a Cruziero fan etc. But the same theory applied to all the Latino fans. They root for their childhood teams and then for Barca, Real. Argentinians because of their culture will also follow Italian teams. Chivas has a large following only because of the number of Mexicans living here. But they have ZERO appeal to anyone outside of their own fan base. Barcelona, Real, and Man Utd probably have the most "broad" appeal in the US. It would be fascinating to see however, if Barca, and Real maintain their popularity when Messi and Ronaldo retire. I think it would be like the Chicago Bulls when Jordan retired.
Real had galacticos before ronaldo and will have them after he leaves, Barca has always had exciting beautiful football players (a a Ronaldhino, Cruyff etc) they are both greet brands who will continue to buy and acquire the best talent in the world.
In England, I've never met a single non-English person who supported a team from outside England. What you may get in countries where the league is weak, is people who have a favorite foreign team as well as the team from their country that they support. You might have a million Manchester United fans in Denmark, but I'd still bet most of them support a Danish club. As a side note, fully agree with counting internet searches as a way of establishing a club's popularity, and "Reading" clearly are the's world's most popular.
Messi* and Ronaldo are at Barca and Real Madrid because they are the biggest clubs in the world, not the other way around. Both of these clubs are much bigger than one player, or even one generation of great players. Now both clubs may see a relative dip in form when these gentlemen leave but they will eventually be replaced by a new generation of world class players**. *Messi did come up through the youth system but very few clubs would have been able to keep him **not saying these world class players will be as good as Messi or Ronaldo who IMHO are probably in the top 10 ever but they will be world class within their time period.
Sure, those clubs will move on from Messi and Ronaldo because they are the worlds biggest clubs. But this thread is about the most popular club in the US. To me, that implies popularity contest and not a show of loyalty. How many so called fans did the Bulls lose nationally when Jordan retired? They're all Lebron fans now. My point is how many people are really fans of those teams and how many are fickle bandwagon types?
Probably loads, but unless Real Madrid and Barcelona collapse to mediocrity, as the Chicago bulls did, the fans probably won't switch clubs.
I understand your point but here is the key... Basically would the Bulls have lost so many fans if they had turned around and gotten Kobe? That is essentially what Real and Barca will do.
Around where I live, it's Barca, and it's not even close. Chivas may be #2. It bears mentioning, however, that in your link, Real Madrid is the only club with multiple jerseys in the top ten: #2, #5, and #8.
Woohoohoo! PSG is there !!!! O Ville Lumière Sens la chaleur, de notre cœur Vois-tu notre ferveur... If 10 years ago, someone would have told that to me, oh boy that would just have been unbelievable.
I know Bulgaria a little bit--it's normal there to be a die-hard fan of a domestic club AND to have a favorite "big" club from one of the big four Euro leagues. I have friends over there who support Levski Sofia and Juve, or CSKA Sofia and Liverpool. Etc.
This is the case in Scandinavia as well. Liverpool has a a lot of Norwegian support but a lot of those people also support local clubs. My guess is this will be the pattern in the US as well.
Well I support a local club (Red Bulls), a foreign elite club (Manchester United), and another club in an elite league (Genoa).