‘I root for underdogs’: football fans who don’t support their home country

Footballers need to be born in a country or have a family tie to that place to represent them at the World Cup, but those rules do not apply to supporters. Sometimes fans are won over by a team, a star player or even a country. Here six fans tell us why they decided not to support the country of their birth and instead root for teams with whom they have no family ties.

‘I don’t know any other France fans’

Paul, 63, from Sheffield, started supporting France during the 1982 World Cup, when they reached the semi-finals. “It was exciting football and beautiful to watch,” he says. “Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse … It wasn’t as exciting again until 1998. I introduced my four-year-old daughter to football. We had lovely summer nights, eating snacks, cheering along and shouting: ‘Allez Les Bleus!’”

“I don’t know any other France fans. There have been incidents in the past, particularly during the 2004 Euros. At work everybody put a team flag on their computer. I had a France flag and everybody was laughing. France played England in an early game and England were winning 1-0 in the 90th minute, but France won 2-1. The next day, my manager took me aside and said: ‘We’re just sorting out your workstation’. Someone had absolutely demolished it. I wasn’t that bothered.”

Paul never regretted his choice. “Since Didier Deschamps has been onboard it has been fantastic. Michael Olise is a joy to watch. I feel a brotherhood with him. Everybody thinks you should support or play for England because you’re born in England. Nope.”

‘That team had so much passion and grit’

Porus Patwari Jain, 31, started watching the Premier League when he was 11 years old. “I’m from a very small industrial town in Rajasthan,” he says. “There was no football culture there, but there are many people my age who now follow football more actively.”

His favourite club was Manchester United, where Cristiano Ronaldo played at the time. “Portugal became my chosen team in World Cups,” he says. “I started with Ronaldo, but stayed for Nani, Ricardo Quaresma, Pepe and Simão. That team had so much passion and grit. They were not a footballing powerhouse at that time, so the story of a small footballing nation fighting against all odds resonated with me.”

Portugal have since given him “so many moments of distress”, he says, “and I wouldn’t change it for anything else”. The latest was their recent defeat against Spain. “Ronaldo has played his last World Cup match and I wish him all the best. Hopefully, they will give me the ultimate heartbreak someday, and end up losing on penalties in the World Cup final.”

‘Staying up to watch was a big deal’

Iulia, 43, who is from Romania and lives in Hungary, has supported Argentina since she watched them play in the 1994 World Cup. She even spotted the team walking through Budapest last year. “I cannot be sure Lionel Messi was among them but I like to believe so,” she says.

Funnily enough, a match between Argentina and Romania kindled her love for the South American team. “I was 11 and it was a big deal that my parents allowed me to stay up to watch,” she says. Romania stunned Argentina in the last-16 stage, winning 3-2. Having watched Romania beat Argentina, she assumed they must now be the best team in the world.

In her “young, impressionable mind” Iulia thought she was rooting for the underdog, with Romania surely on course to become a football dynasty. Romania never did become world beaters but Iulia stuck with Argentina and, 28 years after falling for them, she celebrated as they won the World Cup in 2022.

‘The US team was never very good’

“I support a few teams,” says Rachel Fiegler, 38, who lives in New York. “The US team was never very good when I was growing up. I’ve never felt strongly as an American as I was raised to be proud of my Cuban heritage. Cuba is more of a baseball nation. I grew up around a lot of Argentinian friends and family, so naturally became a fan of Argentina. Everyone was so passionate watching them play.”

During the 2010 World Cup, Rachel rooted for Uruguay. I thought they were a great team and I really liked the players,” she says. “I loved watching Diego Godín, Luis Suárez and all those guys. It was definitely rough to watch Uruguay at this tournament.”

Rachel does, however, support the US women’s team. “They’re a huge team full of passionate and talented athletes. They really care. I never got that feeling from the men’s team.”

‘What they went through resonated with me’

Oliver, 32, from Jersey, watched as Edin Dzeko helped the club he supports, Manchester City, win the Premier League title in 2012. The Bosnian striker’s impact for City cemented Oliver’s support for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Beyond the club link, the story of Dzeko’s childhood really hit home,” says Oliver. Dzeko was six years old when the siege of Sarajevo began and he was locked inside his family apartment for four years. Only when the sounds of shelling quietened was he allowed to play football with other kids from the neighbourhood. “I like to root for the underdog and I don’t think there’s any bigger underdog than a group of people who survived something so tragic,” says Oliver.

Oliver visited Bosnia last year. “I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with the place as much as I did. I adored Sarajevo. It’s beautiful. It’s where east meets west. You can stand in the spot where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Being a history major, it was weirdly a bucket list destination for me.” When Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Italy on penalties to qualify for the World Cup earlier this year, Oliver was delighted. “None of my friends could understand my jubilation,” he says. “To qualify for the last-32 stage was an achievement in itself, but this is only the beginning.”

“Kolkata is a football-mad city,” says Angi, 35, who spent the first 20 years of his life in India before moving to Toronto. India have never qualified for the World Cup so football fans look for other teams to support. “Rivalries are drawn between neighbourhoods in Kolkata – you are either Brazil or Argentina.”

Angi was born into a family of Brazil fans, who watched ashen-faced as their team collapsed in the 1998 World Cup final, losing 3-0 to France. “At school the next day everybody was talking about it,” he says. “We all wanted to know what happened to Ronaldo and Brazil.”

Four years later, when Angi was 12, he watched as Brazil beat Germany in the World Cup final with Ronaldo scoring both goals. “Small neighbourhoods had huge Brazil flags and everybody was watching the game on small screens. Football cuts across all classes in Kolkata. Everyone is watching, dressed in unofficial Brazil tops.”

Angi does not believe India will play in the World Cup in his lifetime, but there is an essence of home when it comes to supporting Brazil. “Kolkata and adjoining cities in Bangladesh come alive during the World Cup. I may never be a Brazilian but I will always support the Seleção.”

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