Yes, I follow these soccer teams for fun
During an international break, it's time to check in on the weird admixture of European football teams I support
For a variety of reasons, in most of the big European leagues, I pick a team to root for. Most of the reasons are somewhat frivolous, but it’s fun to have someone to support without having to get too emotionally attached.
This week, men’s club football is taking the weekend off to allow for some international play. Because people are highly invested in the one game playoff between Canada and Trinidad & Tobago for the last CONCACAF spot in the Copa America. 1
But let’s get to the rogues gallery of teams I back.
English Premier League
Unlike the other teams mentioned here, the team I back here is a team that I have actually seen in person. Twice. It’s Everton FC, whom I saw play in an exhibition against Real Madrid at Dodger Stadium and I also saw them play Tottenham at their soon to be former home, Goodison Park.
Being an Everton fan the past few years has not been easy. The team barely escaped relegation the past two seasons and this year has been a challenge.
The team started poorly, then righted the ship and looked to be established firmly in midtable when the team was given a ten point deduction for violating the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules. This deduction sent Everton down into the relegation zone. However, the team managed to dig outself in December and looked to be relatively safe.
However, the team hasn’t won a game since mid-December. And that one win was an FA Cup win over Fulham. Everton managed to get four points back after an appeal, but they may lose more points since they were found guilty of more violations of the Profitability and Sustainability rules.
Also, a team below Everton, Nottingham Forest, has already been dinged four points for this year. As long as Everton is deducted three or fewer points, they stay ahead of Forest and out of relegation. The bottom three teams get relegated and Burnley and Sheffield United in 19th and 20th are very likely doomed. That leaves a three-way battle among Forest, Luton Town, and Everton for the final relegation spot.
Why am I an Everton fan? I am not quite sure. I will ascribe it to peer pressure because I did a Twitter poll. I think Everton won with two votes.
The team is up for sale. It’s likely going to be bought by an undercapitalized group called 777 that makes Frank McCourt say “Wow, those people have no idea how to run a sports team.”
Germany’s Bundesliga
My team in Germany has been the hipster football fan’s favorite, Union Berlin. This team which plays in the former East Berlin was a plucky undercapitalized team that managed to shrewdly build itself and make its way up the ladder in Germany to the top level.
After just three seasons in the Bundesliga, Union (pronounced Ooon-yuhn) qualified for the Champions League after finishing in fourth. This was an amazing feat.
Union Berlin was drawn into a group with Real Madrid, Napoli, and Braga of Portugal. Union won its first two regular season games, which proved to be deceptive because they played the two worst teams in the league in Mainz and Darmstadt. After that, between the Bundesliga and Champions League, Union lost fourteen straight matches.
The losing streak cost manager Urs Fischer his job. Fischer was considered something of a genius for wringing talent out of the roster. However, when he was given the chance to spend more because of the Champions League payout, the team added a bunch of players who just didn’t fit in.
Fischer and Union Berlin parted ways in November. Croatian Nenad Bjelica took over and has righted the ship. In 16 matches in charge, Union has picked up 6 wins and 4 draws along with 6 losses. This has been good enough to boost Union up to 13th in the 18-team league. Union will live to fight another day. But it may take quite a while before the team ever sniffs the top four in the league again.
Italy’s Serie A
The Italian team I picked, Atalanta of Bergamo, was chosen because it’s usually fun to watch. I also felt that Bergamo, which was one of the first European cities to be hit hard by COVID, needed my support.
My connection is tenuous. I went to Italy this past December. I did not go to Bergamo. I went to a soccer store in Milan to look at shirts. I didn’t buy an Atalanta one, although that was mainly because they didn’t have one in my size.
Atalanta is a team that plays a fun attacking style of football. There usually aren’t many scoreless draws when Atalanta takes the field. 2
Presently, the team is in sixth place in Serie A, far far behind league leader Inter. Atalanta does have a game in hand3, which could be handy for moving up a spot.
Atalanta is playing in the Europa League (Europe’s NIT!) and will likely be eliminated in the quarterfinals by Liverpool.
Spain’s La Liga
My wife and I were in Spain in 2015 and Bilbao was part of our itinerary. I was very keen on seeing a match of the local team Athletic Bilbao play at its home stadium, San Mames. Sadly, the match was moved to a different day and we couldn’t change our flight out of Bilbao (it has poor rail connections).
Athletic Bilbao has one of the more unusual philosophies when it comes to player development. If you watch a Premier League match, you will see players from all over the world. But Athletic Bilbao will only use players born in the parts of Spain and France that are designated as Basque country. If someone told Athletic Bilbao that they could have Erling Haaland on their team, for free, they would politely decline since he’s not from Basque country.4
This does not mean that all the players are Basque. Two of the best players on the field are brothers Niko and Iñaki Williams, whose parents hailed from Ghana, but moved to Basque country. Nico plays internationally for Spain. His older brother Iñaki plays for Ghana. Such is the world of international football.
Athletic is in a Champions League, currently in fourth place, leading Atletico Madrid by one point. Athletic will also be playing Real Mallorca for the Copa Del Rey, a competition it has won 23 times, but not for 40 years.
In 2020, Athletic qualified to play in the Copa Del Rey final against Real Sociedad, its Basque country rival. The two teams opted to postpone the match until a crowd could gather for the match. In the end, the 2020 Copa Del Rey final was played in 2021 although still with no crowd. Athletic lost to Real Sociedad 1-0. Two weeks later, the actual 2021 Copa Del Rey final was held. Athletic made it to that final too. And they lost it also, 4-0 to Barcelona.
Athletic beat Mallorca 4-0 in league play in February and should be a favorite in the final, played in Sevilla, on April 6.
The competition between Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid has a political and linguistic backstory. If you know anything about the Basque language, you probably know that Athletic isn’t a Basque word. The team was founded by English expats in 1898, which was not uncommon.
After Franco took control of Spain, the Generalissimo tried to get everyone in the country to speak a standard Castillian and suppressed other languages such as Basque and Catalan. Bilbao was forced to become Atletico Bilbao and the team was not able to return to its preferred Athletic Bilbao until after Franco passed away in 1975.5
When Athletic and Barcelona competed in the Copa del Rey in 2021, the match was preceded by the playing of the Spanish national anthem. Which supporters of both teams jeered as neither side is fond of the King or the government in Madrid.
Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League
Belgium is not one of the big leagues in Europe, but I was in Antwerp earlier this year and visited the team store and bought a shirt and decided to root for Royal Antwerp. And on a wild final day of the season in 2023, Antwerp won the championship!
Antwerp made the Champions League, where it was outclassed by its three opponents: Barcelona, Porto, and Shakhtar Donetsk. Antwerp won one match, at home against Barcelona, after they had already been eliminated and Barcelona had already clinched first place in the group.
During the regular season, Antwerp finished third in the 18-team Belgian Pro League with 52 points, 18 behind first place Union St. Gilloise. However, unlike other leagues in Europe, Belgium has postseason playoffs. But they are a second mini-season. The top six teams have their regular season totals cut in half (rounded up if it’s an odd number). Then those six play a round robin home and home and the league champ is the team ahead at the end of the final round of ten games. Antwerp would have to make up nine points and jump over second place Anderlecht to win the championship again, which is a pretty tall order. Union St. Gilloise has not been Belgian champs since 1935.
Leagues where I don’t have a rooting interest:
France: the matches are hard to see and the league is not overly competitive
Scotland: I’ve tried to get into the Old Firm rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, but I never remember to watch it. It tends to be on the air very early in the morning because it is played around noon in Glasgow to keep down the number of fans who are drunk.
Portugal: I’m sure some network shows Portuguese football. I can’t say I’m looking hard for it.
Netherlands: You can find matches on ESPN+. But the league isn’t overly interesting. PSV Eindhoven is the likely champ this year.
In Europe, the final teams for the Euros this summer will be decided with two part playoffs. One matchup is Poland (a team that is usually not bad) against Estonia, who qualified for the playoffs with a record of 7 losses and 1 draw through a method that is so arcane that explaining it would make people start gnawing off their own limbs.
Atalanta and Juventus did play a scoreless draw on October 1, 2023.
A recent match against Fiorentina was postponed after the teams’s GM suffered what turned out to be a fatal heart attack.
The Basque rule applies just to players, not to coaches or backroom staff. The team’s present manager, Ernesto Valverde, hails from Extremadura.
He’s still dead!
Good summary.
I wonder if people in Europe and the UK pick teams to cheer for in other leagues or just cheer for the local side.