What it’s like to be a football fan

Anyone who isn’t into football that have found themselves reading this, you’re a very open minded person and it’s admirable. If you want to know how I got into football I couldn’t possibly tell you because I don’t recall any other interest I had as a toddler, I learned how to walk with a football a couple of feet ahead of me at all times.

A lot of it is a matter of getting accustomed, weekends during most of my childhood involved going to my dad’s and watching BBC’s Match of the Day after listening to the Liverpool game on the radio or staring at Teletext. How mundane does that sound? I only release now I’m zoomed out from it. I do believe it’s learned, you watch adults barely react to scraping their knee and then yell at description over the radio and soon enough you’re yelling along with them.

My Grandad grew up on Merseyside, his siblings supported Everton while he decided to go down the alternate path of supporting Liverpool. I did spend a lot of my life failing to be aware of this origin story, I was reminded at his funeral a year back. The truth is, many people fall in love with football for the camaraderie, they live for the socials, the noise and the familiarity of a ground. For people like me who grew up supporting a more internationally recognised club, through nothing more than family allegiance, you get more joy from seeing how big and how recognised your club can get. You can watch your team at home very often and take part in the constant discussion around what’s happening in the beautiful game.

I never actually felt football while I was a kid. Yes, I wasn't much into football while my club was winning the Champions League and Fa Cup, I was always seeking to play it, why would I watch people do what I like doing? Dumb. I starting watching football more around 2008/09, when Fernando Torres was tearing up the Premier League and setting up his fans to be hurt. I’d say I haven’t missed a game or a Match of the Day episode since 2013, when Luis Suarez was turning into one of the remembered players in English football history. The following season became a year of hope, anticipation and eventually heartbreak. For a long time supporting Liverpool, it’s felt like superiority and then disappointment, an emotion scale that often runs its course in an hour. Numbly we’ve watched rival clubs like Manchester United win things without us having a say.

I’d get it if most people still don’t really get it. It’s still getting invested in groups of people you don’t know and will probably never meet, why does it have a hook on so many people? The honest answer is I don’t know, all I know is I don't know what I’d do without it.

It seemed appropriate to talk about now because after 30 years of being brutally knocked of our perch, and being a shoddy reminder of a giant team respected all over the world. We are set to finally lift the Premier League trophy this very afternoon.