How did you become a Villa fan?
by Matt Hays on Jul 25, 2011 1:40 PM BST
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PrintSafe to say there aren't many Aston Villa fans living here in the American midwest. If you follow the EPL you likely are a Man U fan or......that's it. It's sad really. It brings me to the question of how did you become a fan of the claret and blue?
Maybe you have family from the Birmingham area or just like the colors of the kits....endless possibilities.
Anyway I've always been a fan of the USMNT, but never really appreciated or took much of a liking to the MLS. In 2007 or so I decided I wanted to start following the EPL in more depth. With coverage becoming common in the US it now made it much easier to follow a team across the pond. I figured it would help me learn and appreciate the game a lot more.
So a friend and I both decided we would pick a new team and both become fans so we could share a conversation piece about our new favorite club. We looked through information about each Premier team at the time and made a list. Like stat nerds I looked over the history and traditions of the club. I didn't want to be another Man U, Man City, Chelsea (etc) fan...because that is just too easy and very much bandwagon like. My ambition was to find a stable club that would more often than not avoid relegation and a team I could follow through the ups and downs of being a fan.
Thus the choice: Aston Villa
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I just started reading this blog, because I "knew" Aaron and Kirsten from Lookout Landing.
And then I got bit by the soccer bug during the World Cup last summer, and decided why not stick with a blog I already read and liked. Ergo: Aston Villa. All for a blog.
Two constants from my childhood that are with me today:
Footy and Black Sabbath. Didn’t follow the Premiership until college (2001), but I’ve been a fan of FC Nantes since I was about 7. In the good old days before the internet, Fox Sports World (which became FSC), and 7am pub trips, the World Cup was the only soccer I saw, and the only Nantes news I ever got was from weeks-old papers my brother’s French buddy’s dad had lying around. I made a conscious decision to follow the Premiership in the summer before college, and coincidentally, that same year, I finally got to see Sabbath live in concert. After the show, Geezer Butler came back on stage with a giant Aston Villa flag. That was all I needed!
picked a random team in fifa 08
because they had a good crest, 2 of my favorite colors and had a cool name.and were not chelsea arsenal or manu.
Villa 'til i die!
My cousin had a Sega Genesis and happened to have FIFA 95, or a game from somewhere in that time period.
It had American teams on the game, but they were just cities with random colors, so I assumed all of the other teams were like that too. I must’ve been about 10, and for some reason I decided to play one game with Aston Villa, mainly cause I liked the name. Based on the American teams, I assumed Aston Villa was a random city in England. Cut to years later, one of the sports channels I got (MSG possibly?) started showing a Premier League highlights show, which I stumbled across one day. While watching it I realized that this Aston Villa team was real. I tried to watch that show whenever I could, to see how they did, and before I knew it, I was hooked.
Just a normal soccer-loving, cricket blog-writing American.
Forgot something.
I can’t remember where I heard this but, I’ve oftern told people looking for a club this. You don’t find your club, your club finds you.
Just a normal soccer-loving, cricket blog-writing American.
It's the truth
Without a single ounce of sarcasm, and with a record of staunch atheism, I believe firmly that Villa made my brother a Black Sabbath fan, so he could make me one, so we could go to the concert that made me Villa TID.
by RipCityVillan on Jul 25, 2011 8:01 PM BST up reply actions
Well
My best friend is from England, and he is a Villa fan, so I became one (I liked the epl, but just never settled on a team to root for).
A sky of blue, a sea of green...(or claret)
I wanted an EPL club.
And, like many, I liked the name and the colors. I researched Villa a bit and decided they were fairly inoffensive (who, besides bluenoses, and possibly other west midlands clubs, hates us?) and would likely stay up.
Then it was too late…
by Kirsten Schlewitz on Jul 27, 2011 6:56 AM BST reply actions
Brand-new Villa fan
As an American weaned on baseball and the NFL, I held longtime disdain for soccer, although I secretly admired the passion and intensity of English soccer as well as the relegation/promotion structure.
During the past few months, I realized that my snobbery was misinformed and misplaced, and I’ve since come to appreciate the game as a whole (although I still have no clue what’s going on), with the Gold Cup final between the U.S. and Mexico sealing the deal.
Now, I need a team — or “side,” as they are adorably called — but not Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool (owned by the Red Sox, barf) or either Manchester. I originally planned to adopt Newcastle because of the home kit of theirs I copped while in England back in 1997 (solely because of the giant Newcastle Brown Ale logo on it).
So I began reading up on news about NUFC, but as a longtime fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, I decided against supporting Newcastle. The Cardinals provide more than enough pointless sports drama for me.
So I decided on Aston Villa, for these reasons:
1. “Aston Villa” was a sufficiently exotic-sounding English name;
2. They weren’t any above the above-mentioned clubs but still successful enough to likely avoid relegation;
3. Reading the posts above reminded me that Black Sabbath was from Birmingham, which is all the reason anyone needs, really.
So that’s probably 12 kinds of lame, but there you have it. I look forward to enjoying my first BPL season.
VEB hipster
That's excellent
As you seen in my originial post it is very similar to how I became a AVFC fan. Welcome aboard!
Doesn't matter how you get here
as long as you end up here with us. Welcome!!
…and it’s great to see another Sabbath fan!
by RipCityVillan on Aug 3, 2011 4:16 PM BST up reply actions
Homegrown
I am a fan because I grew up about 100 yards from the ground and was born and raised in Aston, then another part of Birmingham.
So it was ultimately likely that Villa would be my club. Well that and the fact that my whole extended family (barring a few) support the team as our local club :)
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