Personal

If you’re American, no, I’m not talking about that kind of football. I’m talking about the kind that everyone else in the world calls football—or association football. For most of my life, though, I called it soccer.

When I was little, my parents encouraged me to be active and take up a sport. I wasn’t naturally good at sports, but I did play soccer from around age five until I was about 11. I wasn’t the best player, but I knew how to play and genuinely enjoyed it.

Despite playing soccer, I never really followed professional sports. Sure, I had favorite teams in American football, baseball, and hockey, but I didn’t actively watch games or check the standings. I never even had a basketball team. Among all the major U.S. sports, I liked hockey the most. There was something about it—maybe the fast-paced, low-scoring nature of the game. You had to stay focused on the action, even during quieter moments, because if you looked away, you might miss a goal. Baseball was just too slow for me, and I could never get into basketball. American football never fully grabbed my attention either—I’d watch, but I was never really invested.

When I moved to England, not much changed at first. In the first year or two, I didn’t follow any sports, just like I hadn’t in America. But as I started chatting with people, I used sports as a conversation starter. I would ask if they preferred football or cricket. To my surprise, the question was wrong—the real question, they said, was football or rugby. Even though it wasn’t the perfect icebreaker, I learned about people’s favorite teams and why they supported them.

Out of curiosity, I eventually watched an England women’s national team game, and to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. The same reasons I liked ice hockey seemed to apply to football as well. It’s a low-scoring game, and if you step away for a snack, you might miss a goal. But the real challenge came when I tried to pick a team to follow. Talking to locals, I noticed that many people supported a team based on family tradition or where they grew up. As an expat in London, I didn’t have that kind of loyalty. There were three Premier League teams that could be considered “local” to me, and one was particularly popular in my neighborhood.

Some colleagues suggested I support Manchester United, but these were colleagues from India, not locals. I had to explain that living in London, I wanted a team that felt more local.

A lot of people in my neighborhood were West Ham United fans, and their stadium was nearby in Stratford. But I never really felt drawn to West Ham, even though I had nothing against them. Supporting them would’ve been the easy choice, given how popular they were locally.

I knew a couple of people who supported Tottenham, and their history intrigued me. I seriously considered them. I also had friends who supported Arsenal, and I considered them too. For about two years, I was torn between Tottenham and Arsenal, though for much of that time, it was more of an academic debate since I wasn’t watching much football.

Then, the Women’s Euros and the World Cup came along. We watched the England women’s team, and we really enjoyed the games. We also watched several matches from the men’s World Cup. By this spring, I knew I had to make a decision.

In the end, two factors helped me choose. Between Arsenal and Tottenham, Arsenal seemed to have more of a historical edge—by that, I mean they had old records of winning streaks that stood out. Tottenham had always been a strong team, but they didn’t have that same kind of legacy. It’s hard to explain, but it just felt like Arsenal had more history behind them. 

The final decision came when I was out at lunch with the girls one day. We talked about it, and since it was going to be a family decision, I let them weigh in. They agreed on Arsenal, and just like that, we became Arsenal fans.

We don’t have any team gear yet, and we haven’t been to a game either, but I’m looking to get tickets for one of the women’s matches at the Emirates this fall. I think it’ll be the perfect introduction for the girls to live football since they’ve already seen matches from the Euros and World Cup, both men’s and women’s.

I was surprised at how much I’ve come to enjoy watching football. When I think about it, the similarities to hockey explain a lot of it. Now, we’ll see if I keep up with the games during the season.

I wrote this over the summer. I figured it was time to post since we are going to our first match tomorrow. More on that another day.