Why Do British Football Fans Buy Spanish Football Shirts?
For those of you who may not have heard of it, football is a very popular sport in Europe. In the UK many people have their favourite football team, be it Manchester City, Nottingham Forest or Bolton Wanderers as well as having their favourite football players too. One of the world’s favourite football players is one Cristiano Ronaldo who, after being signed to play for Manchester United at the age of eighteen gained a loyal fan base not only from supporters of Manchester United, but also in his home country of Portugal for whom he captains the national team. Since leaving Man United in 2009 to play for the Spanish team Real Madrid for a record breaking transfer fee of £80M, the player’s popularity gained even more momentum and sales of Real Madrid shirts bearing Ronaldo’s name and the number seven went through the roof, especially in the UK.
However Ronaldo is not the only top class player who’s migrated from the Premiership to play in Spain’s La Liga. If anybody can remember the 1980′s, Mark Hughes, the current Fulham manager transferred from Manchester United to Barcelona in 1986 for the princely sum of £2M. Although this transfer did not spark a sudden rush for Spanish football shirts, some Fulham supporters do proudly wear vintage Barcelona shirts bearing his name and number to show their support and allegiance to the club’s manager.
Former Leeds United player Jonathan Woodgate transferred to Real Madrid after a brief stint with Newcastle United. Although Woodgate wasn’t a top scorer for any of the teams he played with, he was a top notch defender when he wasn’t injured and was credited as being like a ‘brick wall’ as the opposing strikers tried to get past him. It was this reputation that encouraged Real Madrid to sign him for £13.4M in 2004 and his loyal fans at Newcastle snapped up Real Madrid shirts with his name and number, presumably to wear when their beloved Magpies shirts were in the laundry.
More recently, Spanish born Cesc Fabergas started his youth career playing for FC Barcelona before moving to Arsenal in 2003 at the age of 16. Fabergas was an instant hit with Arsenal fans when he became the youngest ever first team player and their youngest ever goalscorer in the team’s history. By 2009 he was the teams’ captain and cemented his status as one of Arsenals favourite all time players. Fabergas moved back to FC Barcelona on August 15th 2011 and many loyal Arsenal fans will proudly wear Barcelona shirts bearing the Number 4 and the name Fabergas at Arsenal games.
David Beckham, Garry Lineker, Michael Owen and many other British football players have emigrated to play in the Spanish La Liga and each time their loyal fans have kept a close eye on their progress on the Iberian peninsula. It is for this reason we see many British football fans wearing Spanish football shirts bearing the name of their favourite players, even though they no longer play for their favourite British football team.