Part 2: Famous Soccer Clubs

This is probably the easy part, but there are literally teams in every corner of the world.  I won’t get into the specifics for all of it, but it’s safe to say you can be a fan of more than 1 team, but generally Europeans will frown if it’s 2 teams from the same league.  I follow 2 religiously (Manchester United – cause I have forever & Borussia Dortmund – cause I lived there in Germany).  I follow two other teams rather closely – Galatasaray which is a team from Istanbul, Turkey and Fiorentina a team from Florence, Italy.  Plus SKC as my MLS team. (Kansas City)  I like Gala because most of my friends from Germany that were Turkey born were Gala fans, and put me on them, plus I got to see them play Dortmund live and it was unlike any sporting event I’ve ever experienced in my life.  I picked Fiorentina because their best player at the time was my favorite player, and the city is gorgeous.  In any case, here are the top teams from each major country, and then a section on wordly teams.  Peace.

England

Arsenal – London
Chelsea – London
Spurs – London
West Ham – London
Fulham – London
QPR - London
*London also has a number of other clubs like Milwall, Charlton Athletic and such, but I would say those 6 are the current major players.
Manchester United
Manchester City - Becoming a top football city.  After Sunday, the last 4 premier leagues have been held by these two squads most likely.
Bolton – currently in 2nd division also known as the championship
Blackburn – likewise
Aston Villa, West Bromwich, Birmingham City and Wolves are 4 huge rivals out of the Birmingham region and they call them Midland derbies any time they play...
Wigan – I follow them too, currently in the championship, but did win the FA cup last year for the first time in the club’s history.
Everton
Liverpool  – These two are fierce rivals from Liverpool who usually finish in the top 10.  Liverpool gets it from both Everton and Manchester United, but to be fair, they have a great history.  You’ll get a lot of Liverpool exposure working at Brits.  Probably the biggest reason why I wouldn’t want to work there as it’s very similar to Packers/Vikings although much more intense.
Newcastle – Great following
Sunderland – Newcastle’s biggest rival, a great derby.
Southampton – Kind of the hipster’s choice right now.  Solid team, very young, if they can keep their stars they could challenge for Europe.
Swansea City
Cardiff City – 2 teams that are from Wales, but play within the English system.  For another week they are both in the Premier League, but Cardiff will be going down as they finished 20th or thereabouts.
Leicester City – Promoted to the Premier League
Burnley – Promoted to the Premier League
Norwich City – Attractive style (sometimes), but on their way down, most likely.
Crystal Palace – Fun to watch, another London suburb club.
Stoke City – Ignore them, but they are always in the Premier League.  Our version would be the Buffalo Bills, maybe?


France:

PSG – Huge cash, on their way to being an elite world club.
Monaco – Mini-PSG
Marseille – Great fans, good football.
Lyon – Used to be a French powerhouse, still deliver the goods.





Germany:

Bayern Munich – World’s best, or really close.
Borussia Dortmund – New heights, really good last 3-4 years.
FC Schalke – Dortmund’s biggest rival, very similar to Packers/Vikings
VFL Wolfsburg – Sponsored by Volkswagen, starting to become serious players
HSV – (Hamburg) Big club, could be going down.
Stuttgart – Fun team to follow, you never know where they will end up.
Leverkusen – Has Bayer (The drug company) money, usually close to the top.
Borussia MG – The people’s club, fun place to watch a game.

Italy:

AC Milan
Inter Milan – Great world derby, dominated Europe during the last decade (both of them)
Juventus – Won last 3 Italian titles, really good.
Fiorentina – Went bankrupt recently, getting back to the top half of the league again.
Roma
Lazio – The Rome derby.  Intense.  Intense.
Parma – The Minnesota Twins of Europe
Napoli – Getting to be a really big player in Europe and Italy, ala Borussia Dortmund
Udinese – Such an exciting style of football.  Attack, attack, attack.

Spain:

#1 vs #2

Real Madrid – Powerhouse.  Makes the Yankees budget seem small and irrelevant.
Barcelona – Powerhouse.  Spend less, but pay higher wages than Madrid.
Atletico Madrid – The 3rd player in Spain. May win the title this year though.
Valencia – Used to be a European power.  Now struggles to make Europa league.
Sevilla – Becoming the new Valencia maybe?  Sold 2 top stars, still made Europa league final.
Athletic Bilbao
Real Sociedad – Two teams from the basque region that despise each other. Fun rivalry to watch.
Villarreal – The Yellow Submarines.  Imagine Maple Grove in the NFL.

Rest of Euorpe –
Galatasaray
Fenerbahce
Besiktas – The 3 Turkish giants.  Big fish in small pond, but great rivalries.  All are out of Istanbul.



FC Porto
Sporting Lisbon
Benfica – The 3 Portuguese giants.  Not sure, but I think they have like the last 30+ titles.  Maybe even 50.

Zenit St. Petersburg – The only Russian team that makes a European impact.

Boca Juniors
River Plate – The 2 biggest sides from Argentina.  Top 5 world rivalry.

Santos – Pele’s team.  Still solid today.

That’s about it.  If you can’t follow one of these teams... maybe stick with the NFL? ;)