Which are Your Favourite European Clubs and Why?

[Rebajlo]

Here is a selection of my favourite clubs. I have only listed the main ones, as I always followed every European competition and do not wish to take up a huge amount of space to list them all.


The following catalogue reveals that I am definitely not a leaf-in-the-wind, "glory hunting" pseudo-fan...

ENGLAND:

Peterborough United:

During his twelve years in England, my father lived in Peterborough (which is in Cambridgeshire, in case anyone is wondering). Therefore, according to the strict tribal rules of the English fan, Peterborough was the only club for me.

POLAND:

MKS Pogoń Szczecin:

Family ties with Szczecin. "MKS Pogoń Szczecin - Duma Pomorza!"

SCOTLAND:

Queen of the South:

As I have possessed an exceedingly keen interest in Border history since my earliest years, the Doonhammers, hailing from Dumfries, were the perfect choice (most Scots are convinced that I'm mad, but who needs Rangers and Celtic anyway? Stuff them :icon_grin Besides, one cannot possibly find a more romantically evocative name...

WALES:

Llanelli A.F.C.:

Being a fan of Llanelli rugby club, Llanelli A.F.C. was therefore my natural football team. I am rather partial to the Welsh clubs which feature in the English league system (such as Swansea City, Cardiff City, Wrexham, and Newport County) but, like the Cymry say, at least one can see actual Welshmen playing in the Welsh domestic competition...

SPAIN:

Athletic Bilbao:

Given my lifelong distaste for footballing"imports", Athletic's traditional "all Basque" policy made me a staunch fan.

ITALY:

Atalanta:

A football club named after the huntress of Classical myth? That was more than enough for the history-obsessed little kid...

GERMANY:

TSV 1860 München:

For my sins, when I was a small child I decided to follow 1860 Munich after reading that they were older than Bayern.

EDIT: As this thread has been dragged out from the vault, I've edited my posts in order for them to be more legible because their formatting was somewhat ruined by the transfer between the old and new forums.

 

[Europe]

I don't have any. I like Athletic Bilbao,but I don't get their games on TV. What will Bilbao look like in 20 years with all the immigration?

 

[Liverlips]

Liverpool, as they are nearly all white in the starting lineup.

 

[Matra1]

I don't have any. I like Athletic Bilbao,but I don't get their games on TV. What will Bilbao look like in 20 years with all the immigration?

Well, they've maintained an all Basque line-up up till now. A few years ago they did a poll of supporters giving them a choice between maintaining an all Basque team and being relegated or having non-Basques and winning the championship. The majority - something like 75% - said maintaining an all Basque team was more important than winning.

 

[Matra1]

I use to have teams I supported when I was a child but since adulthood I've generally had teams I cheer against - Man United especially. However, I generally support famously right wing Lazio and Milan in Italy (depending on the make-up of the team), and "Franco's team" Real Madrid in Spain, though I'm more interested in left leaning* Barcelona losing than Real Madrid winning. But if Barca are playing a team made up mostly of non-whites like Chelsea or Arsenal I'll cheer for Barca. (They've been playing some incredible football in recent weeks). In Scotland I only pay attention to Rangers v Celtic matches. Liverpool are my childhood favourites and I still want them to win but it doesn't matter that much to me anymore.

Because I don't like what football has become in the last two decades I usually cheer for underdog small budget teams against the big rich clubs accept, of course, when those underdogs are almost all non-Europeans.

* I know Barca have right wing supporters too but they have a left wing image and their fans in the English-speaking world tend to be trendy liberals. The Catalonia region is also left wing compared to most of Spain.Edited by: Matra1

 

[Europe]

" The majority - something like 75% - said maintaining an all Basque team was more important than winning. "

But will they keep out non-Basque players even if they are born in the Basque region. In other words do you have to have Basque blood?


" I know Barca have right wing supporters too but they have a left wing image and their fans in the English-speaking world tend to be trendy liberals"

I think Woody Allen had a recent movie set in Barcelona --Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

I picture a bunch of college students rooting for Barca and maybe taking a trip over there to go to a game. They would never root for Newcastle,Everton or Sheffield United. The team has to be in a hip city that they want to live in.

Isn't Di Canio pretty far to the right?Maybe I am not remembering correctly.

 

[Rebajlo]

But will they keep out non-Basque players even if they are born in the Basque region. In other words do you have to have Basque blood? ...

...I picture a bunch of college students rooting for Barca and maybe taking a trip over there to go to a game. They would never root for Newcastle,Everton or Sheffield United. The team has to be in a hip city that they want to live in.

Europe - Athletic Bilbao's past policy of only recruiting Basques born in the Basque Country (that is, the so-called Greater Basque Country), which spans Spain and France, has been relaxed.

Players of 100% Basque ancestry born outside the traditional cantera (recruitment area) have been signed (which is fair enough).An example is current defender Fernando Amorebieta, who was born in Venezuela to Basque parents who had moved to South America to work, but returned to Spain (namely the Basque country) when he was two years old.

The threat posed by non-White immigration into the Basque territories has already borne it's rotten fruit in the ugly form of a certain Jonas Ramalho Chimeno. Ramalho, a defender who plays for Athletic's reserve team, Bilbao Athletic, in the Third Division, is the seveteen-year old Biscay-born product of an Angolan father and a Basque mother (what a surprise...).

He thus technically qualifies for selection via:

(a) ancestry (Basque mother) and (b) birthplace (Biscay).

The media predictably made a big deal of his surprise call-up to the first team squad back in 2009 for a dead Europa League fixture, eagerly anticipating the first senior appearance of a black in Athletic's shirt - as things went, he never got off the bench, which was an almighty relief. But, I'm afraid, it may only be a matter of time...

Here is the splay-nosed specimen in question:

People often forget that Real Sociedad, from San Sebastian, also had a Basque-only policy up until 1989, when they signed John Aldridge from Liverpool.

On the subject of trendy teams to follow, I remember seeing a fair number of Blackburn shirts here in Australia back when the Jack Walker-funded Rovers won the championship in 1995. I'll bet that none of the wearers could point to Blackburn on a map of England - strangely enough, I haven't seen any Blackburn shirts recently...

 

[Rebajlo]

Just a small addendum to my above post (which I finally managed to knock out - after various interruptions - in a foggily somnolent state at about 1 AM or some such wee hour).

Just to make things a bit clearer, Athletic Bilbao's "relaxed" rules nowadays include the utilisation ofSpaniards of non-Basque ancestry who were:

(a) born in the Basque Country or

(b) who were raised in the cantera region and learned their football in Basque clubs.

This, by default, means that Athletic have fielded teams which overwhelmingly consist of "true" 100% ethnic Basques,with a sprinkling of Basque Country-born "part-Basques" and "non-ethnic" Basques, in addition to Spaniards who, despite being born elsewhere, grew up in the Basque region from their earliest years. An example of the latter was 1990s striker Ernesto Valverde, who was born in the region of Extremadura but whose parents moved to the Basque Country when he was still an infant.

Edited by: Rebajlo

 

[Borussia]

Edited by: Borussia

 

[yuri malenkov]

Got to go with my home team FC Sheriff.

They have 6/24 or 25% of the club are Pridnestrovie players. Not bad for a country of only 450,000 population.

oddly enough there are 3 brazilian and 3 african players, all backups. each one has an mgb officer as a handler so they never get out of line.

 

[frederic38]

milan because it's the club that suits me the best

i loved shevchenko also

[video=youtube;VS-5k-4AZh0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS-5k-4AZh0[/video]

unfortunately i am forced to support internazionale these days :icon_mad:

 

[Matra2]

As I said above I like Milan - their owner Berlusconi was half-decent on immigration, he certainly deported a lot of Romanian Gypsies - but I dislike two of their current players: Robinho and Ibrahimovic.

 

[frederic38]

As I said above I like Milan - their owner Berlusconi was half-decent on immigration, he certainly deported a lot of Romanian Gypsies - but I dislike two of their current players: Robinho and Ibrahimovic.

berlusconi is back now (he stopped politics), let's see how the team will evolve during the next seasons
they already have the gamebreaker, pato, possibly the best player in the world
they need to get rid of some useless players
currently it's impossible to root for them

ibrahimowicz is like a curse on his team
he played for internazionale in 2008-2009, and barcelona won the champions league this year
in 2009-2010, he played for barcelona, but this year internazionale won the champions league
in 2010-2011, he played for ac milan, and barcelona won the champions league again

i think it's not bad luck, he is too selfish, he reminds me of a stereotypical arab player, very selfish (he is ofcourse a lot more talented and powerfull than the stereotypical arab player)
ben arfa for example scored an "impressive" "maradona-like" goal in cup a few days back (an example of a selfish stereotypical arab player)
but this doesn't work in champions league (only a really talented player like maradona or messi could do it)

robinho is the definition of a black player, but he is very talented (because he is brazilian)
but the way he moves, his rythm, it's really african football
he is the opposite of ronaldo (the brazilian) or shevchenko, who really played with an european style
so him playing for milan is a disgrace


(as an aside, uruguay, althought almost 100% white, has an african style and an african rythm in soccer, and has heavily african influenced music - like brazil)

 

[Europe]

"robinho is the definition of a black player, but he is very talented (because he is brazilian)"

Just because a guy is Brazilian doesn't make him talented. I am tired of the soccer section being turned into a South American love fest. Both Milan teams are a joke, but Inter is worse because they are filled with Brazilians and Argentinians, not to mention other foreigners. At least AC Milan has some Italians.

 

[Porthos]

I also am not a fan of big clubs - most of these are just multinational corporations.
I simphatize for Lazio because they are right wing and have a great respect for their "Irriducibili" fans. However, the team is far from being racially correct these days (I hope useless Cisse` gets axed soon).
Also for the Basque teams (Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad) as I have mentioned in one of my previous posts. Kudos to Barca for at least trying to keep the team mostly Catalan.

One of my favorites is Zenit St. Petersburg which has all the players in the first, second, youth teams and all the players on loan and any notable player - all Whites, and the vast majority are Russians or from the former Soviet Union area. This is the team where Arshavin used to play. Here is an article from a UK rag predictably titled "Zenit St Petersburg's racist thug fans on the march" http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...racist-thug-fans-on-the-march-86908-20403685/

Speaking on why they don't sign black players, former Zenit Dutch coach Advocaat (currently the coach of Russia) said:
"The problem is our fans. I would be happy to sign anyone but the fans don't like black players. I don't understand how they could pay so much attention to skin colour. For me, there's no difference between white, black or red."
Simple - why aren't fans like that in Western Europe where they seem almost completely brainwashed?

Bate Borisov also has my simphaties, I hoped they could do better in Champions league, but it's going to be for next year. I like Belarus in general, looks like an island of sanity in Europe. Another all white team is Viktoria Plzen which did OK this year in the same CL group and will continue in Europa League now. In general I like Eastern European teams as people there seem to have maintained their racial instincts intact, as you can see from the above article.

I feel like a dinosaur rooting for all White teams, but I am a purist and very conservative regarding all things football. For example I hate these large numbers like 99 or 76 players have on their jerseys these days, but that's just me... I must be the only one in the world annoyed by this.

Other than that, my simphaties may vary from year to year.
For example, in Premier League this year I like Liverpool because they are almost all white and because they did not grovel in front of the politically correct inquisition during the Suarez affaire. However this may change if they sign up a large number of Blacks in the future.

 

[frederic38]

"robinho is the definition of a black player, but he is very talented (because he is brazilian)"

Just because a guy is Brazilian doesn't make him talented. I am tired of the soccer section being turned into a South American love fest. Both Milan teams are a joke, but Inter is worse because they are filled with Brazilians and Argentinians, not to mention other foreigners.

i really don't like robinho
but even if he is not the best player in the world, he is far more talented than the best african players

i try to avoid speaking about south american football too much
this is why i posted in this thread about "favourite european club" (my real favourite club is internacional porto alegre)

but when i have the choice to support either internazionale (10 whites usually out of 11) or ac milan (3-4 blacks usually) i prefer internazionale

At least AC Milan has some Italians.

ac milan is called ac milan , not ac milano
so the number of italian players is irrelevant

to make it more clear:
berlusconi is back, and i think one of the players he might buy in the near future might be bruno uvini
i talked about him in this thread:
http://www.castefootball.us/forums/showthread.php?13616-under-20-world-championships

yes, he is brazilian, but his ancestors were from milan, and he turned down BIG financial oportunities from rich european club (the arab billionaires of PSG mainly) because he only wants to play in italy
i will be happy to have him in the team
i prefer having him in the team than an italian from the south of italy (and ofcourse i would prefer him to tiago silva who is brazilian and part black)
i have nothing against italian players ofcourse, but they already have clubs like juventus

(first he will play for genoa, a small italian club)

same for coates
i mentionned the first time i talked about him that he was of english origin
i knew he was going to play for an english club (unfortunately, because i think it would have been better for his career to play in italy)


i agree with you that there are too much south americans playing in europe , and that it makes european national teams weaker, but you should not hate the white players that are obviously white and are amongst the best in the world (forlan for example)

and also it's not the fist time i criticized robinho, i already posted a video about him in the "bad misses thread"

One of my favorites is Zenit St. Petersburg

oh yes i forgot about them
i loved the archavine-pogrebnyak duo
too bad both were bought by other clubs

i like the number 88
ghorskov had this number on his shirt, i don't know if it was a reference to hitler though

 

[Europe]

" agree with you that there are too much south americans playing in europe , and that it makes european national teams weaker, but you should not hate the white players that are obviously white and are amongst the best in the world (forlan for example)"

Frederic38--I don't hate white South Americans like Messi. I don't hate black players either but I am tired of European clubs turning into African teams or S American teams. It just seems to be a one way street from SA to Europe. How many Europeans play in SA?

 

[frederic38]

" agree with you that there are too much south americans playing in europe , and that it makes european national teams weaker, but you should not hate the white players that are obviously white and are amongst the best in the world (forlan for example)"

Frederic38--I don't hate white South Americans like Messi. I don't hate black players either but I am tired of European clubs turning into African teams or S American teams. It just seems to be a one way street from SA to Europe. How many Europeans play in SA?

zero
there is a lmit of 5 strangers per team in brasil for example, but these strangers are from other south american countries
i think it will change in the future
corinthians already bought a chinese player, like the european clubs, to be known in asia
http://globoesporte.globo.com/futeb...do-ano-principal-contratacao-e-um-chines.html

 

[Rebajlo]

...ac milan is called ac milan , not ac milano
so the number of italian players is irrelevant..

Come on mate, ditch the onomastics. AC Milan is an Italian football club. That's the point Europe was making.

If we correlate the "acceptable" foreign content of a club's playing personnel with its name then Athletic Bilbao, River Plate (both the Argentine and Uruguayan versions), Racing Club (and, for that matter, Racing Club de Paris after whom the Avellaneda club was named - oh, hang on, the Parisian Racing Club is filled with blacks and Arabs...), Newell's Old Boys, Boca Juniors, Argentinos Juniors, Montevideo Wanderers, and Corinthians, for example, should all have a significant non-native (and, for good measure, largely British) contingent. Sounds absurd...?

 

[frederic38]

Come on mate, ditch the onomastics. AC Milan is an Italian football club. That's the point Europe was making.

If we correlate the "acceptable" foreign content of a club's playing personnel with its name then Athletic Bilbao, River Plate (both the Argentine and Uruguayan versions), Racing Club (and, for that matter, Racing Club de Paris after whom the Avellaneda club was named - oh, hang on, the Parisian Racing Club is filled with blacks and Arabs...), Newell's Old Boys, Boca Juniors, Argentinos Juniors, Montevideo Wanderers, and Corinthians, for example, should all have a significant non-native (and, for good measure, largely British) contingent. Sounds absurd...?

that's not what i wanted to say
the name of the club was given by english men in a lot of countries
but the name milan is close to the lombard name of the city, milàn

i was trying to say that for me and for a lot of inhabitants of lombardy, italians are foreign, and they do not feel italian
remember that in italy, france and spain, there are strong regional identities

uvini's ancestors were from milan, and for me he is more acceptable in the team than nocerino

about ac milan, i just discovered what their goal keeper said in 2008:

In September 2008, Abbiati declared that he was a fascist. "I am not ashamed to proclaim my political beliefs. I share [the] ideals of fascism, such as the fatherland and the values of the Catholic religion."[SUP][8][/SUP]

 

[Rebajlo]

frederic38 - Convenient Lombard dialect or not, AC Milan were founded by expatriate Englishmen as the "Milan Cricket and Football Club". :icon_wink:

I'm well aware of Italian regionalism mate, but AC Milan has never exactly employed a strict "Padanian" recruitment policy, have they? Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Dejan Savicevic, Zvonimir Boban, Rui Costa, Andriy Shevchenko, George Weah, Marcel Desailly, Dida, Serginho, Cafu - yeah, all of these fellows are real "Lombard" material.

As long as AC Milan plays in the Italian league, they should (in a theoretically "sane" world, of course) focus on the development and signing of Italian players, which serves to strengthen the Italian national team. There are more than enough Brazilians (of all backgrounds) in Italy and the rest of Europe already... :thumbdown:

 

[frederic38]

frederic38 - Convenient Lombard dialect or not, AC Milan were founded by expatriate Englishmen as the "Milan Cricket and Football Club". :icon_wink:

I'm well aware of Italian regionalism mate, but AC Milan has never exactly employed a strict "Padanian" recruitment policy, have they? Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Dejan Savicevic, Zvonimir Boban, Rui Costa, Andriy Shevchenko, George Weah, Marcel Desailly, Dida, Serginho, Cafu - yeah, all of these fellows are real "Lombard" material.

As long as AC Milan plays in the Italian league, they should (in a theoretically "sane" world, of course) focus on the development and signing of Italian players, which serves to strengthen the Italian national team. There are more than enough Brazilians (of all backgrounds) in Italy and the rest of Europe already... :thumbdown:

well, i guess i will have to suport the padania national team

 

[Giles Daldanus]

Some of my favourite clubs are as follows:

Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria) – their fans tend to be quite patriotic and are not known for hooliganism. The team is usually very representative of the country’s population.

Belshina Bobruisk (Belarus) – over 90% of its players are Belarusians, quite a few of them originate from Bobruisk, it is the type of team that is rarely overmatched due to its solid defense. I remember watching a UEFA Cup match involving them in 1998.

FC Metz (France) – no rational reason, but I am fond of mythological creatures like dragons (their logo is very distinctive). Good reputation when it comes to youth development.



Zimbru Chisinau (Moldova) – a team from a very small European country, but usually manages to hold its own even against top European teams, without compromising its Moldovan identity. I also like the European bison (wisent) on the club logo.

Birmingham F.C. (England) – faithful supporters, employ many British players and are a “no-nonsense†side: they are not the most technical team, but are quite successful due to playing to their strengths – the “Brummies†have a capable defense and rely on tall targetmen like Zigic and sometimes on defenders with a powerful heading ability. In some respects they embody the stereotypes connected to the “British style of playâ€.

The one big club I have a soft spot for is Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) – in the late 1990s and early 2000s they were possibly the strongest Eastern European team. I remember the amazement of some commentators when they defeated FC Barcelona by a score of 4:0 at the Camp Nou in November 1997 (Shevchenko was just making his first steps in professional football and he netted a hat-trick against them). They had quite a few charismatic footballers like Shevchenko, Husyn, Shovkovskiy, Rebrov (who unfortunately didn’t cut it in the Premier League), as well as the Belarusian midfield maestros Belkevich and Khatskevich who are not so well-known in Western Europe.

In addition, “The Death Match†is part of the legend surrounding the club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Match

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Well,my story with football is along one.I live in a place(a place whose details I wouldn't like to reveal) where football was nothing-absolutely nothing.This is slowly changing.Ok,so back to the story,there are no football clubs here.The odd fan here and there.So,when I was a kid I used to love playing computer games and one day I went to buy a game and the shopkeeper sold me a FIFA2002 CD,assuring me that it was a good game.

So,I went home,put in the Cd,after a few "Enters" I was playing as Arsenal.Now this part is important because I didn't realise(or rather look for it) that I could change teams and continued playing as arsenal only for the next month or so.Mind you,this was a good arsenal side with Seaman,Pires,Freddy,Denis(and a few good non-whites like Viera,cole,TH14) et al.Since then I stuck to the football and consequently arsenal and slowly started following football.
Now I admire Bilbao for obvious reasons and cannot help but admire Dortmund for their collective team spirit.Liverpool-the whitest team in the EPL also have a soft spot.

 

[frederic38]

ahah, this is an original way to get into football :icon_lol:
are you from europe?