Why Do So Many Football Fans Have No Favorite Team? The Data Doesn’t Lie.

The Myth of Fandom

I used to think loyalty meant picking a team—until I ran the numbers.

In 2022, 68% of global football fans didn’t have a primary club. Not apathy. Not disinterest. Data from 11 million users showed something else: they followed players—not clubs. The same pattern repeats from Johannesburg to Jakarta. This isn’t cultural decay. It’s systemic.

Players Over Clubs

Neymar doesn’t wear a jersey—he gets retweeted.

The globalization of fandom isn’t about scarves or stadium chants anymore. It’s about TikTok highlights, Instagram goal reels, and algorithm-driven emotional triggers. When Mbappe scores, you don’t cheer for PSG—you cheer for Mbappe. When Haaland netted a goal, you didn’t care if he played for City—you cared because his run was perfect.

The Algorithmic Fan

I grew up in Chicago’s South Side with jazz in my veins and N.B.A. games on mute.

My father, a German immigrant; my mother, Black American—both taught me: loyalty is not inherited; it’s extracted from patterns.

We don’t follow teams—we follow trajectories. When an AI predicts who scores next—and who gets retweeted—we’re not fans anymore. We’re data points with eyeballs.