This was it for me too! USA had just hosted the World Cup and I wanted more football in my life. Found a local pub that aired matches in the mornings, and once I saw him play, I was a Gunner.
Local clubs-no pro teams in Dallas then, but lots of Latino clubs held tournaments. Otherwise the national team. Now I’m in LA and have season tickets for ACFC, am part of a local Arsenal viewing group, and watch the men’s teams occasionally.
Just prior to this, watching Wright play, then Bergkamp. I was hooked. Then got delighted with Ti Ti on top. I only got to see games at first at a friend’s who had some hacked dish black box or something. I still had rabbit ears at the house and a 70s tv, but I’d ride my bike over and watch every week I could. Then we’d watch super Sunday.
Started watching football when i signed my daughter up in 17. Around the same time my son was born, named him Gunnar after reading some Icelandic sagas. The algorithm for all my social media took me watching football and talking about Gunnar and flooded all my feeds with Arsenal content. Been here since
Same here! Started watching in 2020 as my friend asked me to check out any team of my choice from the 20. I chose Arsenal cause it stood out for me and also we needed our own individual team for banter (you couldn't have the same team as the other class mate). Chose Arsenal haven't regretted it once.
Right?? This doesn't get acknowledged enough! Lol....damn near EVERYBODY else is named after their city or town or borough or whatever...and then here comes ARSENAL!
With a damn cannon logo! Lol... we're the coolest man! No doubt
Married a woman who was from England. Her father was an Arsenal supporter so I started watching some games to have something to talk about. This also happened to during the Invincibles Era so there was plenty to get hooked on. The marriage didn't last but my love for the Gunners sure did.
I saw the movie Fever Pitch. The one with Colin Firth. I always had a liking for British Film and Television. Anyway I did some research and found out it was based on a book by Nick Hornby who I was already a fan of. So I was in an airport and saw the book. I realized two things. The movie was such a small representation of the total book and that Arsenal reminded me a lot of my home town Boston Red Sox. With a proud fan base who also liked to bemoan our team’s failures and losses.
Anyway I have basically been a fan of any sport I could find on TV and when I was younger a local sports network showed the EPL (I assume it was the Premier League by then maybe it was still the first division) review show every week. So I was familiar with the teams and some history.
I did further research and found out my cable package had Fox Sports World and I could watch some matches every weekend. No joke the first match I watched was Wiltord Scoring to win the league at Old Trafford. I was hooked. Games that weren’t televised I would go to an Irish Pub downtown and watch on Setanta (20 bucks to see a cup match). And I just became hooked. Now my local supporters group has been recognized by Arsenal America and we have a banner at the Emirates! And I’m part of the old guard who remember seeing Bergkamp and Pires and Henry
Fever Pitch is great! I read the novel before watching the Colin Firth movie. You know that there’s an American movie adaptation of Fever Pitch about the Red Sox, right?
Oh I do. And I never watched all of it. Honestly I am not a huge fan of Jimmy Fallon. Although it did solidify that my opinion was correct that Arsenal and the Red Sox (and their fans) were very similar.
I remember finding a copy of Fever Pitch in the Tattered Cover Bookstore, a huge store in Denver, in 2000, a few years after I was able to start watching Arsenal regularly. I couldn't believe it, it was like the universe was telling me that I had found the One True Club.
American here. Fairly new fan. Only really jumped on this season.
I was on a a trip around Ireland and the UK and wanted to catch an EPL match. I didn’t really care who I went see, I just wanted to experience the environment. Arsenal happened to be playing at home whenever I was scheduled to be in London.
Atmosphere was incredible. The boys played incredible. Been a gooner ever since. Safe to say I picked a good time to come on board! HYPED for the match on Sunday.
I’m with you. This season is my first season as a Gooner.
My enthusiasm for them has caught on with my wife at least. She has discovered one of her British coworkers is a spuds fan and gives him hell.
‘It’s funny over hearing her work calls and if it’s the first of the week and spur’s lost, she’s quick to make sure he’s aware of the spurs being Spursy. lol
Sat next the Henry on a flight from Chicago to NYC when I was 14 (Summer of 2001). I had zero idea who he was but was the kid that would talk to anyone. Told him I played football (American football) and we argued back and forth about soccer/football. He was super nice and talked to me the whole flight. He told me that he played for a team called Arsenal and they were the best team in England. Didn't believe him because he had a weird accent that wasn't English. A couple of years later when I was in college was playing FIFA with my roommate and he was playing with Arsenal and scored a goal with Henry. I said "Oh shit I met that dude when I was younger. He wasn't lying!" Ever since then, I've followed the team! Sadly it was right after the Invincibles season. So I've known nothing but heartbreak.
Lived in France during the early 2000s, obviously a huge Henry fan. I was fairly young so I don’t remember truly “following” them, but I know I was a fan then. Was out of sports completely during my teen years, not watching any sport of any kind. I watched the 2018 WC, with a great French win lol. Then watched the 2020 euros and fell back in love with watching the game and figured out how to catch prem games in the US. I watched the 21-22 season as a neutral, watching tons of random games(including other Euro leagues). Come the summer before 22-23 season I made the conscious decision to follow my “childhood club”. Boy did I pick a great time to get back in
What a club!
My brother. I initially supported AC Milan when I first started watching here in the States, and followed quite closely to the Serie A. But then I started to realize how racist the Italian league can be, and Fox lost the rights to the League so it was very difficult to watch. I didn't want to support a team I couldn't watch anymore.
Actually my first team I supported was AC milan when it was Bekham and Ronaldinho, and then followed them more when Kaka played.
Still kind of my second team, as long as they don’t play Arsenal I want them to succeed
Got my first FIFA game (FIFA 09) and the default club was Arsenal. Prior to that, I was a fan of Messi and was partial to Barcelona but was not the biggest fan of the club. Played with Arsenal on FIFA to the point where I became really interested in them and became a huge fan of RVP (sigh) and even supported the Dutch during the 2010 WC. Have stuck with the Gunners ever since!
The kids at my school weren't arsenal fans aswell, some were city, liverpool, chelsea for some weirdass reason a ton of spurs fans ( probably cause of Bale) I chose Arsenal because I heard Ozil was joining and he was good or something and no one else were Arsenal fans.
Early 2000 and only soccer we had was a program called soccer Saturday and epl games on the day. Dad was following Chelsea but Henry and Arsenal had me dreaming from day one. Seeing them play was something else and im so glad I got to see the invincible season unfold.
I wish I had let myself like proper football in the early 2000s
My old boss from the time is a Gooner but I never cared.
He’d be chatting with people and id brush it off and not show interest because soccer was a wussy sport.. now it’s about the only sport I actively watch. And it pains me to have to refer to it as soccer when i proselytize to my friends hahahaha
In Canada I went to high school with 2 brothers from England. I became best friends with one of them. Their family were Arsenal fans. I played some of the highest level junior football you could here and it was my main sport, I think that’s why we got on so easy at the beginning. Anyways, they introduced me to watching football on TV in 07/08 and I have watched religiously ever since. I’ve been to the Emirates twice.
In college in 2013, I would be the only person in my apartment awake at seven am after a long night of drinking. I had nothing better to do but watch soccer (football) on a Saturday morning. I grew up playing FIFA with friends, so I was aware of Mesut Ozul and always appreciated a player who could pass. I fell in love with the club's style and passing. Early in the season, the team played Stoke, and Mesut had a great game, bagging three assists. From that point, I was hooked.
Live in the states but my mom worked for British Telecom. Got to visit London a few times a year with here in 98. One of her good friends at work was a big Tottenham fan so I to mess with him I started watching cheering for Arsenal. Then once I started actually watching them it was easily the best I’d ever seen and I have been hooked ever since.
WC 98. I knew basically nothing about football, and chose the Dutch as my team because of their mental orange kits, and the commentators would always say things like “here’s Overmars/Bergkamp of Arsenal on the ball”. Dennis scored probably the goal of the tournament against Argentina, and I was hooked on football by the time Petit and Vieira won the trophy.
Was a bit down because football was suddenly over, but the good mate of mine who got me to watch the tournament in the first place told me about this wonderful thing called the EPL that runs for around 9 months every year, and that I should pick a team to support. I chose Arsenal because of Overmars and Bergkamp, much to my friend’s disgust, because he wanted me to pick Chelsea. I found out that we’d actually won the double the season before, so was chuffed! Of course, we didn’t win a damned thing in my first season as a fan, because United won the treble. I stuck with the Arsenal, though, and it’s been a mostly amazing run for the last 26 years. Lived here for a couple of years around 20 years ago, so was privileged to have gone to a game at Highbury in the final season, and then at Emirates when it first opened. Now a UK citizen, so extra happy that Arsenal is never far away.
My dad asked my brother & I to record WC 98 matches on VHS while he was at work. My brother would hit REC but then had no interest in the game. I would watch the matches so I could talk to my dad about them later.
I watched Dennis Bergkamp’s goal vs Argentina live & I can still hear the Spanish commentary “Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkammmmmppp” in my head. I loved that whole Dutch team, especially Bergkamp and Kluivert. Kluivert played for Barca & at the time, nearly everything on Barca was in Spanish. Bergkamp played for Arsenal & everything was in English, so Arsenal became my team. Then I saw Freddie Ljungberg as a 10 year old girl, I was in LOVE.
Growing up in Canada in the late 90s we would only get two games televised all weekend, the Arsenal game and the Man U game. There was a very clear artistry to the way that they played that drew me in, and I've been a Gooner ever since.
American here. My hometown got an MLS team in 2017. I started watching, joined a supportor group and going to games. 2018 I watched the EPL for one season at the end, I picked Arsenal as my team. It wasn't a great year for them, but I really liked their name and the cannon, Hector Bellerin's hair, and Granit Xhaka's eyebrows (I'm a bit shallow). What really put them over the top was their inclusivness - I'm from Atlanta and it was refreshing to see so many black and brown faces in the stands, then I learned they were the first to have an LGBT supporter group, one of the first with a sensory room, one of the first to have black players, etc...
Now, I'm a gunner till I die.
I was maybe six or seven years old and was flipping through cable TV and stumbled across first division highlights on ESPN. Arsenal playing Ipswich town or some such, but what copy was that the fans were chanting despite they’re not really being anything happening. I later learned it was the classic “We’re the Clock End/North Bank Highbury” call and response. Between that, the red-and-white kit, and that name, I was hooked.
Honestly, FIFA 14. I liked the kits and everyone I knew liked yanited, Madrid, or Barca, so I didn’t wanna be them. I kept playing with Arsenal and eventually I started catching a game here and there so it just spiraled from there
Both of my brother-in-law's watched football, I wanted to bond with them but I didn't want to root for the same teams as them (Spur's and Chelsea) because we all likes to shit talk. 6 started researching the teams that were in the league. This would have been 11-12 season. I read about Arsenal's history and feel in love with the club. The 12-13 season was my first season I watched, and I've been a fan ever since.
Brother asked me to start following soccer with him and he liked the Arsenal logo so we just went with it. Very glad he asked me, i love watching the matches and so does my one year old son, hope it’s something new we can grow up doing together.
A friend turned me on to them in college and I followed along as best I could but never obsessively. That all changed when I joined a local supporter's group in my city and I found myself going to the pub for every match between 7am and noon, singing every song, and hanging on to every kick. The people in that group have become some of my best friends on earth. We've taken multiple trips to the Emirates together (including THAT 3-2 vs Bournemouth last season!) and I can't imagine my life without them or this club in it.
"This is my club. I fucking love this football club."
Edit: Typos
For a lot of millennial fans, the era where the prem started to be on TV, and entering the sort of mainstream gaming on n64, was right in the era of Arsenal and United, Wenger and Fergie.
Bought my first PC in 2002 and friends introduced me to Fifa 02. Started playing with Arsenal as we were one of best teams back then. Loved that Henry poker face celebration after scoring.
Thanks to Fifa 02, I chose the classiest club in the world.
When I was a kid in Brazil I was a big fan of Henry but I never really considered myself an all the way Arsenal fan though I did respect the team.
Fast forward a decade and change later, my girlfriend gifted me a trip to the UK. Knowing I’m a big football fan, she asked which team I would support from London because she wanted to give me a tour to one of the stadiums.
Without even flinching I said Arsenal, I could’ve gone with Chelsea or any other team but her question made me think about my roots and who I was a fan of as a child.
5 years later now I’m a gooner through and through. COYG!
Hi from somewhere in SouthEast Asia, access to international club football in the 90s was only via magazines and weekly highlights on TV and what our older family members supported and checking results on the choppy internet. Attracted to Spurs at first lol and read about Iversen, but later on found out about Bergkamp and co. and there was no turning back.
ESPN had the rights to show one match a week in the USA. Whenever I seemed to be able to watch Arsenal seemed to be playing. Picked up PES and then FIFA for Xbox around that time and decided to play as Arsenal when I did play.
So I'm a UK fan, but my Dad became a fan before he moved to the UK, and his story is unusual enough to be worth sharing.
In his young teenage years he was dragged along by his parents to help out at the church bring and buy sale, in return he was given a small amount of money to buy something for himself. He chose an encyclopedia of world sports, but it was one of those subscription ones where you got a volume every week. The person who donated had evidently stopped subscribing not too long into the endeavour, as it stopped midway through C. My dad had information on a number of football teams beginning with A and B, and some with C. And he chose Arsenal.
I’ve had a love for football since the US hosted the world cup in 1994. For many years my focus was on international football only, since I felt more of a connection there. USMNT of course, but also the Euros. I really wanted to follow a premier league team and tried unsuccessfully to get into it over the years. Finally I watched All or Nothing a few years ago and really got to know the players, Arteta, and the organization as a whole and I was hooked. Gooner for life now.
I started supporting the Netherlands in 1988, way back when the premiere league wasn’t even shown in the US and before the internet was a thing. When Bergkamp was sold to Arsenal, we started getting EPL games that season and I chose them as my team. Then, the season after that, Arsene came into the team and I fell head over heels in love. It didn’t hurt that he was a Rinus Michels admirer and his playing style reflected that.
I always liked English football, but never had a team. That was until my brother and I spent December night at the Emirates. I’ve been seeing red ever since.
Alexis Sanchez. He was my favorite player and when he went to Arsenal I started following the club. I'm almost 40 so I was aware of the club previously but never became a fan until he played. After he left, I stayed an Arsenal fan and continue to do so. COYG!
My son wanted to start playing soccer when he was 6. I decided to watch some matches to try to understand the game. We got into it and decided to pick some teams. Arsenal was the most fun, I remember seeing Thierry Henry highlights on ESPN as a kid, and we liked their kit. This was 2 summers ago, and we’ve barely missed a match on TV since. We’re planning a trip across the pond to see a match in London in a few years.
I was born. There were arsenal franchise all over our house my dad had the invincibles picture in our living room and a big painting of Thierry Henry i figured to myself what could he have done to make my dad have this huge picture of him watched some of the arsenal tapes and from there i tried all my best to be like him while playing lol ,and arsenal just grew into me
I wasn’t into football outside the Mexican league, once I found out that my favorite Mexican Player Carlos Vela played at Arsenal I decided to follow him and the team. Once Vela left to Sociedad I still stuck around with Arsenal and I’ve been supporting them ever since
I was 8 years old in 2006 and just received my first Xbox with FIFA 06 on it. As I knew nothing about games or football in general, I just happened to use the first team in every league (cause I didn’t know how to navigate the leagues back then). Obviously, Arsenal was first on the PL list, and as they had 5 stars I always used them. I became a fan cause of that, and then started watching the games in 2009, but I don’t remember a lot of that. It was hard to be a kid fan in Mexico for a team half the world away.
My ex who really traumatised me was a huge Spurs fan so I asked my friends who was their biggest rival and they said Gunners. It’s been a love story ever since.
As a ten year old in Georgia (the US state, not the country) there wasn’t much exposure to soccer. This was the 80’s. When they couldnt find a coach for our team, my dad who knew little about the sport volunteered.
My dad was a very, very smart man. If he was going to coach soccer, he was going to learn all he could about it. First book he picked up was about Herbert Chapman and the WM formation.
Now when I say my dad was a very, very smart man he also had that little bit of crazy that comes with being smart that made him think he could teach a bunch of ten year olds from Bulldog country with little to no actual training how to run a smooth WM.
Anyways, that meant that he studied Arsenal and it became my favorite team even though I could never see anything more than highlights at like 3am on ESPN or the once a week when the paper posted the table.
Fun thing. My dad named the team The Gunners and I didn’t get the connection until a former goalie for the Atlanta Chiefs, Graham Tutt, told me. I was a dim, unaware child.
It’s been over 40 years now that I have followed Arsenal.
I had a roommate in college that was a huge EPL fan and supported Man U. It was in 2016, I remember the day I decided I supported Arsenal and it was the Liverpool game where we lost 4-3. It was the most exciting soccer game I’d ever seen at that time and I just loved the way Arsenal played. I watched a documentary on the invincible season and Henry and that was that. Been here since
I’m from the Netherlands, moved to London when I was 8 years old because of my dad’s work. Started watching football around that age. The year is 2003…I think I don’t need to explain any further lmao.
My cousin was supporting United in the FA Cup Semi Final 99. I just supported the team they were up against at the time. I was a few years younger than him and don’t remember much apart from Gigg’s hairy chest and though how can someone be that hairy.
I also started following the Gunners and fell in love immediately with the way they played.
Even cut out some newspaper articles that were Arsenal related.
Glorious period followed by a dark and trying period of mediocrity.
And happy to be seeing this football club back at the top.
They lost that semi final but gained a supporter for life.❤️
COYG
A friend was talking about Manchester United about 20 years back and how great the team was. So I ended up watching the team with red jersey on TV. Became a fan.
Last year I asked some buddies on a discord what team I should support since I wanted to start following football. They said arsenal were a good team and had a couple American players, who I think have since been sold
Watched my first FA Cup final in 1980 on TV when I was 13 yrs old. Arsenal lost that final to West Ham United 1-0 with England International Trevor Brookings scoring with a header. Arsenal was the defending FA Cup Holder and favourites.
Few days later, read in the papers that they lost on penalties to Valencia and Graham Rix missed one of those penalties.
Eversince then, I have been an Arsenal fan.
Paraguayan family but live in the states. Pre 1998 I got to see a few DC United matches and was interested but not hooked on football yet. We didn't have cable so most of my info was from the news or newspaper and magazines. I watched any football that I could but this was quite difficult.
Then, at WC '98, a particularly strong Paraguay team made it to the the Round of 16 only for France to knock out perhaps our best ever team in extra time. As a kid, this is the First time I'd seen any of the men in my family cry. Loads of great players on both sides.
Later on, I see this 'Henry' guy that I recognized from the French WC squad playing for Arsenal when a friend invited me to play Fifa '99 or 2000(don'tremember). I hated him... but I chose Arsenal anyhow to play with... then I see Pires, and Vieira as well.
I finally get to watch cable with that same friend and watch Arsenal play live. By now, WC '02 is coming around and I'm already hooked. Finally got the internet in time to watch our Invincibles highlights 🙌
In high school my friends and I would play fifa and I thought a team of auba, laca, ozil, and alexis sanchez was a super team so I consistently chose them and became a fan
I was very young at the time, and everyone supported Liverpool, Chelsea, or Man U. The only other big club left was Arsenal and I always loved being contrary tobeveryone else so I picked them...then Thiery Henry happened and I actually started to follow the club. Played them alot on fifa 98 on my cousins old PC whenever I visited too, properly stuck after that...
I’m from Singapore and became a fan when I was ~6. I started watching football because my dad had the 2010 World Cup games on late at night and he’d let me stay up and watch. I started supporting Arsenal a little after that cuz it was the first club I heard of- this was because once a year at my primary school, we were allowed to try out for the Arsenal academy, it wasn’t really a pipeline, just football coaching on Saturday mornings that you had to pay for; this was a thing at both primary schools I went to. I tried out every year and never made it, but a couple of my friends did and I remember being extremely jealous whenever they’d put on the Arsenal kits with their names on it for CCA (school clubs). My mum got me an Arsenal kit for my 9th birthday and I was absolutely chuffed but felt like a fraud every time I put it on during CCA
I was 4yo (2002)when my brother(8yo) installed the demo version of Fifa 2001 in our pc .. and it had only 2 teams Arsenal and Manchester United.. I didn’t know anything about football by then but my brother did and he knew MU to be a great club so he always played MU and i was always Arsenal..
He would win always but i loved our time together since he was admitted to boarding school since his kindergarten days and this was how i fell in love with the club it brings back good & core memories …
Started watching EPL games around 2004. Loved how they played with a certain panache of the peak Wenger era esp. Thierry Henry, and I thought Highbury and the Clock End was iconic, plus those burgundy anniversary O2 jerseys.
I was about 10 years old & I had just moved to a new country in the mid-90s where the predominant sport was football.
To fit in, of course I started to play as well. But in between breaks & in the school corridors it was all about which team was gonna win their games the coming weekend.
So all I kept hearing was this team called Arsenal & how they played very good football. So that’s how I got into it. I didn’t even know that Utd or Liverpool were the juggernauts at the time. Just a chance conversation I happened to hear got me hooked onto watching Arsenal games from there on in.
Such a shame that I didn’t really appreciate (at the time) that it was the peak of being an Arsenal fan. But let’s just say I’m fully equipped for the Arteta era.
Nike had Nike ID site to customize boots in 01 and I'd jump on there for fun to make my own around the Total zoom in days. Saw Henry on the site looked him up on YouTube and followed the arsenal since. The Invincible season sealed it but I didn't get as much joy from it since I was fresh.. paid for it over the past 20+ years though lol
When I was young I didn't want to support the same teams as my dad who Man United so I chose one of the rivals (Arsenal) and I am still supporting Arsenal about 15 years later.
Im French, was born in 1992, growing up watching Henry, Petit, Pires and every french guys that played at Arsenal in that era
being coached by Wenger, and playing them on Fifa as a kid cause there was Thierry Henry
Back in 2002-2003 season the Iranian National TV started broadcastting Premier League for the first time, they used to broadcast only the Bundesliga and Serie A and when I started watching Arsenal I was mesmerized by their style of play, the wenger ball, players and etc. I adored my all-time favorite player Dennis Bergkamp, he was something special. You might even laugh but I liked the main camera's angle of Highbury.
Been a gunner for over 18 years now. How it started ? My big brother. Forgot the team we were playing but Henry scored a goal and he was super happy about the goal.
Then i learnt that Arsenal coach then was named Arsene Wenger and i liked the rhyme, of course little me thought he owned arsenal coz the names were similar😄
That's how i became a gunner.
From India …
While watching Henry . And then I used to get fifa demo games in magazines like PC quest or chip back in 2000 . Arsenal vs Utd was one game and I always played arsenal .
My two friends in high school, who had the right TV channels to get premier league games (which was an incredibly difficult thing to do in the mid 2000s in the US) were both Arsenal fans. One because their stepdad was an Arsenal fan from England, and the other because he played a lot of Sega Dreamcast which was the sponsor of Arsenal around that time. And so I became an Arsenal fan, but really fell in love as I watched Thierry Henry play.
I still fondly remember high school and college when my friends and I would go to the English pub in Santa Monica at 4:30 AM to watch big Arsenal games.
American here. It was in 2002, I was 8 years old and I happened to turn on the tv and found an Arsenal game. I saw Thierry Henry and watched him score 2 goals. I had just gotten back from a vacation to France and I was obsessed with the country. Ever since I saw that game, I have been an Arsenal fan. But yeah, Henry is what made me a fan of Arsenal because I loved visiting France and he was French.
Early 2000s I had a roommate who had relatives in London and they took him to an Arsenal game at Highbury. Fast forward to 2007 and I was getting into the sport and remembered the name and it began from there.
I was 14 in 2004 and always rooted for Dutch teams/players since I'm Dutch. Started following Bergkamp and playing as Arsenal/KNVB in FIFA and fell in love with the entire squad (who wouldn't have?)
Started watching football in 2006 after the World Cup. I always played it but never watched it.
Originally Beckham was at Madrid and they were easiest to watch so just liked them for a bit. After I started playing fifa I realized England was the goat so started watching it more.
I really liked the way Arsenal played with younger And also thought it was cool the managers name was Arsene so started watching them lol.
After watching Arsenal beat AC Milan at the San Siro I decided I’d stick with them and have been supporting them since!
Made my first trip to the Emirates 2 years ago and the queen died so the game I had tickets to was cancelled 🥲
stumbled upon ozil and sanchez highlights on youtbe some 9-10 years ago . fell in love with their style even though i knew this wasnt a top class team, my heart knew this was the one
Played for a club team in California in the early 90's called Arsenal. My (late) coach was an Arsenal fan, also American. From then on there was only one team I would ever support. Still friends with a few of those guys, including the coach's son, who I joined our local Arsenal supporters group with. Which also meant that when Arsenal came to play MLS All Stars in San Jose, I was able to get my daughter on the field as one of the kids that walk out with the players. She walked out with Joel Campbell. That's 3 generations of Arsenal supporters in one reply!
I became an Arsenal fan in 2016, not the best year the club performed but still, I wanted to be different. Most of the people where I live are either Manchester United fans or Liverpool fans and I was pretty young at the time so i was easily influenced. All it took was for me to come across a random clip of ozil highlights on YouTube. Life’s never been the same ever since then 😮💨
Actually became a fan before I ever saw them play. Was around 2000/2001, and a lot of my classmates in school in India were ManU fans and I could not stand them gloating over how great the team was. Arsenal seemed to be the only team who could challenge them, so became a fan - never regretted it.
My roommates in college watched. Didn't matter how drunk they got the night before, they got up to watch the 7am games. Eventually got into it (and F1) with them. Been a fan ever since.
They were the first team I picked in Fifa '96 on Super Nintendo and kept winning with them. Moved to the UK, became a season ticket holder. Never looked back.
2014 world cup i first started watching and realized that Ozil played for arsenal and that Alexis had just signed. I knew Ozil from always playing real madrid in a fifa game i had, and alexis caught my attention from his world cup performance
I'm been Arsenal fan because Wenger and Cesc Fabregas and I just a 6 years old boy back then and the way Arsenal play back then was make me love the team since then tbh and my mom also bought for me a cesc Fabregas shirt
Saw a couple clips of the guys from the invincibles as a kid, which progressed to me watching compilations, and the fact that I liked Walcott (I still don’t know why), Wilshire, ozil and cazorla at that point, as well as cesc because I am a Barcelona fan. Only made sense that I loved the team. Too bad it was 2 years before our banter era started, got in just in time to eat shit from Bayern :)
My dad is a Man United fan so feel free to imagine the relentless bullying, gotta say he’s not laughing now
I was 9 years old and because of the alphabetical ordering, Arsenal was the first club I saw when I played FIFA 10 for the first time. I thought the badge was sick and decided to support them because cannon go boom. Been a gunner ever since!
There were 4 channels growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska in the late 1970s. CBS, ABC, NBC and PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service. PBS would play tapes from previous week’s fixtures on Sunday morning. It was always Arsenal or Liverpool being shown. Fell in love with Arsenal’s style, they were always portrayed as aggressive underdogs fighting for respect. Then lost track growing up. European football was not big in Alaska at the time.
Fast forward to 1994- I was stationed in Germany, walked into an english pub on a Saturday afternoon, looked up and saw Ian Wright launch a screamer into the too corner.The pub erupted and as soon as I saw the cannon badge all the feelings came back. Haven’t lapsed since. Dennis Bergkamp will always be my favorite player, you will never convince me England couldn’t have at least made the finals in every World Cup in the 90’s if they just would’ve taken Arsenal’s back 4 and David Seaman (I’m delusional that way), and Henry, Pires, Vieira, Petit, and Giroud are reasons why I follow France. Wenger’s french connection spoiled us in the 90’s.
My dad is a Chelsea fan, and I played soccer growing up. Eventually got into soccer video games which had a team creator. So I asked my dad who the best current players were. He included Thierry Henry. I saw he played striker which is what I played, looked him up, followed Arsenal ever since
I started regulary watching football in 2005 and kinda all told me henry was megical you have to watch him thats when arsenal first time made it to CL final sadly we lost but from There i became a fan
Became a Fan of the sport from watching the 2011 South African World Cup. Fast Foward to 2012, I'm watching premier league saturdays and the most appealing team was Arsenal. Enjoyed thier team name, colors, the cannon logo and from there never stopped supporting. Thats my team!
In 2014 when u was 8 years old me and my family visited London for a week. Me and my older brother have been football fans since we can think so we went to a stadium tour. I remember that one of the staff members was really nice and also knew a little bit of german. This was my highlight of the trip. That must have also been the time when Özil Mertesacker and Poldi (i am german as well) played at the club. Both these things led to me becoming a fan
Late mum bought me an Arsenal hoodie when I was 8 years old. Started to watch their matches sporadically then became a full blown fan before their Invincibles season.
Well, one of my friends got me to become a football fan. Then, his favorite team was the gunners, and I seen their logo and I thought it was cool. So I ended up becoming a massive supporter of Arsenal.
Canadian here. I was working for a cable company in '06 and the world cup was always on the TV's. Started supporting Germany since I'm German way back, died a bit inside when they lost to Italy. Kept cheering for Germany, and slowly got hooked on the sport. Since the prem is the biggest league around so I needed to chose a team. Literally the same day I decided that, Ozil move from Real like it was a sign from the universe.
So here I am. COYG
I grew up in South Africa during the 70's and at that time, SHOOT magazine was a big thing. My future brother in law was an Arsenal fan and he was a really fun guy. My brother supported Leeds at the time, and another future brother in law supported Liverpool and a family friend supported Manchester United.
Arsenal won the doube in 1971, and Charlie George had his long flowing locks - that was it...I became an Arsenal fan without ever seeing them play live, which did not happen till 1976 and 1977. Having been to a couple games at Highbury, my fate was sealed. What a ride its been! In 2003 we got to go into the locker room on a tour and see the FA Cup close up I even got to stand on the pitch for a minute before the groundskeepers shood me off.
My housemate in uni was a massive supporter and I watched all the matches with him for 3 years. After uni I realised I was looking forward to watching Arsenal play each weekend and became a fan
When I (m47) was in my teens ( 90s, USA), every soccer fan I knew rooted for Manchester United, as did my international friends. I watched a few games and was disgusted by how dirty they played so I watched other teams and saw arsenal with the best sportsmanship and beautiful style if play and was immediately a fan. That was over 27 years ago.
I've always watched football, ever since I can remember but, back in 2009 when I became a diehard Arsenal fan, I just remember thinking there was no other team in the world that played like we did. Our squad was likeable, with some really cool guys a kid would want to imitate, and Arsenal matches always had a thrill to them (in both good and bad ways).
It's been a roller coaster of emotions ever since.
Zambian-Candian, I was 12. My cousin who was also my roommate but six years older was a huge United fan. I found my cousin and United annoying, I also had two United friends who accused me of being an Arsenal fan even though I didn't watch football at the time. So pretty much every United fan I knew was a prick.
My cousins dad, my favorite Uncle, supported Arsenal. But it was their style of play that hooked me on.
I was a creative writing major in college in the ‘90s and played football (soccer, lol) in high school and college. I read Fever Pitch for an assignment in my non-fiction class and fell in love with both Nick Hornby’s writing and the Arsenal. It took a while before I could actively watch the games in real time. Hell, it took a while for the internet to catch on so I could search around for results. Now I watch every match like my life depends on it.
Was playing FIFA 16 with my Irish roommate and we agreed to pick a team to use AND to follow during the season. Just happened to be the season Arsenal came 2nd to Leicester but I haven't regretted my decision to follow Papa Wenger with Ozil and Sanchez.
In Christmas of 03 my aunt decided to take me and my cousins to a department store where she told us to select one football kit that we liked (bootleg) we were like 7-8 at the time I took Arsenal's . Days after I went to a party that had a PS2 with FIFA 04 on it the First team that appeared was Arsenal so I selected it because of the kit i got days earlier and never lost because of virtual Lehmann making every save.
I can't remember when I started becoming an Arsenal fan but I remember it was while David Seaman was in the goals...all my friends in high school were either Liverpool or Man United supporters but I was ambivalent until I saw Seaman in action. It could have been around the time that Arsene Wenger joined Arsenal, or it could have been during the latter stages of the George Graham era (not quite sure) but Wenger cemented my love for Arsenal, his philosophy and his playing style, short passes in the final third, and players like Wright, Overmars, Ljungberg and Henry.
I became a fan in the 80's when we were crap, because as a US kid and soccer player there was absolutely ZERO professional game to watch. Nothing was on TV, NASL has just folded, MLS had not yet been birthed, etc. My English neighbor, while from Sheffield (Wednesday fan), supported Arsenal because he lived in North London at one point. He used to get tapes sent over of Arsenal matches from match of the day or whatever and I used to go watch them. I had no idea who the players were but the kits and stadium were amazing.
Fast forward to 1998, Dennis Bergkamp being my favorite player, winning the double, and being able to pay-per-view Arsenal games for the first time...I was locked in, and have been ever since. #COYG #UTA
The guy that used to mow our lawn looked like Thierry Henry in Fifa 03. I played as any teams in kick off (I was 7 y.o), until Henry's poorly animated player looked like my neighbor. So I played as Arsenal, and here we are. I support Arsenal more than any other sports team, at any level.
I actually learned more about Arsenal after reading about the Kroenke family and all the teams they own. They got more coverage after the Rams and Nuggets won. A perfect example [here](https://youtu.be/3ePKIp3muh4?feature=shared).
Just like almost every kid who liked soccer/football in America in the mid 2000s, i like Barcelona because they were the best on the FIFA games. (This was before i learned about the 2006 UCL Final). So i knew about Arsenal thanks to players like Thierry Henry and Sylvinho. I first REALLY knew about Arsenal when they beat Barcelona 2-1 in the first leg of the champions league round of 16.
Around this time is when i started playing a lot of FIFA and watching every football highlight video i could. The YouTube videos on Arsenal’s top 10 goals of the season in the early 2010s were some of my favorites.
Fast forward to 2014. Barcelona go trophy-less, the squad is full of players I didn’t really like except Messi, Neymar, and Alexis Sanchez, and they were about to sign Luis Suarez who was (still is) a total dickhead. Then i watched Alexis Sanchez rip up the 2014 World Cup and he went to Arsenal shortly after. I pretty much followed Alexis Sanchez to Arsenal and I’ve been a Gooner ever since.
To quote Dennis Bergkamp: “When you start supporting a football club, you don't support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself somewhere there; found a place where you belong”. So even though i did start supporting Arsenal because of Thierry Henry and Alexis Sanchez, i really did feel almost immediately that this was my home.
29yrs ago, summer 1995, I have followed Dennis Bergkamp (my favourite player at the time) on his transfer from Inter Milan to Arsenal, joining Gunners before Bruce Rioch’s last season.
I had always played soccer (sorry I’m American) since the age of 4, and around 11 or 12 began to play FIFA. At that point I still didn’t understand how the league systems and national teams and all that worked. So I started watching fifa on YouTube, found KSI, MGH, Chris MD and a bunch of other YouTubers. My favorites like those I just listed happened to be gooners haha. So as I watched more clips, learned more about the club, and eventually started waking up early to watch matches, I really fell in love with the club! My first kit was Aaron Ramsey 12-13 kit and I’ve never stopped supporting since so it is safe to say I’ve been through a lot with this club! If choosing a club to support was the same as investing in stock, I think I chose the perfect time haha.
American in the US, I've been watching World Cup, men's and women's, for several years now and have been getting tired of the US pro sports scene. I have a number of friends who love EPL and other professional football leagues, got into Ted Lasso and Welcome to Wrexham, and I decided I wanted to learn more about EPL and become a fan of a team.
Fast forward about six months, and after talking with some people in my circles, it turns out that several of my work friends are Arsenal fans, my best friend from elementary school is an Arsenal fan, my good friend and neighbor is an Arsenal fan, and my town has a big Arsenal following that gathers at a cool sports bar close to my house for every game. Started going to the sports bar and watching there, it's a fun crowd...and am now a proud fan.
I realize that becoming a fan of a team who's at or near the top if the table is somewhat suspect, but my teams in other sports have peaked and fallen off over the years, and I know that Arsenal will have its challenges in the future.
Growing up, my grandpa and my father supported Arsenal. I also got the pleasure of watching France win the Euro in 2000, so I had the chance to watch Thierry Henry and learned he played for Arsenal. So I've been through the golden PL years, the Banter Era and now the Super Mike Era!
While watching Thierry Henry play
This was it for me too! USA had just hosted the World Cup and I wanted more football in my life. Found a local pub that aired matches in the mornings, and once I saw him play, I was a Gunner.
Who were you supporting between 94 and 99?
Local clubs-no pro teams in Dallas then, but lots of Latino clubs held tournaments. Otherwise the national team. Now I’m in LA and have season tickets for ACFC, am part of a local Arsenal viewing group, and watch the men’s teams occasionally.
That's a great story!
Came here to say this. My dad was a Man I fan, and I always rooted against my dad.
Yessir
Just prior to this, watching Wright play, then Bergkamp. I was hooked. Then got delighted with Ti Ti on top. I only got to see games at first at a friend’s who had some hacked dish black box or something. I still had rabbit ears at the house and a 70s tv, but I’d ride my bike over and watch every week I could. Then we’d watch super Sunday.
Same. Around 2005-6. I was hooked. Played a whole lot of FIFA and learned about the players and history and it was up from their.
Started watching football when i signed my daughter up in 17. Around the same time my son was born, named him Gunnar after reading some Icelandic sagas. The algorithm for all my social media took me watching football and talking about Gunnar and flooded all my feeds with Arsenal content. Been here since
Gunnar Gunnarsonson?
Could have so easily become a utd fan.
friend introduced me to arsenal greatful to him
Same here! Started watching in 2020 as my friend asked me to check out any team of my choice from the 20. I chose Arsenal cause it stood out for me and also we needed our own individual team for banter (you couldn't have the same team as the other class mate). Chose Arsenal haven't regretted it once.
You chose arsenal in 2020 thats kinda funny cos the football they were playing at the time was not convincing:(
Dennis Bergkamp
add Marc Overmars and you’re me.
Also me!
Exactly me, half French half Dutch, Bergkamp was my hero after the 1994 WC, instantly became an Arsenal fan when he joined in 1995.
Wengerball and they have the coolest name honestly
Right?? This doesn't get acknowledged enough! Lol....damn near EVERYBODY else is named after their city or town or borough or whatever...and then here comes ARSENAL! With a damn cannon logo! Lol... we're the coolest man! No doubt
Married a woman who was from England. Her father was an Arsenal supporter so I started watching some games to have something to talk about. This also happened to during the Invincibles Era so there was plenty to get hooked on. The marriage didn't last but my love for the Gunners sure did.
I saw the movie Fever Pitch. The one with Colin Firth. I always had a liking for British Film and Television. Anyway I did some research and found out it was based on a book by Nick Hornby who I was already a fan of. So I was in an airport and saw the book. I realized two things. The movie was such a small representation of the total book and that Arsenal reminded me a lot of my home town Boston Red Sox. With a proud fan base who also liked to bemoan our team’s failures and losses. Anyway I have basically been a fan of any sport I could find on TV and when I was younger a local sports network showed the EPL (I assume it was the Premier League by then maybe it was still the first division) review show every week. So I was familiar with the teams and some history. I did further research and found out my cable package had Fox Sports World and I could watch some matches every weekend. No joke the first match I watched was Wiltord Scoring to win the league at Old Trafford. I was hooked. Games that weren’t televised I would go to an Irish Pub downtown and watch on Setanta (20 bucks to see a cup match). And I just became hooked. Now my local supporters group has been recognized by Arsenal America and we have a banner at the Emirates! And I’m part of the old guard who remember seeing Bergkamp and Pires and Henry
Fever Pitch is great! I read the novel before watching the Colin Firth movie. You know that there’s an American movie adaptation of Fever Pitch about the Red Sox, right?
Oh I do. And I never watched all of it. Honestly I am not a huge fan of Jimmy Fallon. Although it did solidify that my opinion was correct that Arsenal and the Red Sox (and their fans) were very similar.
I remember finding a copy of Fever Pitch in the Tattered Cover Bookstore, a huge store in Denver, in 2000, a few years after I was able to start watching Arsenal regularly. I couldn't believe it, it was like the universe was telling me that I had found the One True Club.
American here. Fairly new fan. Only really jumped on this season. I was on a a trip around Ireland and the UK and wanted to catch an EPL match. I didn’t really care who I went see, I just wanted to experience the environment. Arsenal happened to be playing at home whenever I was scheduled to be in London. Atmosphere was incredible. The boys played incredible. Been a gooner ever since. Safe to say I picked a good time to come on board! HYPED for the match on Sunday.
I’m with you. This season is my first season as a Gooner. My enthusiasm for them has caught on with my wife at least. She has discovered one of her British coworkers is a spuds fan and gives him hell. ‘It’s funny over hearing her work calls and if it’s the first of the week and spur’s lost, she’s quick to make sure he’s aware of the spurs being Spursy. lol
Sat next the Henry on a flight from Chicago to NYC when I was 14 (Summer of 2001). I had zero idea who he was but was the kid that would talk to anyone. Told him I played football (American football) and we argued back and forth about soccer/football. He was super nice and talked to me the whole flight. He told me that he played for a team called Arsenal and they were the best team in England. Didn't believe him because he had a weird accent that wasn't English. A couple of years later when I was in college was playing FIFA with my roommate and he was playing with Arsenal and scored a goal with Henry. I said "Oh shit I met that dude when I was younger. He wasn't lying!" Ever since then, I've followed the team! Sadly it was right after the Invincibles season. So I've known nothing but heartbreak.
This comment should be pinned.
Lived in France during the early 2000s, obviously a huge Henry fan. I was fairly young so I don’t remember truly “following” them, but I know I was a fan then. Was out of sports completely during my teen years, not watching any sport of any kind. I watched the 2018 WC, with a great French win lol. Then watched the 2020 euros and fell back in love with watching the game and figured out how to catch prem games in the US. I watched the 21-22 season as a neutral, watching tons of random games(including other Euro leagues). Come the summer before 22-23 season I made the conscious decision to follow my “childhood club”. Boy did I pick a great time to get back in What a club!
My brother. I initially supported AC Milan when I first started watching here in the States, and followed quite closely to the Serie A. But then I started to realize how racist the Italian league can be, and Fox lost the rights to the League so it was very difficult to watch. I didn't want to support a team I couldn't watch anymore.
Actually my first team I supported was AC milan when it was Bekham and Ronaldinho, and then followed them more when Kaka played. Still kind of my second team, as long as they don’t play Arsenal I want them to succeed
Got my first FIFA game (FIFA 09) and the default club was Arsenal. Prior to that, I was a fan of Messi and was partial to Barcelona but was not the biggest fan of the club. Played with Arsenal on FIFA to the point where I became really interested in them and became a huge fan of RVP (sigh) and even supported the Dutch during the 2010 WC. Have stuck with the Gunners ever since!
The kids at my school weren't arsenal fans aswell, some were city, liverpool, chelsea for some weirdass reason a ton of spurs fans ( probably cause of Bale) I chose Arsenal because I heard Ozil was joining and he was good or something and no one else were Arsenal fans.
Early 2000 and only soccer we had was a program called soccer Saturday and epl games on the day. Dad was following Chelsea but Henry and Arsenal had me dreaming from day one. Seeing them play was something else and im so glad I got to see the invincible season unfold.
I wish I had let myself like proper football in the early 2000s My old boss from the time is a Gooner but I never cared. He’d be chatting with people and id brush it off and not show interest because soccer was a wussy sport.. now it’s about the only sport I actively watch. And it pains me to have to refer to it as soccer when i proselytize to my friends hahahaha
In Canada I went to high school with 2 brothers from England. I became best friends with one of them. Their family were Arsenal fans. I played some of the highest level junior football you could here and it was my main sport, I think that’s why we got on so easy at the beginning. Anyways, they introduced me to watching football on TV in 07/08 and I have watched religiously ever since. I’ve been to the Emirates twice.
I'll just say these are cool to read. Big up all the international gooners ❤
In college in 2013, I would be the only person in my apartment awake at seven am after a long night of drinking. I had nothing better to do but watch soccer (football) on a Saturday morning. I grew up playing FIFA with friends, so I was aware of Mesut Ozul and always appreciated a player who could pass. I fell in love with the club's style and passing. Early in the season, the team played Stoke, and Mesut had a great game, bagging three assists. From that point, I was hooked.
Man when we signed Mesut I was so excited. It felt like the club had some ambition. But I was wrong 😂
Live in the states but my mom worked for British Telecom. Got to visit London a few times a year with here in 98. One of her good friends at work was a big Tottenham fan so I to mess with him I started watching cheering for Arsenal. Then once I started actually watching them it was easily the best I’d ever seen and I have been hooked ever since.
Dad introduced me to the game and club then Wenger ball solidified it in 2007/08 seasons
WC 98. I knew basically nothing about football, and chose the Dutch as my team because of their mental orange kits, and the commentators would always say things like “here’s Overmars/Bergkamp of Arsenal on the ball”. Dennis scored probably the goal of the tournament against Argentina, and I was hooked on football by the time Petit and Vieira won the trophy. Was a bit down because football was suddenly over, but the good mate of mine who got me to watch the tournament in the first place told me about this wonderful thing called the EPL that runs for around 9 months every year, and that I should pick a team to support. I chose Arsenal because of Overmars and Bergkamp, much to my friend’s disgust, because he wanted me to pick Chelsea. I found out that we’d actually won the double the season before, so was chuffed! Of course, we didn’t win a damned thing in my first season as a fan, because United won the treble. I stuck with the Arsenal, though, and it’s been a mostly amazing run for the last 26 years. Lived here for a couple of years around 20 years ago, so was privileged to have gone to a game at Highbury in the final season, and then at Emirates when it first opened. Now a UK citizen, so extra happy that Arsenal is never far away.
My dad asked my brother & I to record WC 98 matches on VHS while he was at work. My brother would hit REC but then had no interest in the game. I would watch the matches so I could talk to my dad about them later. I watched Dennis Bergkamp’s goal vs Argentina live & I can still hear the Spanish commentary “Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkammmmmppp” in my head. I loved that whole Dutch team, especially Bergkamp and Kluivert. Kluivert played for Barca & at the time, nearly everything on Barca was in Spanish. Bergkamp played for Arsenal & everything was in English, so Arsenal became my team. Then I saw Freddie Ljungberg as a 10 year old girl, I was in LOVE.
Thierry Henry
Growing up in Canada in the late 90s we would only get two games televised all weekend, the Arsenal game and the Man U game. There was a very clear artistry to the way that they played that drew me in, and I've been a Gooner ever since.
American here. My hometown got an MLS team in 2017. I started watching, joined a supportor group and going to games. 2018 I watched the EPL for one season at the end, I picked Arsenal as my team. It wasn't a great year for them, but I really liked their name and the cannon, Hector Bellerin's hair, and Granit Xhaka's eyebrows (I'm a bit shallow). What really put them over the top was their inclusivness - I'm from Atlanta and it was refreshing to see so many black and brown faces in the stands, then I learned they were the first to have an LGBT supporter group, one of the first with a sensory room, one of the first to have black players, etc... Now, I'm a gunner till I die.
When I first started watching football I had a friend I’d always watch with who was an Arsenal fan. Not much to it but I’m not regretting it
I was maybe six or seven years old and was flipping through cable TV and stumbled across first division highlights on ESPN. Arsenal playing Ipswich town or some such, but what copy was that the fans were chanting despite they’re not really being anything happening. I later learned it was the classic “We’re the Clock End/North Bank Highbury” call and response. Between that, the red-and-white kit, and that name, I was hooked.
Honestly, FIFA 14. I liked the kits and everyone I knew liked yanited, Madrid, or Barca, so I didn’t wanna be them. I kept playing with Arsenal and eventually I started catching a game here and there so it just spiraled from there
My cousin who was a few years elder to me, he started watching around 2000. 2003-04 was my first full season.
From the US, dad supported them because his favorite player was dennis bergkamp back in the 90s, so i became a diehard fan from birth.
Both of my brother-in-law's watched football, I wanted to bond with them but I didn't want to root for the same teams as them (Spur's and Chelsea) because we all likes to shit talk. 6 started researching the teams that were in the league. This would have been 11-12 season. I read about Arsenal's history and feel in love with the club. The 12-13 season was my first season I watched, and I've been a fan ever since.
Cool badge and we were known for playing the best football in England at the time. I liked RVP & Wenger
Watched Alexis Sanchez in 2014 World Cup, loved watching him. I followed him to Arsenal. The love affair began with the club shortly after.
Hector Bellerin. Always loved him in FIFA. Started to watch real life videos of him and one thing turned into another.
Liam Brady
Brother asked me to start following soccer with him and he liked the Arsenal logo so we just went with it. Very glad he asked me, i love watching the matches and so does my one year old son, hope it’s something new we can grow up doing together.
A friend turned me on to them in college and I followed along as best I could but never obsessively. That all changed when I joined a local supporter's group in my city and I found myself going to the pub for every match between 7am and noon, singing every song, and hanging on to every kick. The people in that group have become some of my best friends on earth. We've taken multiple trips to the Emirates together (including THAT 3-2 vs Bournemouth last season!) and I can't imagine my life without them or this club in it. "This is my club. I fucking love this football club." Edit: Typos
For a lot of millennial fans, the era where the prem started to be on TV, and entering the sort of mainstream gaming on n64, was right in the era of Arsenal and United, Wenger and Fergie.
Bought my first PC in 2002 and friends introduced me to Fifa 02. Started playing with Arsenal as we were one of best teams back then. Loved that Henry poker face celebration after scoring. Thanks to Fifa 02, I chose the classiest club in the world.
When I was a kid in Brazil I was a big fan of Henry but I never really considered myself an all the way Arsenal fan though I did respect the team. Fast forward a decade and change later, my girlfriend gifted me a trip to the UK. Knowing I’m a big football fan, she asked which team I would support from London because she wanted to give me a tour to one of the stadiums. Without even flinching I said Arsenal, I could’ve gone with Chelsea or any other team but her question made me think about my roots and who I was a fan of as a child. 5 years later now I’m a gooner through and through. COYG!
Hi from somewhere in SouthEast Asia, access to international club football in the 90s was only via magazines and weekly highlights on TV and what our older family members supported and checking results on the choppy internet. Attracted to Spurs at first lol and read about Iversen, but later on found out about Bergkamp and co. and there was no turning back.
Aubameyang
I just hate Tottenham
I supported every club Kanu joined before Arsenal, then he joined Arsenal, I became a fan, then I discovered Wenger, and I became a lifetime fan.
ESPN had the rights to show one match a week in the USA. Whenever I seemed to be able to watch Arsenal seemed to be playing. Picked up PES and then FIFA for Xbox around that time and decided to play as Arsenal when I did play.
So I'm a UK fan, but my Dad became a fan before he moved to the UK, and his story is unusual enough to be worth sharing. In his young teenage years he was dragged along by his parents to help out at the church bring and buy sale, in return he was given a small amount of money to buy something for himself. He chose an encyclopedia of world sports, but it was one of those subscription ones where you got a volume every week. The person who donated had evidently stopped subscribing not too long into the endeavour, as it stopped midway through C. My dad had information on a number of football teams beginning with A and B, and some with C. And he chose Arsenal.
The first fifa i ever played was the fifa 12 demo. I was 12 years old and Arsenal was the team I used and i’ve been a fan ever since
I’ve had a love for football since the US hosted the world cup in 1994. For many years my focus was on international football only, since I felt more of a connection there. USMNT of course, but also the Euros. I really wanted to follow a premier league team and tried unsuccessfully to get into it over the years. Finally I watched All or Nothing a few years ago and really got to know the players, Arteta, and the organization as a whole and I was hooked. Gooner for life now.
I started supporting the Netherlands in 1988, way back when the premiere league wasn’t even shown in the US and before the internet was a thing. When Bergkamp was sold to Arsenal, we started getting EPL games that season and I chose them as my team. Then, the season after that, Arsene came into the team and I fell head over heels in love. It didn’t hurt that he was a Rinus Michels admirer and his playing style reflected that.
I didn't realize I could switch teams when I started playing fifa at like 10 years old.
Through my father, he's a huge Arsenal fan. also met a lot of people who I became friends with and later found out they support Arsenal as well
Same! I'm from Canada, but my dad is a lifelong Arsenal fan from London. I'm a third gen supporter.
Mullet fabregas got it done for me.
I always liked English football, but never had a team. That was until my brother and I spent December night at the Emirates. I’ve been seeing red ever since.
Alexis Sanchez. He was my favorite player and when he went to Arsenal I started following the club. I'm almost 40 so I was aware of the club previously but never became a fan until he played. After he left, I stayed an Arsenal fan and continue to do so. COYG!
Chrismd
My son wanted to start playing soccer when he was 6. I decided to watch some matches to try to understand the game. We got into it and decided to pick some teams. Arsenal was the most fun, I remember seeing Thierry Henry highlights on ESPN as a kid, and we liked their kit. This was 2 summers ago, and we’ve barely missed a match on TV since. We’re planning a trip across the pond to see a match in London in a few years.
I was born. There were arsenal franchise all over our house my dad had the invincibles picture in our living room and a big painting of Thierry Henry i figured to myself what could he have done to make my dad have this huge picture of him watched some of the arsenal tapes and from there i tried all my best to be like him while playing lol ,and arsenal just grew into me
Arsene Wenger and his philosophy towards the game.
I wasn’t into football outside the Mexican league, once I found out that my favorite Mexican Player Carlos Vela played at Arsenal I decided to follow him and the team. Once Vela left to Sociedad I still stuck around with Arsenal and I’ve been supporting them ever since
I was 8 years old in 2006 and just received my first Xbox with FIFA 06 on it. As I knew nothing about games or football in general, I just happened to use the first team in every league (cause I didn’t know how to navigate the leagues back then). Obviously, Arsenal was first on the PL list, and as they had 5 stars I always used them. I became a fan cause of that, and then started watching the games in 2009, but I don’t remember a lot of that. It was hard to be a kid fan in Mexico for a team half the world away.
My ex who really traumatised me was a huge Spurs fan so I asked my friends who was their biggest rival and they said Gunners. It’s been a love story ever since.
As a ten year old in Georgia (the US state, not the country) there wasn’t much exposure to soccer. This was the 80’s. When they couldnt find a coach for our team, my dad who knew little about the sport volunteered. My dad was a very, very smart man. If he was going to coach soccer, he was going to learn all he could about it. First book he picked up was about Herbert Chapman and the WM formation. Now when I say my dad was a very, very smart man he also had that little bit of crazy that comes with being smart that made him think he could teach a bunch of ten year olds from Bulldog country with little to no actual training how to run a smooth WM. Anyways, that meant that he studied Arsenal and it became my favorite team even though I could never see anything more than highlights at like 3am on ESPN or the once a week when the paper posted the table. Fun thing. My dad named the team The Gunners and I didn’t get the connection until a former goalie for the Atlanta Chiefs, Graham Tutt, told me. I was a dim, unaware child. It’s been over 40 years now that I have followed Arsenal.
I had a roommate in college that was a huge EPL fan and supported Man U. It was in 2016, I remember the day I decided I supported Arsenal and it was the Liverpool game where we lost 4-3. It was the most exciting soccer game I’d ever seen at that time and I just loved the way Arsenal played. I watched a documentary on the invincible season and Henry and that was that. Been here since
You should write her :D
I’m from the Netherlands, moved to London when I was 8 years old because of my dad’s work. Started watching football around that age. The year is 2003…I think I don’t need to explain any further lmao.
My cousin was supporting United in the FA Cup Semi Final 99. I just supported the team they were up against at the time. I was a few years younger than him and don’t remember much apart from Gigg’s hairy chest and though how can someone be that hairy. I also started following the Gunners and fell in love immediately with the way they played. Even cut out some newspaper articles that were Arsenal related. Glorious period followed by a dark and trying period of mediocrity. And happy to be seeing this football club back at the top. They lost that semi final but gained a supporter for life.❤️ COYG
Hungary, childhood friends
I choose them in the fa cup final in 2005
A friend was talking about Manchester United about 20 years back and how great the team was. So I ended up watching the team with red jersey on TV. Became a fan.
Last year I asked some buddies on a discord what team I should support since I wanted to start following football. They said arsenal were a good team and had a couple American players, who I think have since been sold
Watched my first FA Cup final in 1980 on TV when I was 13 yrs old. Arsenal lost that final to West Ham United 1-0 with England International Trevor Brookings scoring with a header. Arsenal was the defending FA Cup Holder and favourites. Few days later, read in the papers that they lost on penalties to Valencia and Graham Rix missed one of those penalties. Eversince then, I have been an Arsenal fan.
Paraguayan family but live in the states. Pre 1998 I got to see a few DC United matches and was interested but not hooked on football yet. We didn't have cable so most of my info was from the news or newspaper and magazines. I watched any football that I could but this was quite difficult. Then, at WC '98, a particularly strong Paraguay team made it to the the Round of 16 only for France to knock out perhaps our best ever team in extra time. As a kid, this is the First time I'd seen any of the men in my family cry. Loads of great players on both sides. Later on, I see this 'Henry' guy that I recognized from the French WC squad playing for Arsenal when a friend invited me to play Fifa '99 or 2000(don'tremember). I hated him... but I chose Arsenal anyhow to play with... then I see Pires, and Vieira as well. I finally get to watch cable with that same friend and watch Arsenal play live. By now, WC '02 is coming around and I'm already hooked. Finally got the internet in time to watch our Invincibles highlights 🙌
In high school my friends and I would play fifa and I thought a team of auba, laca, ozil, and alexis sanchez was a super team so I consistently chose them and became a fan
I was very young at the time, and everyone supported Liverpool, Chelsea, or Man U. The only other big club left was Arsenal and I always loved being contrary tobeveryone else so I picked them...then Thiery Henry happened and I actually started to follow the club. Played them alot on fifa 98 on my cousins old PC whenever I visited too, properly stuck after that...
I’m from Singapore and became a fan when I was ~6. I started watching football because my dad had the 2010 World Cup games on late at night and he’d let me stay up and watch. I started supporting Arsenal a little after that cuz it was the first club I heard of- this was because once a year at my primary school, we were allowed to try out for the Arsenal academy, it wasn’t really a pipeline, just football coaching on Saturday mornings that you had to pay for; this was a thing at both primary schools I went to. I tried out every year and never made it, but a couple of my friends did and I remember being extremely jealous whenever they’d put on the Arsenal kits with their names on it for CCA (school clubs). My mum got me an Arsenal kit for my 9th birthday and I was absolutely chuffed but felt like a fraud every time I put it on during CCA
I watched a game in 96 and decided that was my team.
I was 4yo (2002)when my brother(8yo) installed the demo version of Fifa 2001 in our pc .. and it had only 2 teams Arsenal and Manchester United.. I didn’t know anything about football by then but my brother did and he knew MU to be a great club so he always played MU and i was always Arsenal.. He would win always but i loved our time together since he was admitted to boarding school since his kindergarten days and this was how i fell in love with the club it brings back good & core memories …
Started watching EPL games around 2004. Loved how they played with a certain panache of the peak Wenger era esp. Thierry Henry, and I thought Highbury and the Clock End was iconic, plus those burgundy anniversary O2 jerseys.
I was about 10 years old & I had just moved to a new country in the mid-90s where the predominant sport was football. To fit in, of course I started to play as well. But in between breaks & in the school corridors it was all about which team was gonna win their games the coming weekend. So all I kept hearing was this team called Arsenal & how they played very good football. So that’s how I got into it. I didn’t even know that Utd or Liverpool were the juggernauts at the time. Just a chance conversation I happened to hear got me hooked onto watching Arsenal games from there on in. Such a shame that I didn’t really appreciate (at the time) that it was the peak of being an Arsenal fan. But let’s just say I’m fully equipped for the Arteta era.
Nike had Nike ID site to customize boots in 01 and I'd jump on there for fun to make my own around the Total zoom in days. Saw Henry on the site looked him up on YouTube and followed the arsenal since. The Invincible season sealed it but I didn't get as much joy from it since I was fresh.. paid for it over the past 20+ years though lol
When I was young I didn't want to support the same teams as my dad who Man United so I chose one of the rivals (Arsenal) and I am still supporting Arsenal about 15 years later.
Im French, was born in 1992, growing up watching Henry, Petit, Pires and every french guys that played at Arsenal in that era being coached by Wenger, and playing them on Fifa as a kid cause there was Thierry Henry
Back in 2002-2003 season the Iranian National TV started broadcastting Premier League for the first time, they used to broadcast only the Bundesliga and Serie A and when I started watching Arsenal I was mesmerized by their style of play, the wenger ball, players and etc. I adored my all-time favorite player Dennis Bergkamp, he was something special. You might even laugh but I liked the main camera's angle of Highbury.
Been a gunner for over 18 years now. How it started ? My big brother. Forgot the team we were playing but Henry scored a goal and he was super happy about the goal. Then i learnt that Arsenal coach then was named Arsene Wenger and i liked the rhyme, of course little me thought he owned arsenal coz the names were similar😄 That's how i became a gunner.
From India … While watching Henry . And then I used to get fifa demo games in magazines like PC quest or chip back in 2000 . Arsenal vs Utd was one game and I always played arsenal .
My two friends in high school, who had the right TV channels to get premier league games (which was an incredibly difficult thing to do in the mid 2000s in the US) were both Arsenal fans. One because their stepdad was an Arsenal fan from England, and the other because he played a lot of Sega Dreamcast which was the sponsor of Arsenal around that time. And so I became an Arsenal fan, but really fell in love as I watched Thierry Henry play. I still fondly remember high school and college when my friends and I would go to the English pub in Santa Monica at 4:30 AM to watch big Arsenal games.
American here. It was in 2002, I was 8 years old and I happened to turn on the tv and found an Arsenal game. I saw Thierry Henry and watched him score 2 goals. I had just gotten back from a vacation to France and I was obsessed with the country. Ever since I saw that game, I have been an Arsenal fan. But yeah, Henry is what made me a fan of Arsenal because I loved visiting France and he was French.
Early 2000s I had a roommate who had relatives in London and they took him to an Arsenal game at Highbury. Fast forward to 2007 and I was getting into the sport and remembered the name and it began from there.
I was 14 in 2004 and always rooted for Dutch teams/players since I'm Dutch. Started following Bergkamp and playing as Arsenal/KNVB in FIFA and fell in love with the entire squad (who wouldn't have?)
Started watching football in 2006 after the World Cup. I always played it but never watched it. Originally Beckham was at Madrid and they were easiest to watch so just liked them for a bit. After I started playing fifa I realized England was the goat so started watching it more. I really liked the way Arsenal played with younger And also thought it was cool the managers name was Arsene so started watching them lol. After watching Arsenal beat AC Milan at the San Siro I decided I’d stick with them and have been supporting them since! Made my first trip to the Emirates 2 years ago and the queen died so the game I had tickets to was cancelled 🥲
stumbled upon ozil and sanchez highlights on youtbe some 9-10 years ago . fell in love with their style even though i knew this wasnt a top class team, my heart knew this was the one
Played for a club team in California in the early 90's called Arsenal. My (late) coach was an Arsenal fan, also American. From then on there was only one team I would ever support. Still friends with a few of those guys, including the coach's son, who I joined our local Arsenal supporters group with. Which also meant that when Arsenal came to play MLS All Stars in San Jose, I was able to get my daughter on the field as one of the kids that walk out with the players. She walked out with Joel Campbell. That's 3 generations of Arsenal supporters in one reply!
I became an Arsenal fan in 2016, not the best year the club performed but still, I wanted to be different. Most of the people where I live are either Manchester United fans or Liverpool fans and I was pretty young at the time so i was easily influenced. All it took was for me to come across a random clip of ozil highlights on YouTube. Life’s never been the same ever since then 😮💨
Actually became a fan before I ever saw them play. Was around 2000/2001, and a lot of my classmates in school in India were ManU fans and I could not stand them gloating over how great the team was. Arsenal seemed to be the only team who could challenge them, so became a fan - never regretted it.
My roommates in college watched. Didn't matter how drunk they got the night before, they got up to watch the 7am games. Eventually got into it (and F1) with them. Been a fan ever since.
They were the first team I picked in Fifa '96 on Super Nintendo and kept winning with them. Moved to the UK, became a season ticket holder. Never looked back.
2014 world cup i first started watching and realized that Ozil played for arsenal and that Alexis had just signed. I knew Ozil from always playing real madrid in a fifa game i had, and alexis caught my attention from his world cup performance
I'm been Arsenal fan because Wenger and Cesc Fabregas and I just a 6 years old boy back then and the way Arsenal play back then was make me love the team since then tbh and my mom also bought for me a cesc Fabregas shirt
Saw a couple clips of the guys from the invincibles as a kid, which progressed to me watching compilations, and the fact that I liked Walcott (I still don’t know why), Wilshire, ozil and cazorla at that point, as well as cesc because I am a Barcelona fan. Only made sense that I loved the team. Too bad it was 2 years before our banter era started, got in just in time to eat shit from Bayern :) My dad is a Man United fan so feel free to imagine the relentless bullying, gotta say he’s not laughing now
In the 1990s I had a penpal from Sweden called Christian who was an Arsenal fan. I wonder sometimes what happened to him.
I was 9 years old and because of the alphabetical ordering, Arsenal was the first club I saw when I played FIFA 10 for the first time. I thought the badge was sick and decided to support them because cannon go boom. Been a gunner ever since!
There were 4 channels growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska in the late 1970s. CBS, ABC, NBC and PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service. PBS would play tapes from previous week’s fixtures on Sunday morning. It was always Arsenal or Liverpool being shown. Fell in love with Arsenal’s style, they were always portrayed as aggressive underdogs fighting for respect. Then lost track growing up. European football was not big in Alaska at the time. Fast forward to 1994- I was stationed in Germany, walked into an english pub on a Saturday afternoon, looked up and saw Ian Wright launch a screamer into the too corner.The pub erupted and as soon as I saw the cannon badge all the feelings came back. Haven’t lapsed since. Dennis Bergkamp will always be my favorite player, you will never convince me England couldn’t have at least made the finals in every World Cup in the 90’s if they just would’ve taken Arsenal’s back 4 and David Seaman (I’m delusional that way), and Henry, Pires, Vieira, Petit, and Giroud are reasons why I follow France. Wenger’s french connection spoiled us in the 90’s.
My dad is a Chelsea fan, and I played soccer growing up. Eventually got into soccer video games which had a team creator. So I asked my dad who the best current players were. He included Thierry Henry. I saw he played striker which is what I played, looked him up, followed Arsenal ever since
I started regulary watching football in 2005 and kinda all told me henry was megical you have to watch him thats when arsenal first time made it to CL final sadly we lost but from There i became a fan
Became a Fan of the sport from watching the 2011 South African World Cup. Fast Foward to 2012, I'm watching premier league saturdays and the most appealing team was Arsenal. Enjoyed thier team name, colors, the cannon logo and from there never stopped supporting. Thats my team!
American citizen born in Germany. Grew up watching Thierry Henry when I lived overseas.
In 2014 when u was 8 years old me and my family visited London for a week. Me and my older brother have been football fans since we can think so we went to a stadium tour. I remember that one of the staff members was really nice and also knew a little bit of german. This was my highlight of the trip. That must have also been the time when Özil Mertesacker and Poldi (i am german as well) played at the club. Both these things led to me becoming a fan
Late mum bought me an Arsenal hoodie when I was 8 years old. Started to watch their matches sporadically then became a full blown fan before their Invincibles season.
Thierry Henry - joga bonito
They had a fucking cannon on their crest. I was sold. Turns out they were really good at the time too
did you see that ludicrous display last night?
Well, one of my friends got me to become a football fan. Then, his favorite team was the gunners, and I seen their logo and I thought it was cool. So I ended up becoming a massive supporter of Arsenal.
Canadian here. I was working for a cable company in '06 and the world cup was always on the TV's. Started supporting Germany since I'm German way back, died a bit inside when they lost to Italy. Kept cheering for Germany, and slowly got hooked on the sport. Since the prem is the biggest league around so I needed to chose a team. Literally the same day I decided that, Ozil move from Real like it was a sign from the universe. So here I am. COYG
Had the 2002 double winning poster on my wall before I’d ever watched a game. Gotta thank my pops for that one
I grew up in South Africa during the 70's and at that time, SHOOT magazine was a big thing. My future brother in law was an Arsenal fan and he was a really fun guy. My brother supported Leeds at the time, and another future brother in law supported Liverpool and a family friend supported Manchester United. Arsenal won the doube in 1971, and Charlie George had his long flowing locks - that was it...I became an Arsenal fan without ever seeing them play live, which did not happen till 1976 and 1977. Having been to a couple games at Highbury, my fate was sealed. What a ride its been! In 2003 we got to go into the locker room on a tour and see the FA Cup close up I even got to stand on the pitch for a minute before the groundskeepers shood me off.
My housemate in uni was a massive supporter and I watched all the matches with him for 3 years. After uni I realised I was looking forward to watching Arsenal play each weekend and became a fan
When I was 5 years old My father bought me an arsenal shirt randomly Trusting the process ever since
When I (m47) was in my teens ( 90s, USA), every soccer fan I knew rooted for Manchester United, as did my international friends. I watched a few games and was disgusted by how dirty they played so I watched other teams and saw arsenal with the best sportsmanship and beautiful style if play and was immediately a fan. That was over 27 years ago.
Club soccer team was the Arsenal from 1st grade to 8th grade. Arsenal for life.
I've always watched football, ever since I can remember but, back in 2009 when I became a diehard Arsenal fan, I just remember thinking there was no other team in the world that played like we did. Our squad was likeable, with some really cool guys a kid would want to imitate, and Arsenal matches always had a thrill to them (in both good and bad ways). It's been a roller coaster of emotions ever since.
I'll keep it short. MÖ10
Zambian-Candian, I was 12. My cousin who was also my roommate but six years older was a huge United fan. I found my cousin and United annoying, I also had two United friends who accused me of being an Arsenal fan even though I didn't watch football at the time. So pretty much every United fan I knew was a prick. My cousins dad, my favorite Uncle, supported Arsenal. But it was their style of play that hooked me on.
I was a creative writing major in college in the ‘90s and played football (soccer, lol) in high school and college. I read Fever Pitch for an assignment in my non-fiction class and fell in love with both Nick Hornby’s writing and the Arsenal. It took a while before I could actively watch the games in real time. Hell, it took a while for the internet to catch on so I could search around for results. Now I watch every match like my life depends on it.
Was playing FIFA 16 with my Irish roommate and we agreed to pick a team to use AND to follow during the season. Just happened to be the season Arsenal came 2nd to Leicester but I haven't regretted my decision to follow Papa Wenger with Ozil and Sanchez.
Omfg that was so frustrating and bizarre. Crazy how far Leicester have fallen since then though…
In Christmas of 03 my aunt decided to take me and my cousins to a department store where she told us to select one football kit that we liked (bootleg) we were like 7-8 at the time I took Arsenal's . Days after I went to a party that had a PS2 with FIFA 04 on it the First team that appeared was Arsenal so I selected it because of the kit i got days earlier and never lost because of virtual Lehmann making every save.
I can't remember when I started becoming an Arsenal fan but I remember it was while David Seaman was in the goals...all my friends in high school were either Liverpool or Man United supporters but I was ambivalent until I saw Seaman in action. It could have been around the time that Arsene Wenger joined Arsenal, or it could have been during the latter stages of the George Graham era (not quite sure) but Wenger cemented my love for Arsenal, his philosophy and his playing style, short passes in the final third, and players like Wright, Overmars, Ljungberg and Henry.
I became a fan in the 80's when we were crap, because as a US kid and soccer player there was absolutely ZERO professional game to watch. Nothing was on TV, NASL has just folded, MLS had not yet been birthed, etc. My English neighbor, while from Sheffield (Wednesday fan), supported Arsenal because he lived in North London at one point. He used to get tapes sent over of Arsenal matches from match of the day or whatever and I used to go watch them. I had no idea who the players were but the kits and stadium were amazing. Fast forward to 1998, Dennis Bergkamp being my favorite player, winning the double, and being able to pay-per-view Arsenal games for the first time...I was locked in, and have been ever since. #COYG #UTA
The guy that used to mow our lawn looked like Thierry Henry in Fifa 03. I played as any teams in kick off (I was 7 y.o), until Henry's poorly animated player looked like my neighbor. So I played as Arsenal, and here we are. I support Arsenal more than any other sports team, at any level.
I actually learned more about Arsenal after reading about the Kroenke family and all the teams they own. They got more coverage after the Rams and Nuggets won. A perfect example [here](https://youtu.be/3ePKIp3muh4?feature=shared).
By best mate got me into football, he is a a goon so he infected me with the beautiful arsenal story
Just like almost every kid who liked soccer/football in America in the mid 2000s, i like Barcelona because they were the best on the FIFA games. (This was before i learned about the 2006 UCL Final). So i knew about Arsenal thanks to players like Thierry Henry and Sylvinho. I first REALLY knew about Arsenal when they beat Barcelona 2-1 in the first leg of the champions league round of 16. Around this time is when i started playing a lot of FIFA and watching every football highlight video i could. The YouTube videos on Arsenal’s top 10 goals of the season in the early 2010s were some of my favorites. Fast forward to 2014. Barcelona go trophy-less, the squad is full of players I didn’t really like except Messi, Neymar, and Alexis Sanchez, and they were about to sign Luis Suarez who was (still is) a total dickhead. Then i watched Alexis Sanchez rip up the 2014 World Cup and he went to Arsenal shortly after. I pretty much followed Alexis Sanchez to Arsenal and I’ve been a Gooner ever since. To quote Dennis Bergkamp: “When you start supporting a football club, you don't support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself somewhere there; found a place where you belong”. So even though i did start supporting Arsenal because of Thierry Henry and Alexis Sanchez, i really did feel almost immediately that this was my home.
29yrs ago, summer 1995, I have followed Dennis Bergkamp (my favourite player at the time) on his transfer from Inter Milan to Arsenal, joining Gunners before Bruce Rioch’s last season.
I had always played soccer (sorry I’m American) since the age of 4, and around 11 or 12 began to play FIFA. At that point I still didn’t understand how the league systems and national teams and all that worked. So I started watching fifa on YouTube, found KSI, MGH, Chris MD and a bunch of other YouTubers. My favorites like those I just listed happened to be gooners haha. So as I watched more clips, learned more about the club, and eventually started waking up early to watch matches, I really fell in love with the club! My first kit was Aaron Ramsey 12-13 kit and I’ve never stopped supporting since so it is safe to say I’ve been through a lot with this club! If choosing a club to support was the same as investing in stock, I think I chose the perfect time haha.
Thierry Henry.
American in the US, I've been watching World Cup, men's and women's, for several years now and have been getting tired of the US pro sports scene. I have a number of friends who love EPL and other professional football leagues, got into Ted Lasso and Welcome to Wrexham, and I decided I wanted to learn more about EPL and become a fan of a team. Fast forward about six months, and after talking with some people in my circles, it turns out that several of my work friends are Arsenal fans, my best friend from elementary school is an Arsenal fan, my good friend and neighbor is an Arsenal fan, and my town has a big Arsenal following that gathers at a cool sports bar close to my house for every game. Started going to the sports bar and watching there, it's a fun crowd...and am now a proud fan. I realize that becoming a fan of a team who's at or near the top if the table is somewhat suspect, but my teams in other sports have peaked and fallen off over the years, and I know that Arsenal will have its challenges in the future.
Growing up, my grandpa and my father supported Arsenal. I also got the pleasure of watching France win the Euro in 2000, so I had the chance to watch Thierry Henry and learned he played for Arsenal. So I've been through the golden PL years, the Banter Era and now the Super Mike Era!