Are we getting more popular abroad?

shaiomarali said:
well I can vouch for Brunei, and maybe South east asia as i used to travel alot.

around 15 years ago I am positive i was the only person in Brunei, or even more so in the island of Borneo to wear City colours and for that matter support City. i played a lot of friendly football and kickabouts and there'll be rag shirts worn by almost everyone. my team had the Japanese Kashima Antlers kit as our team kit. but as a goalkeeper I had our eidos or brother kits on and to be honest not many knew of Manchester City. leeds, newcastle and blackburn had bigger supporters back then and everyone was a glory hunter.

fast forward now, I see an equal number of sky blues being worn in the streets. some if not most are knockoffs which is a common issue in the region.

and when City did the Asian tour, it definitely drew new followers.

but i have a sense that some tend to support whoever is the current top team. i doubt they have kept their allegiance in the dark until after when we won the league. so yes we are picking up our fair share of glory hunters too, me included if being non-local is a gauge of one's support. But i believe the angle of our direction, which is on longterm community club playing attractive football and our overall grand plan, as opposed to exploiting consumerism, is the right way in making followers eventual die-hard supporters.

City is becoming quite big in south east asia though I have been out of the region for a while now.

Yes definitely agree with you I was out there for a year and as you say the club have been marketing themselves very well. The market is huge and only going to expand.

Taking over NY and Melbourne will only increase the stature and I assume there will be more acquisitions.
 
Well City's popularity has certainly risen here in Indonesia. Loads of new fans, merchandise and stuff here although Chelsea, AC Milan, Barca and United still dominates.

then again the number of fans of PSG and Dortmund have been rising incredibly fast as well. Heck even Monaco has some fans now.

The ironic thing is, here, if you say you are a City fan, everyone will mock you for being a plastic gloryhunter , and then proceed to brag about their team winning more trophies than City. Pretty irritating really, since I only followed football recently (first club game I seriously watched being the FA cup semi between City and Utd, also the reason I supported City in the begining cuz everyone supported Utd) and it's a bit unfair tbh to call someone who has JUST taken interest in the beautiful game a "plastic" fan (people call them "Carbite" fans here).

TBH I think City's colorful history is much more interesting than United's boring one. Loved Denis Law backheel and gillingham even though I wasn't there to see it back then lol. Also. Agueroooooooo.
 
PhuketBlue said:
irishben said:
Pretty Popular in Thailand, mostly due to Frank, and then winning the League seemed to seal it

Getting more popular for sure but still miles behind the rags, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

But Arsenal's commercial performance is lamentable, as was Liverpool's until very recently (John Henry seems to know what he is doing).

So whilst Arsenal have many more fans they aren't worth anything - Tom Glick and the combo of Cook then Soriano seems to be trouncing them.
 
john@staustell said:
PhuketBlue said:
irishben said:
Pretty Popular in Thailand, mostly due to Frank, and then winning the League seemed to seal it

Getting more popular for sure but still miles behind the rags, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

But Arsenal's commercial performance is lamentable, as was Liverpool's until very recently (John Henry seems to know what he is doing).

So whilst Arsenal have many more fans they aren't worth anything - Tom Glick and the combo of Cook then Soriano seems to be trouncing them.

Unfortunately it appears by many comments on these pages, Tom Glick is also trouncing many local City fans in the quest to increase match revenue.
 
Shirley said:
john@staustell said:
PhuketBlue said:
Getting more popular for sure but still miles behind the rags, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

But Arsenal's commercial performance is lamentable, as was Liverpool's until very recently (John Henry seems to know what he is doing).

So whilst Arsenal have many more fans they aren't worth anything - Tom Glick and the combo of Cook then Soriano seems to be trouncing them.

Unfortunately it appears by many comments on these pages, Tom Glick is also trouncing many local City fans in the quest to increase match revenue.

I can blame Platini for that one!
 
Here in Melbourne they certainly are the Melbourne Heart project will only add to that in a very effective way.

You are now seeing kids with City shirts and cars with number plates of city players names emblazoned on them etc which you never would have even as recent as two seasons ago.

Of course rightly or wrongly success in England and in Europe will largely dictate just how popular will be.

Still along way behind Liverpool , Arsenal and Manure and perhaps even Chelsea but the gap is closing.
 
From India,
Started watching City since Aug 07,it was Manchester Derby (Geovanni screamer) but the broadcasters here used to make the Chelsea,Rags,Arsenal and pool matches a priority so never really got to see the City matches regularly here but since the start of 08 season ,City became a regular Tv fixture .Was not a fan back in 07 but i liked City more than United.Started to follow City matches regularly since 08 season and the first match i saw was Robinho's freekick against chelsea though City lost that match 1-3 ,and then it was portsmouth who got a drubbed 6-0,i realised how much i loved city was when we got a draw through Robinho's late goal against Blackburn 2-2 was the Final score but i was screaming madly and it was late night :).

Now their are many many City fans here in West Bengal (the people here loves football more than cricket BTW).I have a Aguero( 11/12 title winning kit),Silva (last seasons Kit) and Tevez (10/11 kit)..Ohh i always get called as a plastic,gloryhunter etc when i go out wearing the City kit as this place Kolkata is full of Rags although their are still many supposedly united fans out here i asked still thinks Tranny plays for them(asked them about their current starting elevens name on the september derby screening..Only got Rooney right that guy) :D and they still don't even know their current league positions but they don't care they like to call every City fans here a gloryhunter..Every Nike storeroom here has City merchandise now :).In streets now a days i see many people go out wearing city kits :).
 
I visit Greece regularly and in recent years when people learn I'm from Manchester they usually say "City or United?" even before establishing whether or not I'm interested in football. Slightly confusingly City as well as the rags are sometimes referred to simply as Manchester. Greek football fans are very clued up on English football, to a large extent because of the popularity of football betting in which English games feature prominently. I haven't noticed any locals with City shirts so far apart from a few years ago when a mate of mine was ecstatic when I brought out a City shirt with Samaras on the back for him and he wore it to death!
 
Czech Republic, Hradec Kralove home game, 2 seasons ago, City shirt in the main stand. Bought the guy a beer.
 
I live in Thailand but travel a lot in Malaysia and Singapore, commuting a couple of times a week. I have had a few comments from immigration guys when they see the place of birth - Manchester - in my passport. If they make a comment about it, City or United, I just show them my watch (City, Etihad watch). I now get a 50/50 reaction, smile and thumbs up or "I love Man U". Had an immigration guy in Miri Sarawak yesterday tell me "you are my enemy". The thing is now we are on the map, I guess before they always assumed I was a rag but now they recognise City and usually comment on them. As someone said earlier in this thread we are quite popular among supporters who actually understand football in Thailand. We are still a long way behind the rags, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arse, but we are getting there, at some rate.
 

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