JJCMCFC said:I've been seeing a lot of Yanks in and around the stadium recently
Get your City shirt on fella!leithblue said:After 4 years living in Finland...most folk still couldn't give a f"ck about us
It's 95% red scouse fans over here
so this month's been painful, but looking up now after yesterday...
That's because they might be from the Netherlands but not from Holland.Gabriel said:eversince 76 said:It's getting close to the WC in Brasil, so over here (in Holland) supermarkets give away photograps of footballplayers that little kids can collect. So I walked out of the supermarket and immediately two kids (guess about 10 year olds) came up to me to ask if they could get mine. Ok, but you both have to answer two questions and they have to be 100% correct.
1. There are two team in Manchester. Who are they and what is the colour of the tops?
( I know there's only ONE team from Manchester, but I kept the quiz low-profile to get rid of what they wanted )
Answer: Manchester United (fookers still being mentioned first), and Manchester City, United in red, City in blue.
Correct.
2. Name 3 players from the Manchester City-side and on what position they play?
Straight away: Aguero, centreforeward ... welldone
Straight after: Dzeko, centreforeward ... ok, not our best player, but seemingly popular and welldone again
Than it stopped for a few minutes. In the conversation I thought I'd heared the name of Nani, but it could have been Nasri as well.
10 seconds to go ... 9 ... 8 ... 7 ... 6 ... 5 ... 4 ... 3 (panicking kids) ...2 ... 1
Give us a clue!
Ok, do you know the Belgium team? Yes yes !! (obviously)
Who is the big defender and their skipper?
... and it went completely quiet ...
Do you guys know any Belgium player? Yes, Hazard (aaarghh, fook, so wrong to mention him)
Yes, but he's not the one I'm after, I mean you're after...
Kompany? the quiet one whispered
There you go.
And I glady handed over 3 photographs (never even looked who they were tbh) and when I did the other lad said he didn't know Kompany was a City-player.
Anyways, so far for our popularity with the kids abroad. Not a topic, just a nice story. Pretty sure 4 years ago they would not have been able to answer the 1st quastion right. A lot of people in Holland refer to United when saying Manchester... fools !
Sorry to have bothered you.
Nice tale.
Ironic? Some people in the Netherlands still resent being called from 'Holland'. ;-)
BlueTG said:Are we still popular with the Chinese due to Sun Jihai?
FeedTheGoat10 said:Anyone have an idea how big we are in the Balkan countries? Might sound a tad cynical (may be just to make them more settled and all) but I don't think it's a coincidence how we've signed many Balkan players over the past few years.
SunJihai said:BlueTG said:Are we still popular with the Chinese due to Sun Jihai?
I'm a Chinese-American City fan who's lived most of my life in Hong Kong, been following since 2003-04 when Sun Jihai joined. He brought me to the club, but the fans, history, and general attitude of everyone associated with the club kept me here, as well as players like SWP, Benarbia, Berkovic, and I'm embarassed to say now, Anelka.
I can honestly say from 2004 till the FA Cup and Premier League win I only knew 3 other City fans in HK (who weren't from Manchester). Now it's pretty common to see a City top every now and then, but until recently it was all rags, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea fans (starting from when Abramovic took over).
It's the height of irony to be called a glory hunter by some of these people who, like me, have no "real" connection to any club in England, and who obviously only started supporting their team because they had some success at some point when they started following football (I stress "started" following football because, even though many people in Asia ARE glory hunters, I don't know of any cases of people really switching teams because another team has more success. Once they decide to support a team they'll generally stick with them, hence the huge number of Liverpool fans in their 30's and 40's here).
But I would say the recent success probably brought more Chinese fans to City than my namesake.
FeedTheGoat10 said:Anyone have an idea how big we are in the Balkan countries? Might sound a tad cynical (may be just to make them more settled and all) but I don't think it's a coincidence how we've signed many Balkan players over the past few years.
This doesn't really answer your question, but I was in New York when we won the league and watched the QPR match at The Mad Hatter. First time I've been surrounded by so many other City fans. Was so emotional I shed a tear or two.
The next day I went out to lunch with my girlfriends family, and the waiter serving us had a nametag saying 'Edin'. I asked if he was from Bosnia. He said he was, and it turned out he was a City fan (perhaps some might say Dzeko fanboy) and cried when we won the league, although he left his house when we went 2-1 down so missed the rest of the match.
It was a great feeling to bond with someone over that win in such a random place. Hopefully true City fans from Manchester can understand that people from other countries, for different reasons, might form a connection with their team, and may even grow to love the club as much as they do, and not hold a grudge or look down on us because we're Asian or not from Manchester.
SunJihai said:BlueTG said:Are we still popular with the Chinese due to Sun Jihai?
I'm a Chinese-American City fan who's lived most of my life in Hong Kong, been following since 2003-04 when Sun Jihai joined. He brought me to the club, but the fans, history, and general attitude of everyone associated with the club kept me here, as well as players like SWP, Benarbia, Berkovic, and I'm embarassed to say now, Anelka.
I can honestly say from 2004 till the FA Cup and Premier League win I only knew 3 other City fans in HK (who weren't from Manchester). Now it's pretty common to see a City top every now and then, but until recently it was all rags, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea fans (starting from when Abramovic took over).
It's the height of irony to be called a glory hunter by some of these people who, like me, have no "real" connection to any club in England, and who obviously only started supporting their team because they had some success at some point when they started following football (I stress "started" following football because, even though many people in Asia ARE glory hunters, I don't know of any cases of people really switching teams because another team has more success. Once they decide to support a team they'll generally stick with them, hence the huge number of Liverpool fans in their 30's and 40's here).
But I would say the recent success probably brought more Chinese fans to City than my namesake.
FeedTheGoat10 said:Anyone have an idea how big we are in the Balkan countries? Might sound a tad cynical (may be just to make them more settled and all) but I don't think it's a coincidence how we've signed many Balkan players over the past few years.
This doesn't really answer your question, but I was in New York when we won the league and watched the QPR match at The Mad Hatter. First time I've been surrounded by so many other City fans. Was so emotional I shed a tear or two.
The next day I went out to lunch with my girlfriends family, and the waiter serving us had a nametag saying 'Edin'. I asked if he was from Bosnia. He said he was, and it turned out he was a City fan (perhaps some might say Dzeko fanboy) and cried when we won the league, although he left his house when we went 2-1 down so missed the rest of the match.
It was a great feeling to bond with someone over that win in such a random place. Hopefully true City fans from Manchester can understand that people from other countries, for different reasons, might form a connection with their team, and may even grow to love the club as much as they do, and not hold a grudge or look down on us because we're Asian or not from Manchester.
FeedTheGoat10 said:Anyone have an idea how big we are in the Balkan countries? Might sound a tad cynical (may be just to make them more settled and all) but I don't think it's a coincidence how we've signed many Balkan players over the past few years.