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Kevin and Tony Parker get along pretty well as far as being brothers goes. But during soccer season they sometimes won't talk for days on end. Despite being blood relations, the Parkers find themselves on opposite ends of a soccer debate that has increasingly gripped this industrial town in Northwest England: are you a Red or a Blue?
For Tony, a retired soldier, Manchester United—known as the Reds—are the proper choice. The team has more trophies than display space and are considered the world's most valuable sports franchise. "My dad hated United," he says. "But some kindly neighbors took me to a game when I was eight and I've been a fan ever since."
Kevin, a utility executive, follows the improving but less-accomplished Manchester City and, as the head of its local booster club, bleeds light blue. Thanks mostly to a new owner from Abu Dhabi who has poured tens of millions into the team, the Blues are currently in sixth place in the 20-team English Premier League and are, more importantly, only four points behind second-place United.
When the two teams play one another, as they will again this April, Tony says, "things can get very fraught between us."
Grander cities like Madrid, Barcelona and Munich are soccer-mad, but they all have a single dominant club. Milan has two great teams, but Italian soccer is a bit on the wane. Liverpool has Liverpool and Everton, though neither club has won the league since 1990. London has an ocean of teams including Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham, but their impact gets lost in the city's massiveness.
Portrait of a Soccer Mecca
A look at scenes from the English city during a recent weekend featuring a Manchester United home game
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..But this year, Manchester has accomplished something remarkable for a city of its modest size and stature. It is home to the planet's most famous soccer club, and now to what may be its richest. It's as if Cleveland suddenly became the sports capital of the world. "Whenever there's a match on, everyone's talking about it," says Londoner Matt Carlton, a Reds fan who grew up in Manchester.
Until recently, the soccer rivalry in this city of brick buildings was no contest. United—derided as "the Londoners" or worse by City backers—has had far more success than its rival, with 18 league titles, including 11 since 1992. It holds a record 11 FA Cup titles, has won the European Champions League twice in the past 10 years and played in each of its last two finals.
Though it lacks a glorious past, Manchester City has a promising future. The club recently signed Argentine striker Carlos Tevez, who actually played for United last season. To trumpet the signing and drive home the fact that City's stadium is located inside the town's borders (United is in suburban Trafford), the Blues hoisted a huge banner in town for Mr. Tevez with the words: "Welcome to Manchester."
Mr. Tevez is just one of the new faces at City. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed al Nahyan bought the team for $328 million in 2008 from erstwhile Thai politician and businessman Thaksin Shinawatra (something about a 2006 coup had proved a distraction). Coming into this season, Sheikh Mansour backed a $205 million international spending spree to acquire star players.
Before this season, by contrast, United sold one of the world's best players, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, to Spanish club Real Madrid for $131 million and acquired striker Michael Owen free.
United's history has been fueled by money as well, of course. In the 1990s the club, managed by Alex Ferguson, a dour Scot with a taste for fine wines and racehorses, boasted high-profile stars such as France's Eric Cantona, Ireland's Roy Keane and the young, rising Englishman David Beckham. It capped a dominant decade by winning the Premier League title, the FA Cup and the Champions League in 1999. Now, however, after its leveraged takeover by American financier Malcolm Glazer, United has an estimated $1.8 billion in debt.
In soccer, the socialistic salary caps favored by American pro leagues don't exist, so players can be purchased outright for staggering sums. The wealth is particularly striking in rough-and-tumble cities like Manchester, where the lads with boots can be seen in screaming Aston Martins or Maseratis as they race from the posh areas of Cheshire to their practice grounds. Last winter, Mr. Ronaldo (then playing for United) crashed his Ferrari into a barricade as he raced toward practice. United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar was close by at the time, driving his Bentley.
Soccer's origins can be traced to gritty cities like Manchester. As the upper crust hankered for cricket, the working classes favored local football teams, especially since tickets to stand in the terraces came cheap. That's why teams from towns in the industrial Northwest of England, such as Bolton, Blackburn, Burnley, Wigan and Liverpool, still have strong representation in the nation's top league.
This week, Mancunians are not feeling so mighty. United lost 2-0 to Liverpool and City notched a weak 2-2 draw against much smaller Fulham. For the Blues, the specter of past failures haunts the heart. The team was so bad it was demoted all the way down to England's third division in the 1980s and '90s, and it has a history of quirky defeats including a 2-1 loss to Sheffield United in 2008 that was blamed on errant blue balloons.
Despite a fat wallet and a roster of international superstars, City still feels they aren't always in a fair fight against United. In the Manchester Derby earlier this year, United edged City 4-3 after scoring a goal extremely deep into stoppage time—a period whose duration is determined by the official. When asked about that game, Blues fans like Kevin Parker simply look at their watches. "That was very disappointing," he says. "They kind of changed the rules that day."
Still, Mr. Parker says, his team's recent ascent is a lifelong dream come true. "A lot of people feel that even City can't cock this one up with so much money in the bank."