Diego Costa, that loveable paragon of human virtue, breaks Arsenal's hearts. Ugh. I admit I know nothing about Marseille, but surely Atleti are the heavy favorites to win the Europa League now.
Someone seems a bit salty, but a few points are correct. One my support of Real does not come from the winning trophies or being the best in the world. Here in the US there are few teams that were accessible to keep track of when I was growing up. Real being one of them. Love them or hate them, they have a world brand. There brand has no limits in terms of the world. The other team was Man U. I choose Real for whatever reason, and I have stuck with it. Both were good and winning, but if it was purely based on trophies, I would have picked Man U.
As an American myself, I can sympathize - You couldn't follow, say, Luton Town from the US ten years ago. Even today it's harder to follow a team outside Premier League. This is why, whenever I walk into a "soccer pub" in the US, you see scores of Man Utd/Real Madrid/Barcelona/Bayern/Celtic fans - and little else. But the next generation of US soccer fans are branching out and following other clubs, many of which are smaller.
Football fandom is all about tribalism, passion, and bias. So it's only fair that I repeat what I've already freely admitted here in the past, which is that I always like underdogs and am tired of seeing Man Utd and Real Madrid dominate, and act like they they are entitled to success. They are my big personal villains.
Finally (and apologies for being long-winded here), "picking a team" is one kind of fandom, but there is something different and more authentic about being born in into it. I support Cleveland sports teams because I was born there - it was not a choice. I have suffered through decades of heartbreak and disaster, embarrassment and apathy - fans that "pick a club" rarely do that because they invariably pick a big, successful club. We Americans of course had no choice but to "pick a club" when it comes to English soccer...I am guilty of this myself - I picked Liverpool because they were a club I could follow on TV in the US at the time, but they were not Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal (who were winning everything in England) or Bayern/Real/Barca/Inter/AC Milan/Juve (who were winning everything everywhere else). I only realized after beginning to support Liverpool that they were actually a huge club that had declined somewhat from their previous dominant position in the sport. But, the choice being made, I stuck with it - and, as long as I've supported them, they have won exactly one (more or less) significant trophy - the league cup under Dalglish 2.0 - so I cannot be accused of glory-hunting.
If they start winning titles regularly under Klopp I'll have to change my tune.
There is of course one other option - be a neutral fan. And if I could do it all over again I'd probably pick that. I think you take a more balanced view and have less stress...
Tell me, who was the last Galatico Real brought in? James? How many years ago was that? I am not saying they don’t have great players, but they haven’t gone after a “Galatico” in a while.
Neymar could be the next big buy - though at the moment, the biggest obstacle to buying new galacticos is Christiano Ronaldo. His animosity sabotaged Bale's success top a certain extent, and James was just a punt on a World Cup flavor of the month (and Real is not the only club guilty of doing that). If they bring Neymar in it would be a massive and potentially destructive clash of egos.
Messi and Ronaldo have been a massive blip in the usual order of things - until their playing days end it will be hard to sell people on the next "best player in the world", with the possible exception of Neymar.
