My favourite (insert country here) team

Back in December, I blogged about having a second team, focusing on the fans of big clubs who look for the results of a smaller, more local team. In a slight twist, I'm going to focus on those who have a favourite foreign team...

Back in the early 1990s, regular European football returned to British television with the re-admission of English clubs after Heysel. While the bigger games had been shown come the end of the season, it was a real geography lesson for a young football fan in the days before Championship Manager and the Internet. The first European game I remember watching was the European Cup final of 1991 between Red Star and Marseille, although it still had the English angle with fe-fe-fe-fe-fe-fe-Chris Waddle playing. (Scorchio)

I can imagine Glenn Hoddle saying NEED, NEED, NEED! (Thanks to Old School Panini)

Serie A was the big thing on Channel 4 with James Richardson and a flagrant attempt to mooch off Gazza's move to Lazio, with mainly clips of AC Jimbo sat in a deserted cafe flicking through the sports pages. We were introduced to exotic teams like Sampdoria, Fiorentina and Parma. Sunday afternoons no longer meant Antiques Roadshow or Songs of Praise, it was David Platt setting up Roberto Mancini for their Man City love-in. Up and down the country's playgrounds, teenagers without Sky resorted to picking a favourite team to follow. Did you go for the success of Milan? The grand old Juventus?

Woof

These days the choice is getting bigger. We have La Liga on Sky and the Bundesliga on ESPN. The Interweb allows us to watch most games, but is there a market for more? ESPN are showing the two domestic French cup finals. The inevitability of success leads to a Spanish choice between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The ever-shrinking world means more of us have a favourite team based on where our parents/wife/cleaners are from...

Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS) line up for the Patrick Swayze lookalike competition

KuPS are the local team of NC's wife, and I even have a mug from their official club shop in the office. I've played as them on Football Manager, winning the Finnish Cup. I've looked out for their results in the Europa League. I've even seen someone wearing their shirt at Arsenal. Will I ever see them on UK television? Probably not. It's more of a claim than most have on their 'foreign team'.

The same rule applies for foreign fans of English clubs, and some take it even more seriously. In 2009, a Kenyan Arsenal fan killed himself after the Champions League semi-final defeat to Manchester United. In 2007, a Liverpool fan in Lagos, Nigeria even killed an Arsenal fan after a 1-1 draw. We see full grounds in the far East for the pre-season tours (another blog topic to come in the summer), and the mention of foreign markets whenever TV deals are up for renewal.

Whether you love the kits, the players or just the name - there's a foreign club for us all out there. Feel free to share yours on the comments below or on the Facebook and Twitter pages!