It's the Euro 2020 and discussion in another thread made me wonder whether most people systematically cheered their own country's team, or if they could have a different favourite team, either because they like the players better, or because they may not feel bound to imperatively support the country in which they were born and/or grew up (or where their ancestors came from for people living outside Europe)?
As a child and teenager I watched mostly tennis tournaments and my favourite players had nothing to do with nationality and everything to do with style and personality. Yet, in my experience, when it comes to football almost everyone around me supports their own country, as if that was a civic duty. That makes me wonder whether they are watching the games out of a sense of tribalistic pride or for the actual sport and the quality of the team and individual players?
Nowadays I don't have much time to follow any sport to be knowledgeable about the players. I leave that to the true fans. But I do not feel compelled either to support exclusively Belgium. Be it football or other team sports, or even country medals at the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games (already starting in 3 weeks), I tend to favour countries that I generally like culture-wise. That includes England/Britain, Italy and Japan.
And although I am a French speaker and know French history and culture better than the average French person, I usually do not support France because of the typical attitude of French supporters. I was particularly happy to see France loose to Switzerland in the Euro 2020, as several French sports commentators on TV had mocked the Belgian team and told them to go home and eat chips/fries. A lot of French people like to mock Belgium in very much the same way as Barney Stinson mocks Canada in the series How I Met Your Mother.
As a child and teenager I watched mostly tennis tournaments and my favourite players had nothing to do with nationality and everything to do with style and personality. Yet, in my experience, when it comes to football almost everyone around me supports their own country, as if that was a civic duty. That makes me wonder whether they are watching the games out of a sense of tribalistic pride or for the actual sport and the quality of the team and individual players?
Nowadays I don't have much time to follow any sport to be knowledgeable about the players. I leave that to the true fans. But I do not feel compelled either to support exclusively Belgium. Be it football or other team sports, or even country medals at the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games (already starting in 3 weeks), I tend to favour countries that I generally like culture-wise. That includes England/Britain, Italy and Japan.
And although I am a French speaker and know French history and culture better than the average French person, I usually do not support France because of the typical attitude of French supporters. I was particularly happy to see France loose to Switzerland in the Euro 2020, as several French sports commentators on TV had mocked the Belgian team and told them to go home and eat chips/fries. A lot of French people like to mock Belgium in very much the same way as Barney Stinson mocks Canada in the series How I Met Your Mother.