Ultimate Guide to becoming a football fan

 What does it take to become a football fan?

"You need to spend at least 22 hours a day, watching every single live game happening all over the world, lose all your sleep, and completely focus on the game alone to call yourself a football fan. You have to completely sacrifice your academics and say bye-bye to your career, becoming an addict to the television and not move a single muscle of your body thereby becoming fat and old very quickly."

Well, that's just BS. Trust me its a lot easier than you think it is to follow a sport. And a big fat NO, you do not have to sacrifice your academics or your career. Football unlike a lot of other sports takes barely 105 mins per day for a game and one has literally the rest of the day to complete their other tasks and attend to their other obligations. The sport is just too good to miss and has had a lot of benefits in my life as well, personally speaking. Sometimes one doesn't even have to spend 105 mins, the highlights and statistics from Google would just do, although I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. There is nothing like the adrenaline that kicks in when your team is behind by a goal and its the last minute with your team having possession in the opposition's penalty box. So attending to the question posed above. What does it take to be a football fan? Forgive me if this triggers you but the answer is quite simple. Patience. That's literally all it takes.

Where does one start?

The problem that prevails with getting into any topic, is that people sometimes don't know where to start. There are either too many good stuff to choose and start from or there isn't much of quality that can be identified (everything is bad until you see the good in it-SWAMI KESHAVANANDA; PS: no that's not an actual person) to start in the first place. 

Good news is that football falls in the first category and that can be solved by simply forcing you into my favourite team (xD). Just kidding, let's look at the basic steps to begin with here;

1) Choose a league whose broadcast is accessible in your location:

Europe's top flight is accessible in almost any part of the world. This includes the following leagues:-

• English Premier League(England)
• La Liga Santander(Spain)
• Bundesliga(Germany)
  
• Ligue 1(France)
• Serie A(Italy)

Obviously this isn't the entire list, nor am I claiming that these are the best leagues in the world. The countries with local leagues like ISL in India or MLS in the USA are obviously made accessible in the respective locations and they can be as good if you feel so. The point is to choose a league that you feel you can tolerate (if that's the right word) week in and week out. Each league has its own speciality and the only way to learn the speciality of each league is by watching many games. And of course if you do not find any speciality within the league you have chosen, you can obviously switch for the alternative accessible ones to see which you feel you enjoyed more. At first, I was into La Liga because that was very famous back then in my locality. Then when I explored into EPL with FIFA and live games of Chelsea, I was more inclined to it and liked it better even because I chose it on my own, it was my thing and I absolutely loved that fact.

2) Choose you favourite team from the league you have chosen:

So you have your favourite league with you and you got 18 to 20 (or even 10) teams to choose from. Which team would you choose? The former champions? The one with the biggest history? The one with a very young and active squad? The underdogs? The ones who would have to fight for survival every year?  The team sporting your favourite colour on their jersey? The team having one or two good looking players you are into? HONESTLY THAT'S TOTALLY UPTO YOU.

Always know that it isn't the long standing champions or the former champions that are the only teams you can choose from. THE OCEAN IS HUGE. The surviving teams can get your adrenaline up more and their spirit can be inspiring to you. The key is to look for every aspect and see which team actually suits you! It doesn't matter if the team is doing bad, what should matter is if the team keeps you going. "Is it your best friend?", "Does it pick you up whenever you need support." 

If you still can't choose, not to worry. Go on what I like to call, the trial period. It's important to follow one rule during this period. Do not unveil the club you are following during this period, until you have decided you aren't going to change your favourite club anymore. People dangle with their favourite clubs many times which is acceptable, unless the reason you are dangling with the club is because they are losing! That's just straight out a red flag. 
So in this trial period, follow a club your friend recommends you to follow, if you are giving the sport a try on their word. Else, take MY WORD AND SUPPORT CHELSEA in the trial period. Now, you can call yourself a temporary fan (ONLY TO YOURSELF, REMEMBER THE ONLY RULE) and your role is not only to root for this club, NO. Since you are still in the trial period, try to analyse the game with this temporary club, because it is easier to analyse when you actually root for one club. And this one team is going to face every other team in this period of time anyways, so you get a taste of every team in the mean time. If your gut says you are going to stick with this team by all means, go for it. Forget the stats and convince yourself it is YOUR BEST TEAM IN THE WHOLE WORLD. 
Pro-Tip: At least for one season after choosing a club, turn a deaf ear to the crowd that's demeaning you, and yes the crowd is going to demean you a lot. DO NOT RESPOND AND DO NOT FRET ABOUT IT EITHER, YOU WILL HAVE YOUR TIME TO GIVE BACK SOON MY MATE.

3) Give the sport a try yourself:*

You learn better when you do it yourself. Having watched a couple of times and observed the dynamic of the game, go ahead with your team of friends and play it out in a field. Again, it is important to shut out the noise, everyone is going to be making fun of you. Especially if you are not a guy, I believe in my city at least, its taken very weirdly and not the right way at all. Sometimes, its really hopeless to hear and see such things, but if you are lucky enough and have the right set of friends, I urge you to give the sport a try. You will learn a lot and it actually boosts your interest in the favourite team of yours because you would now actually know what they are going through and can relate more.

EVERYTHING HERE IS VERY MUCH IRRESPECTIVE OF YOUR GENDER AND I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THE SPORT IS BIGGER THAN EVERYTHING. 

4) If not physically possible, GAMING could help:*

FIFA(to become EA SPORTS FC)  and efootball are by far the best simulators of the game I have tried out and gives you the feel of the sport very much. It gets you familiar with the players and teams from all over the world, especially with career mode in FIFA and master league in efootball. You become a very good scout on you own with enough experience in the game. Well of course it is impossible to get the ratings of the players accurate to 100 percent but it gives a vague idea at least, of how good a player can be. But most of the times the ratings are inaccurate. Personally it didn't affect my experience though.

5) Choose a favourite player in your favourite team(if possible):

This is the most indulging way to get into the sport for when you get obsessed with someone, you dig in and out and try to analyse them 100 percent and become an expert with their stories and experiences. 

My suggestion would be to not go for the big names(unless its inevitable). The likes of Ronaldo and Messi obviously being chosen as the favourites by almost everyone in the world makes it a little bit less engaging. Go for an academy graduate in you favourite team, a youngster, probably 17-18 years old, who has fought his way through the first team and follow them for the entirety of their career. You would be surprised how many life changing stuff you could actually pick up from these players.

6) Try to follow as many matches as possible, get fluent with the football language:

Indeed it is with time and patience that you can become an expert with the knowledge of your favourite team. But your health is as important, so make sure the game times doesn't spoil your sleep cycle. Watch all the games that happen before your bedtime, if not, there is always the next day to catchup. It doesn't take much to keep up with your team. Match reports and reviews like ones posted on my blog do help catch up enough from the game, if not the entire stadium atmosphere. It does come down to your judgement and choice making at the end of the day. You do not have to become an expert to still be a very good fan of your team.(ACs are overrated xD)

*the following is restricted to those with access to the necessary equipment and allowances.

Benefits of following this sport 

The sport teaches a lot more than a non follower can imagine. It taught me how to handle and process a defeat(or a victory for that matter), inspired me to stand up and keep moving when everything seemed to fall apart, kept me active almost everyday, taught me what it means to be loyal to something and to some extent increase my level of faith in certain things. No, the sport when played the right way is not violent at all, unlike some of the stereotypes I have heard before, when I ask people why they do not follow the sport. Yes, minor injuries and bruises are possible but what's life without them. There are always setbacks and injuries and lessons that make people immune to far more dangerous things. The sport comes under "the good kind of distraction" and can help one out of many difficulties faced in life which is self understandable.

The tactics and planning involved is a brain-game by itself, thereby helping the mind to keep up with the body in such a physical sport.

I tried my best to sell the sport here, if you are still not convinced, I would have to take you to a proper therapist (  :)  ) . Opinions are subject to change and just in case, no offence was intended in any part of this article. If you think one has some other ways of getting into the sport or if you yourself have an interesting story of how you got into the sport feel free to comment below or get in contact with me because I would actually love to hear about them.

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