The Reason I Become A Fan of Manchester United

At the very beginning, I like all the sports regardless whether I can get access to them, especially for those ice/snow sports that are exhilarating and whimsical if you are living in subtropical zone. At that time, what I focus on sports are the amazing thrill of them. Watching skating and skiing in TV, I as an audience can even share the thrill of these sport without being in the field. Somebody mentions this phenomenon as empathy. I thought I was really empathic in my childhood.

But time goes fast and I become less empathic in my adolescence due to inevitable human nature. Then I find it hard to like those X-games any more, and gradually I lost the joy of watching them. Obviously, it’s time for me to dig for a brand-new hobby that can distract me from my growing pressure in both life and coursework. I once considered basketball, but it’s too common in China that if you ask any boys in campus whether they play basketball they would definitely say YES. “Awwww it’s not cool at all to be regular”, I thought. Also, I have a really embarrassing memory on playing basketball tracing back to my primary school life, which is really disgraceful for me even recall it now. So ultimately, I tried to escape this one, and picked the opposite, football.

Hence, when I was around 14 (~2014), I started to lay my concentration on football. As we all know, sir Ferguson retired in 2013 and in the following year David Moyes, the man recommended by sir Ferguson to the management before his retirement, was on the wheel. But in 2014, the most breaking news is Moyes got sacked. You cannot imagine how negative news could affect a bystander greater than positive ones. From this news I started to know United. and its glorious history in both England and Europe football. And this initiated my interest on this special club. Story was on.

Unfortunately, in the following years, I’m not able to witness United win a trophy in the Premier League again. Nevertheless, United is also one of the richest and most popular clubs in this world, which is really surprising to me. What’s worse, whoever the manager (or coach?) is, things are not getting better. We had talent Moyes, sophisticated van Gaal and Mourinho, former player Solskjaer and now Rangnick, but United is still in reconstruction, naively hoping to recreate our glory days. My friends have asked me for many times why I still support a team that seems to have no future in predictably short term. Usually, I have no answer because it’s also a big question raised myself. But now, I figure it out:

Perhaps that’s because I still have a great ability of sympathy, though my empathy degenerates.

(This is merely a joke. Never mind it please, red devils.)