What was it about Arsenal that made you guys adopt the club?

[list][*]
it is the year 1997 -a young "Arsenalfaithfull" first got his hands on Fifa 98 for playstation 1
Under the club section, he notices that the number 1 ranked team in the EPL section is not one of "liverpool and Man united".
Being the ignorant north american, he adresses his dad about the glitch-asking "why the hell is this team number 1"
His dad, a native Londoner, and an avid West Ham fan reluctantly starts to talk about Arseal lol. His dad is forced to admit that Arsenal is theee team of London.
He notices one name in particular, "DENNIS BERGKAMP" as the world cup approaches

And on the 89th minute of the Quarter Finals, he recalls that name being called out loud repeatedly.
"Dennis Bear cum, Dennis Bear cum, Dennis Bear cum auuuuughhhhlhlhhhhhhhh"

And the rest is history ... Arsenalfaithfull become lifelong gooner... pissing off his hammer father.

North American also. It was around 2001 I think when my son was in soccer. He was one of the lucky ones here in america though. His coach was a guy that played in the Brazillian youth system for a his childhood and in to the Sr. level. After one of the kids games the coach actually encouraged the kids and parents all to go home and watch this arsenal team. that was going to be on TV.
He had stated that they played the best football. I can not remember who they had played that day I just remember the passes that they made. It was amazing. At the time I tried to watch as muck of the EPL as I could and there was nobody that could duplicate it.
For a few years I tried to pay attention to some of the teams that had Americans in them but it just did not work out. What Cesc and RVP could pair up do at the top of their game. You never had the feeling that AFC was out of any game. Unfortunately, for the last few years we have been continually rebuilding. It was just to late for me then.

Simple for me. I loved Patrick Vieira because he was formed at the same youth club as I. Wenger also started his coaching career as an assistant at the same club. List of our youth players include Zidane, Clichy, Escude, Zebina, Micoud, etc. I was teammate of Zidane for a year at the age of 15 which is my claim to fame lol.

Just kind of follow our guys out of habit. We suck now btw and lost our youth center because of club mismanagement. We were one the best, if not the best, in France for 20 years though.

sportsczy wrote:Simple for me. I loved Patrick Vieira because he was formed at the same youth club as I. Wenger also started his coaching career as an assistant at the same club. List of our youth players include Zidane, Clichy, Escude, Zebina, Micoud, etc. I was teammate of Zidane for a year at the age of 15 which is my claim to fame lol.

Just kind of follow our guys out of habit. We suck now btw and lost our youth center because of club mismanagement. We were one the best, if not the best, in France for 20 years though.

what position did you play?
Do you think Platini was more important to Le Bleus than Zidane?

My cousins from london were all Spuds supporters......so i wanted to piss them off and support Arsenal.....and i have been supporting them ever since....2000

what's not to love about Arsenal ?

Thierry Henry.

back home we used to call it 'the best of english football' somewhere in 1999/2000 #Gooners

This might sound funny but.. FIFA 05 lol.

How many guys supported them from FIFA?
I had just pirated FIFA 09 on my phone, and I just wanted to get into the game, so I didn't really care about which team I was playing.
So I kept going NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, and it was just like EPL, ARSENAL.

So yeah (:

A Gunner wrote:This might sound funny but.. FIFA 05 lol.

Rofl !!! Same here mate xD ,, Ahh Arsenal's golden era in fifa

Fifa05 was one of many reasons that i fall in love with ARSENAL

I sort of inherited my love for Arsenal from several family members when I was a kid. For a long time I didn't really have a reason for supporting Arsenal and I never questioned my support for them. Even now there's no major reason for why I support Arsenal, though I do understand why.

As cheesy as this will sound, I knew that I was genuinely in love with this club when whatever they did on the field started effecting my emotions. If we score, I'm happy. If we win, it makes my day. If we lose, I feel sad. If we lose a major cup final, I cry (2006 Champions League the best example) and if we win something, I'm elated.

Hell, even whem I'm playing as Arsenal on FIFA or Football Manager I experience similar emotions. I don't quite cry if we lose a cup final, but I do get depressed. And angry. No game can incite my rage more than Football Manager...

I don't force myself to do any of those things; they all come naturally to me.

Sushi Master wrote:Thierry Henry.

Same goes for me as well.


I actually wasn't in to soccer much at all but in the time leading up to the 06 UEFA Champions League Final, ESPN ran ads promoting the game and they highlighted Ronaldinho from Barcelona and Thierry Henry from Arsenal. Somehow through my net surfing I came across some videos of Thierry Henry highlights and I was astounded by him. He did everything with so much skill, flair, grace, etc. that I couldn't not appreciate his technique and greatness. So after that I watched the 06 CL final when it came on ESPN after school one day and I was rooting for Henry and his team Arsenal with the cool yellow O2 jerseys. Unfortunately Arsenal lost, but I was also familiarized with Barcelona and gained an appreciation for their stars Ronaldinho, Eto'o, and Deco. But ultimately that's how I became an Arsenal fan, and I've never stopped supporting them since.

That story may seem cheesy, but as a black American, soccer and european soccer at that has pretty much little to no popularity in our society. So I guess Henry being black may have had something to do with my appreciation of him and his team.

Sushi Master wrote:Thierry Henry.

This man was just god, you had to fall in love with Arsenal. I am a big French national team fan, with some of its big stars playing at Arsenal it just made things easy, Plus I hate Man u, most of my friends are Man u fans.

Arsene Wenger...
I notice i am the most junior fan here.. And i am not lucky to have seen Henry or the invincibles play...
I hated football and was a mad cricket fan.. But when i reached my college i started playing as a gk for my batch and then for my college team.. My friend who was the captain is a die hard Arsenal fan... Slowly i started watching epl around 2008 along with him and he used to tell me stories about our old players and Wenger.. And first i just watched all games of top teams, then i understood that we were unique... Our beautiful playstyle, youth policy and club management attracted me... Thanks to Wenger...
Now about over 2 years i have turned to a die hard Gooner...

well my father has been a Utd fan for 41 years and he didn't want me to just choose them because he's with them, he let me watch everyone and took me to the several academy's in the U.A.E. I met Ian Wright and Liam Brady and that was just...wow. A 7 year old me picked Arsenal, and I will never leave my beloved Arsenal. Arsenal is not just a club that's what people don't understand, our fans have an emotional attachment to the club! They make football so real, the players so charismatic , even with the 6 year barren run, I wouldn't have it any other way, this is my ARSENAL and I will FOREVER be a GUNNER and I say it with PRIDE.

Heyhey, I'm more junior than you (:

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Simple for me. I loved Patrick Vieira because he was formed at the same youth club as I. Wenger also started his coaching career as an assistant at the same club. List of our youth players include Zidane, Clichy, Escude, Zebina, Micoud, etc. I was teammate of Zidane for a year at the age of 15 which is my claim to fame lol.

Just kind of follow our guys out of habit. We suck now btw and lost our youth center because of club mismanagement. We were one the best, if not the best, in France for 20 years though.

what position did you play?
Do you think Platini was more important to Le Bleus than Zidane?

Libero and CB.

France was complete crap before Platini's generation came... i meant total garbage. Last time the France NT had done anything respectable, Kopa was playing. France failed to qualify for 1970 and 1974 WCs and failed to qualify for the Euro since 1960! Platini joined and France goes to the semis in WC 1982 and 1986... and won the Euro in 1984.

Platini put France football back on the map and created the momentum that allowed for the generation of Zidane to come along. With Zidane, Thuram, Henry, Blance, Dessailly, etc., french football players were regularly world superstars... while Platini was the only France NT player of his generation playing for a major european club.

All in all, Platini was much, much more important.

dennis bergkamp