American college football players are embracing global international football (what us Yanks call soccer) at a rate you wouldn’t believe. Yes, a lot of it has to do with the FIFA video game, but still, American millenials love international soccer. The beautiful game is huge among the 2015 Notre Dame football roster.
Fighting Irish wide receiver Chris Brown broke it down Saturday, following his team’s 30-22 win over #14 Georgia Tech:
“C.J. (Prosise), Elijah Shumate, Avery Sebastian, Torii Hunter, overseas soccer we have our teams that we’ve picked, obviously when USA is playing we stick with them,” Brown said.
“Torii’s is Mexico, C.J.’s is Juventus, Jarron Jones is Chelsea, Avery Sebastian is Arsenal, Elijah Shumate is England, so we got a little league going.”
When I told Brown I was a Manchester United supporter he responded
“Oh, I like Man United, they’re nice. They’re nice.”
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At Notre Dame football Media Day, Brown articulated his love for Borussia Dortmund (BVB) in detail.
“My mentality is I feel like everyone is in to Real Madrid, Barcelona, but I wanted to get into that kind of quiet team, and I feel like BvB is a nice little underdog team,” he said.
“I’m all BVB all the way, Marco Reus my favorite player, (Ilkay) Gundogan, obviously my second favorite player,” Brown continued.
“I’m a big soccer guy, I just recently started to grow a love for soccer the past two years through the video games and stuff.”
The affinity for footy is not just a Notre Dame football thing. We’ve chronicled it in the Big Ten too.
Northwestern wideout Christian Jones is a Tottenham Hotspur fan. You can hear his Premier League picks at this link. Jones’ teammate Ifeadi Odenigbo likes Manchester City.
Former Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner was honored to have his picture taken with Manchester United icon Ryan Giggs, and Wolverines football players were thrilled to see Cristiano Ronaldo take to the pitch in his home stadium last summer.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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