Should I Support Liverpool FC?

Founded in 1892 after a dispute at Everton, Liverpool grew into England's most successful club through the 70s and 80s under managers Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, and Joe Fagan. They've won 19 league titles and 6 European Cups/Champions Leagues — the most of any English club. After a 30-year league drought, Jürgen Klopp ended it in 2020 with a swashbuckling team that played "heavy metal football." The club is also defined by tragedy: 97 fans died at Hillsborough in 1989, and the fight for justice took 27 years and shaped the club's deep social conscience.

Emotional, relentless, romantic. Liverpool play with their hearts on their sleeves and the fanbase matches that energy. Under new manager Arne Slot, the team won the title in his first season. The football is fast, transition-heavy, and built on a brutal counter-press. There's a working-class pride that runs through everything — this isn't a designer club, it's a team built on songs, scarves, and never giving up until the last whistle.

Anfield singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" before kickoff is the single most iconic moment in club football — Americans who experience it in person almost always tear up. The Kop end is the spiritual home of English supporter culture; flags, mosaics, and songs are constantly evolving and player-specific ("Allez Allez Allez," "Mo Salah running down the wing"). The fanbase is famously left-wing, fiercely loyal to their own, and protective. Liverpool fans don't trust the media — and given the historic mistreatment of the club after Hillsborough, that distrust is earned. Boycott of The Sun newspaper continues citywide to this day.

• +Anfield on a European night is the best atmosphere in world sport
• +You get a winning team with deep history — best of both worlds
• +Massive American fanbase makes it easy to find watch parties
• +The club stands for something beyond football (Hillsborough, social justice)
• +Mo Salah is one of the greatest players of his generation

• −The fanbase has a reputation for entitlement when things go wrong
• −Tickets to Anfield are nearly impossible to get without season-ticket connections
• −Manchester United fans will give you grief — and so will City fans now

Closest US sports comp: Boston Red Sox + Pittsburgh Steelers — working-class identity, religious fanbase, tragic history, and a bunch of championships to back it up.