Thanks for sharing your story @dansubrosa

Being from the USA, watching premier league football in the 90s was pretty much non-existent. My mom got satellite tv back in 2000 and we had Fox Soccer - holy hat was 15 year old me in heaven. Finally getting to watch European club football, and not having to either settle for MLS and have to wait for international matches was a dream.

It wasn't until we got that channel that I started watching the premier league relatively regularly. As I watched that season, I kept seeing Chelsea matches, Chelsea highlights etc. and next thing I know every iteration of FIFA I am starting careers with Chelsea, transferring all the best players in the world to Chelsea. I could've been a fan of Man Utd, Liverpool, Arnseal, etc but something kept drawing me back to Chelsea.

I was always really intrigued by Italian football as well, but no club grabbed a hold of me like Chelsea did

On 30/01/2021 at 10:14, Mike Carefree said:

The year was 1967. I was a boy of 12..Back then i thought spurs n tottenham were 2 different teams..i lived in leather lane ec1...my next door neighbour john wake,much older took me to chelsea v man city...As a 12 yr old i was reborn a chelsea shed boy...plus....i think i was born to eventually hate spurs.

 

I, too, hate T*ttenham and  Sp*rs

My son played for a youth team that was as high level as it gets around Georgia and Florida, The Golden Isles Soccer Association.. Chelsea FC sponsored the team. 

Like most real chelsea fans these days, not the plastic ones on FB and twittheads I followed in my father's very wise footsteps.

My dad a lifelong chelsea fan and my mother a scouser(she's only really 'a fan' when they play against us) I had a very easy choice to make despite her best intentions (including buying me some never worn carlsberg branded tops).

I've always been a short arse so growing up so i idolised wisey and franco but with the school football team I tried my best to emulate Graham Le Saux.

Nowadays with my hair betraying me I look more like a LaBeouf.

Long story short....I'm  a daddies boy

Aged 5 or 6 growing up in Billericay, my older brother was (is) a Spammer, so I couldn't support them.  However, his best mate supported Chelsea and I thought he was so cool, so I supported Chelsea too.  It would have been around 1970, so I suspect brothers best mate supported them because of the cup final (which makes me a glory hunted by proxy ?).

In common with all those who started supporting the Blues at that time the last 20 years of success, compensates for the previous 30 years of repeatedly crushed expectations.

6 minutes ago, fester said:

Aged 5 or 6 growing up in Billericay, my older brother was (is) a Spammer, so I couldn't support them.  However, his best mate supported Chelsea and I thought he was so cool, so I supported Chelsea too.  It would have been around 1970, so I suspect brothers best mate supported them because of the cup final (which makes me a glory hunted by proxy ?).

In common with all those who started supporting the Blues at that time the last 20 years of success, compensates for the previous 30 years of repeatedly crushed expectations.

That should probably say "dreams" or "hopes" rather that "expectations" ? 

Im 35, when i was starting to get into football as 6 or 7 year old, we didnt have sky growing up, so the only games on tv, were fa cup matches, and motd. The only football that i got to watch regularly was serie a, with gazetta football italia, so i was more of fan of Italian football than English football.

Neither parent was really into football either, so i didnt really have an influence to push me towards a particular club. I grew up in Southport which is in between Preston and Liverpool, but i never found affiliation to any local teams.

Then Chelsea signed Gullit, who was my favourite player at the time, i think i was more impressed with his dreadlocks than anything else being so young at the time, and from then I started to follow chelsea. 

More and more of the players i was watching in italy started ending up at Chelsea, and by the time Chelsea beat Liverpool 4-2 in the fa cup on bbc, which is the earliest 90 minutes i can remember watching, I was chelsea mad, and i have been ever since. 

Now i have 2 boys, both of them are Chelsea aswell, not that they had a choice and the youngest is only 3, but its a nice thing to finally share my passion with family. 

Ive been promising My eldest for 12 months to take him to a game with me, and this virus has really put a delay on what im sure will be a very nice memory, with my son at the bridge for the 1st time. Hopefully next season we can get the grounds open and packed again.

After beating Spurs on Thursday night.    How good was it to be a Chelsea supporter!?