If your child also supports Leo Messi against Maccabi Haifa, he is not alone

If the new soccer fans are less committed to a specific team, and their sympathy is measured by different tools than before, is it any wonder that even in Israel there will be many who prefer Paris Saint-Germain over our champion?

That's how the star is ahead of the group

Didi Hamburger

14/09/2022

Wednesday, September 14, 2022, 09:00 Updated: 09:28

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Tikteknu, today's summary clip 13.9 (Sport1)

I am a mother of four boys.

The soundtrack of my house is football broadcasts on the sports channels.

My sons play football, watch football, are sick of football but none of them are "authentic" fans.

They can switch teams according to the mood or the state of the table.

They are mainly fans of the new outfits of the players, watch recaps on YouTube, champions in FIFA, build national teams, buy and sell players for millions of dollars. They love the brand and are less loyal to the community and the flag. They represent the "new generation of fans".

Soccer is the most popular team sport in the world, it is a cultural phenomenon that crosses borders, ethnicities and sectors, far beyond a sports leisure activity.

Saturday after Saturday the stadiums are bursting with fans, most of them still "authentic" fans, a captive audience of the team that even the strongest internal and external fluctuations will not affect.

They belong to the club and feel that the club belongs to them - this is a Catholic wedding.

Their passion for the game is unwavering and unwavering, regardless of wins or losses.

But at the same time and under the auspices of globalization, a new practice of sympathy has emerged.

The "new fans" are football consumers who are less connected to patriotic and local contexts.

They are attracted to the big clubs and successes, admire the big stars, dream of being like them and being famous.

For them, the football team is a commodity whose value rises and falls according to its prestige in the market.

Paris Saint-Germain player, Lionel Messi, celebrates with Neymar (Photo: Reuters)

Group sympathy is replaced by personal sympathy.

What in the past the home team made the fan feel, today it is the multi-talent, the superstar, who is also a model and a network star, maybe a singer and above all rich, with a glittering life that you can dream of but cannot achieve.

If sympathy for the team has always been expressed in going to the stadium, being a member of a club and even watching TV, today sympathy is also measured in the number of likes on Facebook and Instagram.

The more the club is interested in the fan, the more he returns his sympathy or followers, until he feels that the club cares for him more than the state.

Commercialization succeeds in weakening national sympathy and turns it into commercial sympathy.

Leo Messi, for example, is much more than a soccer player who sells shoes and kits.

Messi sells a dream and belonging.

He is one of the new celebrities, cultural heroes whose personality, work or life story can be identified with, and they for their part create a dream of a different life possibility.

The identification process of the young fan/fan does not remain a one-sided relationship, he creates a relationship that he can perceive as intimate with that celeb, who uploads family photos of himself with his children and his wife on his Instagram account open to all, and the fan can comment on them.

It is not meant to be argued that a Barcelona fan will abandon his team and switch to PSG following Messi's move, but one cannot argue with the fact that Paris' Instagram account grew by 4.5 million followers just days after the move.

Messi is a brand, and he is more than the club he plays for (ironically on the famous slogan of his home team Barcelona).

Messi's Instagram account has more followers than both teams combined, the one in the past and the one in the present.

In recent days there has been great excitement surrounding the arrival of Paris Saint-Germain to Israel.

Maccabi Haifa fans and the team forbid fans from coming to the stadium with Messi and Paris Saint-Germain shirts and products, and you can understand them.

But if your child also asked to go to the game to watch Messi - he is not alone.

More in Walla!

It's not just the food and not just the price: the meat institution from the north is coming to Tel Aviv

In collaboration with the cowboys' stack

The mass is still in the loyal audience of the team, but among the football fans there is a large share that demands the stars (Photo: Maor Alxalsi)

The younger generation of fans is motivated by the admiration for money and fame, for instant products like a born star, for network stars and YouTubers.

He allows himself to be separated from his family and like whatever he wants.

He understands that every like is worth money.

Paraphrasing Kennedy's famous sentence, he asks - what can football do for me?

It's hard to say that this generation is going to change the face of fans and rewrite our perception of audiences, clubs and players.

If we once thought that the video would kill the radio stars, today the question arises to what extent the culture of likes and stars will kill the passion for the group - and will reign in its place the star.

Who is the athlete of the year?

Hanna Knyizba Minenko

Luna Chamtai

Anastasia Gorbenko

Raz Hershko

Timna Nelson Levy

Daria Atmanov

11962 participants

Who is the athlete of the year?

Artyom Dolgofiat

Blessing Afripa

Danny Avdia

Omar Azili

Maru Tefri

Jonathan Kapitolnik

14727 participants

• The writer is a cultural researcher, artist and mother of four

• sport

• world football

Tags

• Lionel Messi

• Paris Saint Germain