As Europeans we always think Americans don’t really care about football (soccer) like we don’t know much about American football, basketball or baseball. So which world famous soccer players have you heard of? Messi? Ronaldo (both Portuguese and Brazilian) ? Müller? Pelé? Maradona? Kahn? Neuer? Modric? Donovan?

30 comments

  3. There was a guy named Renaldo, Beckham, and Messi are the only names I can think of.

  6. I know a lot. There’s actually a decent amount of Americans that watch soccer.

    This subreddit just tends to be filled with older guys so I imagine their sport growing up was Football or Basketball instead of soccer.

    I’m a Man City fan myself.

  8. I’ve heard of Messi, Ronaldo but I didn’t realize there was two, and Pele. Oh, and David Beckham. The dude married a Spice Girl.

  9. I’ve heard of half of those you listed, but I couldn’t tell you who they play for, what position they play, when they played (other than I know Pele played many years ago), and I couldn’t pick any of them out of a lineup.

    I don’t actively dislike soccer, and it is even my preferred sport to play in videogame form between FIFA (previously Winning 11 until that series took a nose dive in quality) and Football Manager, I just don’t give af about *watching* sports in general. I could pick out plenty of football and basketball players in a lineup and tell you what team they play for though.

  11. Pele… that hot English guy… the American girl that took her shirt off… aaaaand… that’s it.

  18. Yes. Bradley Walsh, host of The Chase, was a pro-footballer, and I know of him.

  20. Football/soccer is more popular here than many Euros think. It’s just not *overwhelmingly* popular like it is in much of the rest of the world.

    Messi and Ronaldo are well known because they’re generally considered the two best players alive right now, and have played for some of the largest clubs in the world. Everybody knows David Beckham, even before he came to the US and later helped launch a new MLS side. Americans may not know much about them beyond their existence and status as players, but most people will know who they are.

    I personally follow the EPL regularly and watch the World Cup when it rolls around. The nature of the game’s popularity in the States is such that you’ll get a broad range of answers. Some people follow it religiously, some are only interested when the USMNT/WNT are involved in a tournament, some don’t care at all. MLS is doing well and continues to grow, but it’s still not the NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL. The EPL and other major Euro leagues are popular amongst fans of the sport, but lack of local significance means they have limited exposure beyond that. That could start to change now that the Premier League has a streaming deal with Peacock and the UEFA Champions League is on Paramount+. It used to be nearly impossible to watch European matches stateside.

  21. I may have heard of a few that you have listed but I didn’t know they had a connection to soccer. I just assumed they were foreign celebrities of some type.

  22. I’ve been a soccer nut since I was little and started playing soccer in the 70s. I’d say I know most of the big stars from Pele, Beckenbauer, Best, Beckham, Maradona, Zidane, Messi, Ronaldo, etc. Now I’m trying to keep up with Mbappe who blew me away with his talent. As troubled as Maradona was, I still think that he might be the best I’ve seen.

  23. If they have played in a world cup within the past 20 years I probably know of them. Best, Maradona, Pele, Zenga, Mcbride and few others I know going further back then that.

    Soccer is growing in popularity here but unlike Europe it’s far more common for people to support teams in multiple different sports. It’s fairly common to support all the teams across sports that are based in your city/state

  24. Matt Turner is an American hero, though not last night. /s (I’m sure Europeans and most Americans don’t have a clue who he is)

    I watch more soccer than the average American so I’ve heard of Messi and Ronaldo. That being said I pay more attention to leagues here so I haven’t really heard of too many of the rest.

  25. I think a fair proportion of Americans would at least know Messi, Pele, David Beckham. Either from being *that* much of an icon, or it’s their kid’s favorite soccer player or something.

    Soccer *is popular* in the US as a youth sport. Just minimal interest at a professional level.

    I followed some soccer when I was in college, early-mid 2000’s. So some players around that time frame. Ruuuuud van Nistlerooy. Carlos Valderrama. The Ronaldos. Oliver Kahn. Landon Donovan, Damarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard. Zenedine Zidane. Wayne Rooney.

  27. I will say OP your question is disproportionately bringing out the pro-soccer crowd. Kind of like how asking “do people really need their pickup trucks?” brings out all the people who insist they haul something once a week, even tho in practice IRL that seems not to be the case for many. We’ve heard of Ronaldo but may not understand it’s two different guys. We’ve heard of Pelé and Messi and *maybe* Maradona. We’ve heard of Beckham because of the movie and because he came here. The average person may not know any more about these people other than their names and that they are/were good.

    You’ve focused on men’s soccer; while women’s soccer is a still a niche fanbase, the US has had some of the best Olympics women soccer teams ever, so I can name more US women players than men for sure.

  28. Zlatan, Harry Kane, David Beckham, Messi, Ronaldo, Tim Howard, Christian Pulisic, Thiago Silva, I could keep going. I used to play a lot of 2015 FIFA

  29. I wonder what that kid Freddy Adu is up to? I remember a few years back he was one of the best

  30. Most Americans don’t care about soccer. I love it though and I keep track of all the big leagues in Europe and the Champions League. The fact is, though, that you can’t walk down the street in America and strike up a conversation with someone about whether prime Luis Suarez or prime Lewandowski was better.

    You can’t walk into a bar and talk about how Chelsea is collapsing and whether Pochettino is the right man for them for the future. You can’t get 99.9% of people to even know who Luka Modric is or whether he was better than Xavi or Iniesta.

    You’ll never find virtually anyone that’s heard of Johan Cruyff or “Total Football.” Almost zero chance you’ll ever have a conversation with anyone about topics like this.

    People in the US just don’t know or about about soccer in large enough numbers. There’s no culture for it here. There isn’t a rabid or hardcore fanbase in the US.

    Kids don’t practice moves in the park and try to become the next Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, etc. Kids imagine themselves dunking on the basketball court or scoring the game winning touchdown in the super bowl. Maybe some day we’ll be at that level but it’ll take decades if not over a century for us to catch up.

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