Highlights

  • 52% of people admit to being a football fan.
  • The World Cup is the most-awaited football championship globally.
  • More fans prefer Lionel Messi over Cristiano Ronaldo as a football athlete.
  • Real Madrid is the strongest football team according to a poll.

Football, or so-called soccer in some places, is known to be the sport with most fans worldwide. The sport binds various nations around the world and triggers patriotism within a country every time an international game is played.

With a very prominent sport, Real Research launched a brief survey wanting to know more about general football preferences. When this research was launched to random respondents around the world, more than half admits to being a fan of the sport (52%).

Among the demographics, the survey was dominated by male respondents (79%), aged 29 to 39. Female respondents take a smaller portion (21%) — below a quarter of the total sampling population. Notably, most of the respondents are in the late prime age between 29 to 39 years old.

The World Cup: Most Watched Football Tournament Worldwide

There are international football games around the world, yet only a handful are being watched and known by the greater population. In a poll asking which among the football championship games people religiously follow and watch, the World Cup (45%) receives almost half of the votes of the poll.

The World Cup records 2,228 votes, doubling the number of votes received by the UEFA European Championship (25%) with 1,255. UEFA European Championships sits at second, followed by FIFA Confederations Cup (12%) and UEFA Champions Cup (8%). Other UEFA games also made it on the list including UEFA Europa League (6%) and UEFA Supercup (3%).

Real-research football tournament insights

On national-level football, most would most likely watch the English Premier League (36%). On the other hand, people would probably be tuned in on the Spanish La Liga games (22%) and the German Bundesliga (18%). Some leagues also made a significant share in viewership. The Italian Serie A (10%), French Ligue 1 (6%), Korean K League (4%), and Portuguese Primeira Liga (2%) all got less than 10% poll votes.

In this poll, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Korea, and Portugal surfaced to hosting competitive and entertaining football matches. These nations have built a fandom and a following that extends beyond the borders of their own country.

Football Hall of Fame: Lionel Messi and Manchester United

There are few names that associate immediately with football; Lionel Messi is for sure one of them. When asked to identify the greatest football player of the 21st century, Lionel Messi received 1,597 votes (32%).

In second place, Portugal’s pride Cristiano Ronaldo accounts closely with Messi with 1,383 votes (28%). The two players are clearly ahead on the poll. Other recognized players were Neymar (16%), Kylian Mbappe (7%), Son Heung-Min (7%), Xavi Hernandez (6%).

Real research players insights

The names above are football talents who have rigorous training to be on the worldwide football field. Learning more about which football club produces the best football talents, Manchester United takes top class (34%).

Barcelona (29%) comes close in second while Real Madrid (16%), another Spanish club, follows. Juventus also got recognized by 10% of the sampling community. Galatasaray (3%) and Paris Saint-Germain (1%) were also selected by a few.

And when respondents were asked to reveal which football club they think is the strongest in the industry at present, Real Madrid (26%) comes first. Italy-based Juventus football club (22%) and Barcelona (17%) came second and third consecutively.  Manchester City (11%) and Liverpool (4%) also got into the top of the poll ranking with minimal votes.

Real-research-strongest-football-club-insights

Methodology

Survey Title“Survey on Football Preferences”
DurationDecember 13 to 18, 2020
Number of Participants5,000
DemographicsMales and females, aged 19 to 60+
Participating CountriesBelgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA.