What makes a "true supporter" of a certain club has been a topic of debate among the football fraternity for decades. You will get the fanatical followers who will go to home and away matches without fail, regardless of the travel involved, and having donned their team's respective colours. There will be fans who purely buy a season ticket for home matches each season in order to guarantee their spot in a certain stand or area, while there will be people who get to fixtures as and when they can, sometimes choosing to view games on the television or by listening to the radio. There will be conflicting views within each section, and they likely have a solid argument to back up their opinion, but where do they stand on fans from different countries who cannot get to matches?
Some supporters are prepared to travel over land and sea just to get a glimpse of their idols, and that has been the case with a fan of West Ham United who is based in China. While he was fortunate to be close to where the Premier Asia Trophy was staged earlier this summer, he once spent five hours of his honeymoon waiting to have a photo taken with Mark Noble, as can be seen in the Betway documentary below.
It poses the question of whether anyone should ever regard themselves as a bigger fan of a club than anyone else. While someone who is able to attend 10 years worth of matches in succession will be naturally respected by those who are aware of such an achievement, the documentary highlights how someone thousands of miles away can still be as passionate as the person who you see very week with the club's emblem tattooed on their arm.
As Noble alludes to in his interview, it can feel like a surreal situation, being admired by a random person when you're not necessarily the star of the team. However, every fan will have their favourites - and not-so favourites - within the squad, while there will be those given the tag as cult heroes for a variety of reasons. The supporter in the video did his research before selecting a team to follow and dons his retro shirt with pride, but how did you become a fan of your chosen club?
