Manchester United: ‘Why assist a group that loses quite a bit?’ – how followers in Asia moved on from the Purple Devils

Fifteen years ago, United ruled the roost in South Korea, with national hero Park Ji-sung winning trophy after trophy.

“Back then, they were obviously the club which had the biggest fan base in South Korea,” said author Lee Seung-mo. “The popularity they had was incomparable with any other European football teams at that time.

“Now they still have many passionate fans, but the situation has changed a lot. They keep underperforming by their standards.”

At the same time, other English clubs have been making progress on and off the pitch.

“Especially after Pep Guardiola’s arrival, Manchester City got a lot of supporters in South Korea and Liverpool got their glory back,” said Lee.

Liverpool have held deep support in the traditional South-East Asian hotbeds like Malaysia and Singapore that have watched English football for over half a century but their recent resurgence has helped them in markets such as India, China and Japan which started tuning in to the Premier League much later.

“Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool were not just successful again but seemed more cool with the way they played, their stars as well as Anfield,” said Mumbai-based United fan Rahul Singh.

“City have just been so successful with Pep and Erling Haaland is very famous. United are not only not winning trophies but they are not exciting to watch.”

This has, according to Singh, led younger fans to look elsewhere.

“Why choose to support a team that loses a lot?” he said.

There are other options for those starting to get into the sport.

“Some fans, like those who are between 25 and 40 who began following United in the nineties and 2000s, are still there,” said Bunyavirapan. “These days, though, the number of kids that support Man City are increasing.

“One of my friends tried to buy United jerseys for his sons but they chose City jerseys instead.”

That is only going to continue in Malaysia also, according to Deol: “The younger generation want to associate themselves with teams that are actually consistently at the top.”