When I was younger, especially between the ages of 15 to around 27, I feel like I was a lot more invested in my own team and wider football in general. I knew my own squad inside & out and could easily list players from the majority of players in the top leagues.
However, now at age 36, I find that I really struggle to keep up with football in general. I hear about players my club is going to sign and a lot of the time I have no idea who they are. I’ll look at highlights of Serie A & La Liga and for the most part won’t recognise most of the players.
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like as they’re getting older, they’re less engaged with the game?
I get what you mean. When Everton were 0-2 down against Wimbledon in 1993-94ish and facing relegation, I was in tears. The emotion when they came back to win 3-2 was immense. And that was just from “watching” the game on Ceefax! I would read every edition of Match, Shoot, 442 and any fanzine I could get my hands on.
Towards the end of the century, I went to Goodison on another last day relegation escape against Coventry (Vialli’s Chelsea beat Bolton to keep them up) and again the relief was incredible. If they were relegated this season, it would not preoccupy me at all.
We just have much less time when we are older with family life taking priority, plus interests naturally diversify. I still love the game and will watch YouTube highlights, but I cannot go anywhere close to the depths I would have as a teenager. It was a healthy past-time though. The only kids in the 80s who knew the countries of Liechtenstein and Paraguay existed, or secondary cities in Poland and Norway were football fans.