LONDON — Football fandom is undergoing a fundamental shift, with growing numbers of supporters attaching themselves to individual star players rather than the clubs those players represent, according to new research and interviews with sports industry analysts examining the trend.

The clearest recent example came with Lionel Messi's 2023 move to Inter Miami, a transfer that instantly reshaped the club's global visibility. Sports brand strategist James Kirkham said the shift in fan behavior surrounding that move has become increasingly common far beyond South Florida. People across the United Kingdom and Europe can now regularly be seen wearing that flamingo pink of Inter Miami, Kirkham said, despite having no personal connection to the city or team, a pattern he attributed directly to Messi's individual pull rather than any traditional club loyalty.

That dynamic extends well beyond Messi and his longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo, whose move to Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr has produced a similar wave of fans following the player into an unfamiliar league. Kirkham said the trend traces back further, to the growing influence of football video games on younger fans, pointing to an earlier surge of support for Zlatan Ibrahimovic driven by similar dynamics. He described younger supporters as generally less rigid or tribal in their club loyalties than previous........

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