I was never born into a football family so I do not have tradition as many of you do, but being from Poland, and after moving to the states. My cousins and I would spend every Sunday after Church playing the FIFA games on Gamecube. It would was always my cousin and I, versus my brother and my other cousin. We played international tournaments with us being either Spain, Italy, or Brasil with our rivals being France, England, or Brasil. And these were the FIFA verisons where you could have tackled the goalkeeper and get a red card, which my brother would always do...pissed us off every time.
After the international tournaments, we always played with EPL teams (do not know why) most specifically between Arsenal and Man United (when they had Ronaldo) with some AC Milan (with a prime Ronaldinho) thrown in there (and I think Inter as well, when they were a beast of a club, prime Kaka). As much fun FIFA was, I wanted to start following a team and it was down to two of the teams I played as a kid throughout my whole life, Man United or Arsenal. When I saw Arsenal, it was just love at first sight. Nothing about Man United ever appealed to me except their 5 star ranking in a stupid game (please forgive me, I was just a kid). Unluckily for me, I started following Arsenal after their invincible run of just obliterating any and all EPL teams. My first game is when we had Fabregas as Captain, RvP on IR, Arshavin in actual good form, and Djourou in our starting XI.
So even though Arsenal had probably their poorest team any longtime Gunner fan has seen in decades, I was still hooked and became a huge fan. Besides any of the other teams I mention, Arsenal is by far the best passion I have besides hockey.
When I went on our family trip across Europe, my Mom's best friend lives in Milano, Italy. We travelled from Milano to Venice to Rome to Florence. When visiting Florence (which IMO is still the best city I've ever been too), I got the chance to watch Fiorentina whom I think lost 2-1 or 2-0 (was a kid at a time), but again was hooked. So they had a great deal of influence on who I watched in Serie A, but after all the match fixing, poor stadiums, and just lack of buzz concerning Serie A, I stopped watching for a lot of years. I still do not watch a lot of Serie A, though this is due to lack of time because of school. But I still cheer on Fiorentina and IMO they some of the best looking kits in all of the World (perhaps not this years).
Concerning international competition, my only true feeling goes to Poland and since their lack of success at practically any major/non-major tournament, I do not have a deep enough passion when it comes to World Cup, Euros, or others. I still love and watch the events, but more as a neutral than anything (I do go against certain teams). Lately and weirdly enough, I've been able to watch a couple of Africa Cup of Nations fixtures and I have really enjoyed it.
As for the actual football is concerned, I was always a goaler in hockey, so whenever I played football with my friends I was always a goalkeeper in the game. But once I get some of my life back from school, I was thinking of joining a beer league and starting up as either a CDM or BXB guy. And haven't played since I was 14ish, I probably majorly suck.
So....all in all, even though I got hooked to the game of football by a stupid game and many of you have been watching for twenty years or more, depending on your age, while I have only watched for 8ish years. I hope my story doesn't make me a fake fan or anything along those lines. Because I truly do love football.