“My Fan Journey”: Brandon Chemers: The Chinese Football Podcast s3e22

We continue our series of in-depth explorations of the personal journeys taken by WEF’s leading contributors – this week host Steve Crooks speaks one-to-one with Brandon Chemers to learn more about a story leading from Chicago to Beijing, via Shanghai – just how close did Brandon come to taking up the Shenhua religion?

We chat about the great Beijing-Shanghai rivalry and how it manifests in football, and some stories from away trips over the years – including a recap of a harrowing away debut in Henan.

A wide-ranging conversation also covers the club-country conundrum, process from football tourism through to getting behind a club and becoming part of a fan group – and then transitioning from solo match going to getting a young family into the game and a top parenting tip on ‘stadium language’.

Along with some top anecdotes and matchgoing memories, Brandon shares some recommendations to encourage newer fans to get into the game in China and embrace their local club – and hints at a couple more stories which may come out in future interviews.

If you enjoy listening to the pod and appreciate the considerable time and effort which goes into producing each episode, please consider supporting us financially via Patreon.

You can also subscribe on Patreon, and on itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or various other platforms. You can also download the pod to your device.

We are also very pleased to be hosted and broadcast on Football Nation Radio.

Don’t miss the chance to get involved in the discussion on Twitter at #chinafootypod – we love hearing feedback and do our best to field your questions and suggested topics every week.