10 Coolest Clubs In World Football

Who need trophies...?

By Dave Pittaway /

2011 Getty Images

It’s easy to support a successful club. Following the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid, or Paris Saint-Germain and watching them lift trophy after trophy is not difficult. Seriously, what’s the worst place your team will finish? 2nd? 3rd? Maybe 5th in a really bad year. And if that does happen you can rest assured that your club will never go bankrupt, always have a cup run, and continually be in the market for players that cost around the same as an aircraft carrier.

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It may be easy to support these clubs, but it’s not cool. It’s why every football fan worth his salt has a couple of secondary teams that for some reason or another they pause briefly over when the scores are being read out. Everyone has an alternative team in the lower division of English football, a Scottish team, and a random European club thrown in for good measure. Case in point: Scunthorpe, St. Johnstone, and Genoa.

But again, these are not necessarily cool football clubs. So in regards to this, here is a list of the 10 coolest football teams in world football selected either due to their footballing philosophy, political stances, or just because they’re total badasses.

10. AS Livorno

Situated in western Tuscany, the port of Livorno has always been a rebellious city and this mentality is reflected in their football club. This is the city where the Italian Communist Party was founded and left wing politics is still a major part of this club’s identity.

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Banners depicting Che Guevara and Fidel Castro are a common sight on match days, and when they travelled to Milan to kick off the 05-06 Serie A season, the fans spent the entire 90 minutes mocking their opponent's honorary club President and actual Italian Prime Minister/ elastic sexual deviant Silvio Berlusconi.

This mentality is reflected in the players Livorno attracts, the most notable of which is Cristiano Lucarelli who looks like the jock boyfriend in every 90s movie crossed with a honey badger. A man the fans would follow into battle without a moment’s hesitation. A man with the club’s badge tattooed on his body as well his shirt number 99; an homage to one of the ten ultras groups Livorno has and he once paid for a bus of ultras to travel to an away game.

Die-hard supporters of left wing politics and their club, Livorno’s blue collar mentality, old school fortress and penchant for pyrotechnics is what make them of Europe’s coolest football clubs- something which will be a running theme across this list.

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