Football (Soccer) RPF

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RPF Fandom
Name(s): Football RPF, Soccer RPF
Scope/Focus: Professional football
Date(s): 2000s-
See also: Sports RPF
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Football RPF or Soccer RPF is a real-person fiction fandom focusing on professional football/soccer players. Much of the fandom focuses on male players playing professionally in Western Europe, but there are also fans of female professionals and non-Europeans.

Fandom

The fandom, like many others, became more 'officially' established with the inception of sites like LiveJournal and, later, Archive of Our Own. It has a strong presence on the social media platform Tumblr, with teams and/or players regularly trending on the platform. For men's football, a majority of content is related to clubs which play in one of the 'big five' leagues; the Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Ligue 1 (France), Serie A (Italy), or the Bundesliga (Germany).

For women's football (often referred to as WoSo online as shorthand), for many years there has been a greater focus in fanworks on the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the US and particularly the US Women's National team. However, with increased visibility of women's football due to international competitions in the 2010s onward resulting in a huge surge in interest and popularity for other teams globally, fanworks about other players and teams has been increasing in recent years. Players from European teams such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Arsenal are appearing more in fanworks. While major events bring a surge of fans to the fandom on a regular basis, but there are also fans consistently contributing to their specific corners of fandom outside of those events.

As with many RPF fandoms, common pairings will shift based on where the athletes are at any given time, although writing about retired players and/or managers (whom are often ex-players) is commonplace in the fandom.

Rather notably, a lot of the fanworks associated with the fandom aren't written in English, with Mandarin, Russian, and French fanworks also having an established presence on the AO3 tag.

Fanworks

The Football RPF fandom, although being relatively under-recognized by general fannish organizations, has produced a surprising amount of content, with 17,064 works on AO3 alone. Other types of fanwork, such as GIFs, fanart, photo edits, and video edits are commonly found on Tumblr, as well as Instagram.

There has been a rise in video edits and the fandom around Football RPF on platforms such as TikTok as well, particularly during larger sporting events. For example, the video edits and fan discussions for Women's Football, including conversations around fanworks and the fandom around the sport, became prevalent during the 2023 Women's World Cup. Reader x Player works are popular on Tumblr, but fans on TikTok also make use of image and text slideshows to create similar stories.

Key Teams, Players, and Pairings

Teams

Due to how widespread the sport is, there's fannish content for almost every team in existence. However, if the content on AO3 is anything to go by, Premier League and La Liga clubs enjoy the patronage of several authors. Popular clubs include Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool. Of course, the success of any given club in a season can certainly impact the production of fanworks relating to that club. Additionally, national squads - groups of professional players chosen (in compliance with FIFA's eligibility rules) to represent a country in international tournaments - are often written about as well. "International break" is a common trope found in fic, especially if the pair are of differing nationalities, or the same nationality but play for different domestic clubs (i.e. two Welshmen, one plays for Barcelona, one plays for Borussia Dortmund).

As is common with male-dominated fandoms, many known heterosexuals are written as gay or bi in fanworks, with their female partners either overlooked or added as side characters to the main slash narrative. With the Women's Football, on the other hand, there are many players in teams around the world who are open about being queer, so some of the most popular players in fanworks are openly lesbian or bisexual players, though players who are heterosexual are still often written as queer for fanworks.

Players

The five most commonly tagged players under AO3's "Men's Football RPF" category are as follows[note 1]:

  • Lionel Messi (4,565 works), similar to his Madridista counterpart, he is the captain of his domestic (Barcelona) and international (Argentina) sides
  • Cristiano Ronaldo (3,701 works), Portuguese captain of Juventus and his national team
  • Sergio Ramos (2,151 works), captain of both Real Madrid and the Spain men's national team
  • Marco Reus (2,748 works), like the others mentioned, he is both a domestic and international captain, for Borussia Dortmund and Germany respectively
  • Neymar (2,671), forward for Al-Hilal and the Brazilian national team


The five most commonly tagged players under AO3's "Women's Association Football | Women's Soccer RPF" as of October 2023 are:

  • Tobin Heath (2,410 works), forward for the US Women's national team. While she has not formally retired (as of October 2024), Heath has not played for any teams for some time.
  • Kelley O'Hara (1, 904 works), former wingback for US Women's national team and Gotham FC.
  • Christen Press (1,839 works), forward for the US Women's national Team and Angel City FC.
  • Alex Morgan (1,548 works), former striker for the US Women's national Team and Captain of San Diego Wave FC
  • Ashlyn Harris (1,401 works), former goalkeeper for the US Women's national Team, with most club caps for Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit

Pairings

Men's Football RPF

Primary Pair Name People Involved # of fics[note 2] Additional Information
Bravertz Julian Brandt, Kai Havertz 532 The two Germans both gained prevalence at Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen, and paired to create an attacking duo that made both of them sought after by larger clubs, as well as sought after by fannish writers.
Cressi Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi 964 Largely considered to be the two best footballers in modern history, Ronaldo and Messi have shared a rivalry that came to a head during Ronaldo's tenure at Real Madrid, the Spanish rivals of Messi's club, Barcelona.
Deledier Dele Alli, Eric Dier 496 Both players for English club Tottenham Hotspur, the pairing rose to popularity in the early 2010's, following Alli's arrival at Tottenham, which saw the two becoming an inseparable duo and off the field.
Gotzeus Mario Gotze, Marco Reus 729 Both played for Borussia Dortmund from 2012 to 2013, but the end of the 2013 season saw Gotze sold to Bayern Munich, while Reus stayed at Dortmund. In 2016, Gotze returned, but was sold to Dutch club PSV in 2020. Both players represent Germany.
Neymessi Neymar, Lionel Messi 1,081 Their shared tenure at Barcelona wasn't perfect, but they cultivated a close friendship that lead to the inception of this pairing.
Rakidric Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric 423 Likely best known as the co-captains who lead their country to glory at the 2018 World Cup, Rakitic and Modric both featured in Croatia's 2008 Euro squad that gained them international acclaim and cemented them as modern midfield legends.
Serard Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique 618 Former international teammates (Pique retired from representing Spain in 2018, instead opting to represent Catalonia) and current defensive rivals, the two have an extensive history going all the way back to 2008.


Women's Association Football | Women's Soccer RPF

Primary Pair Name People Involved # of fics[note 2] Additional Information
Preath Tobin Heath, Christen Press 1,638 Fans suspected that Heath and Press had been in a relationship since 2016, but they had not definitively confirmed their relationship until late 2023. This speculation led to a lot of discussion and interest from their fanbase about their relationship.
Krashlyn Ashlyn Harris, Ali Krieger 1,118 Harris and Krieger both played for Orlando Pride and Gotham FC together. They married in 2019 and had a child together. In 2023, they started divorce proceedings.
Talex Tobin Heath, Alex Morgan 625 Heath and Morgan were team-mates at the Portland Thorns between 2013 and 2015.
O'Solo Kelley O'Hara, Hope Solo 479
So’Hara Kelley O'Hara, Emily Sonnett 404
Soran Lindsey Horan, Emily Sonnett 325
Kellex Alex Morgan, Kelley O'Hara 249

Championships

Events that take place at major soccer tournaments also give rise to a batch of new content and ships. In the FIFA World Cup 2022, the confrontation between Argentina and Mexico gave rise to the ship Lionel Messi/Guillermo Ochoa.

Common Tropes

Tropes associated specifically with the Football RPF fandom, as well as general sport RPF as a whole, can usually be divided into the categories of 'environmental'-specific and 'character'-specific. Environmental-specific tropes usually revolve around the world or universe in which the characters exist in, whereas character-specific tropes revolve around the personalities, actions, and presentations of characters.

The fandom has a significant amount of readerfic and player/Original Female Character fic.

Environmental-specific

  • Non-famous or alternate job universes, where characters are given a break from professional football and can bartend or run a flower shop instead.
  • Magical universes, often where characters remain professionals, but with a twist - they have some kind of magical power, like telekinesis or levitation.

Character-specific

  • Anthropomorphism, usually the personification of clubs or the personification of places/emblems heavily associated with a club.

Memes and Trends

Controversies

TikTok users and negative opinions on 'Woso stories'

Real Person Fiction about women's footballers are a popular fan activity on TikTok, and are often referred to as 'Woso stories'. This is a little surprising because the platform does not easily lend itself to fiction writing, however the videos often have thousands of likes and comments, and dedicated readers across multiple videos. As the women's football fandom on TikTok continues to grow, controversy and criticism of these stories is increasing. See: Woso Stories for more information.

Archives and Fannish Links

Livejournal

Notes

  1. ^ All information in the 'player' and 'pairing' categories is accurate as of October 2023
  2. ^ a b Numbers are taken from AO3's tag system.
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