It’s not enough to watch the match, buy the scarf, gather in the pub, stand in the crowd and support your club. Sometimes, you need to geek out on soccer during your daily Internetting as well.
That’s why we’re here to give you a jumping off point for your soccer-related exploration. Here are some of our favorite soccer Tumblrs, featuring beautiful photos, tasty morsels of soccer culture, analysis, humor and much more.
Obviously, Tumblr is a very big place, and it’s likely we missed something. If you have a favorite soccer tumble-log that we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments.
Videos, Vines and GIFs of golazos, skills, pitch invasions and other in-game action. Those looking for non-EPL footy footage will be pleased to know there’s quite a lot of Bundesliga, Serie A, MLS and even J-League present in this ever-expanding media library.
If anyone tells you the U.S. and Canada cannot sustain a robust supporter culture, send ‘em to Robert Rodgers’s American Casual. Every week, Rodgers posts the best tifo, two-poles, pyro displays and other striking images from soccer supporters throughout the United States and Canada. And it’s not just MLS, either — NASL, USL and NPSL all get plenty of love. Folded neatly among the images of North American supporters, you’ll find “casual”-inspired style that will leave you coveting a wardrobe full of Fred Perry shirts and Adidas originals.
3. The Football Shirt Collective
As the game has evolved, so has its fashion, and this blog has them all chronicled—the great, the bad, the retro, the Caribous. In addition to the online monument to retro sports fashion, the blog features interviews with writers, comedians and former players like Liverpool and Ireland’s Jason McAteer about their first football shirts, their favorite shirts and other happy memories of the game.
If the soccer universe had a center, it would be Brazil. Futebol de Campo captures the tension and fervor and magic of Brazilian league soccer, from the pitch to the stands to the roiling build-up outside the ground. Among the photos, you’ll find a lot of close-ups of drums and very elaborate tattoos.
An exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin blog, Match Photography features stream of thrilling photos from matchdays past and present, without much commentary or filler getting in the way. You want goal celebrations featuring Steven “The Scottish Messi” Naismith? You got ‘em. Want to have a tender nostalgia moment with Thierry Henry in an Arsenal shirt? That’s here too. Want the calm before the storm of a decisive, match-altering, world-shaking strike? You can probably get that here too.
Chances are quite a few of you are already doing this and are like, “C’mon, PasteSoccer, what are you even doing? We’ve been GFOPs since long before Brazil!” Fair enough. But if you’re not following the World Cup darlings-turned-NBC sports SOCCAH! guys on Tumblr, do it for the PhotoShop jobs and fan art alone. And where else are you gonna get such magical phrases as “warrior poet Clint Dempsey” accompanied by this?
Not just Monday mornings or pictures of center backs, but lots of great, simply captioned photos of soccering around the globe. You’ll find this weekend’s match next to vintage Football League snaps next to tifo from around Major League Soccer for a nice sporting smorgasbord. There is an unusually high amount of Vincent Kompany looking perturbed, but that just may be a sign of the times.
One of the top team-affiliated Tumblrs, here you’ll find a simple but substantial look into the evolution of one of America’s most stories clubs, and by proxy, the evolution of soccer in America itself. There’s a lot of Pele and Beckenbauer to be had, but the Tumblr traces the cultural impact of the club beyond those key stars. You’ll find Leif Garrett, Pink Floyd and other famous faces rocking Cosmos gear and cheering the club on.
The joy of the game for the game’s sake, through the eyes of some very happy dogs. The pups depicted here don’t need your fancy Premier League or La Liga sides, and whose humans definitely don’t support clubs that make actual jerseys for dogs. Just lose yourself in these happy pictures of dogs cheering on their Sunday league humans, looking sharp or snuggly in their scarves, trying to get in on the action and showing off their loyalties to Bromley FC and FC United of Manchester. Their clubs may be non-League, but these dogs are top flight in our book.
10. Playmaker
Graphic designer (and former Fulham FC coach!) Thad Cox shares his love of the game through artwork and vintage treasures on Playmaker, the Tumblr/Instagram wing of his portfolio. A flip through his blog will not only give you samples of his soccer-centric graphic design work, but throwback delights like vintage rosters, Premier League stickers circa 1994 and covers of soccer-related erotic romance novels.
11. Tales From A Hijabi Footballer
Shireen Ahmed is a footballer (in case you didn’t catch that from her blog title), a writer whose works have been featured on The Huffington Post, A Football Report, The Nation and many other spaces and an advocate for Muslim women in sports. Come for her insightful commentary on issues relating to Muslim women in sports and stories of the Beautiful Game that often go ignored or, when they are not ignored, misrepresented; stay for the joyful photos of women participating as athletes and supporters from around the world.
Dela S.A. and a crack team of writers and curators have built a Tumblr that is part gallery, part archive, part knowledge haven, all shrine to the Beautiful Game. Visit for vintage photos (action shots of World Cups past, icons before they were stars, a baby Fernando Torres), stunning soccer-inspired art and graphic design and stories you might otherwise miss. Ever wanted to know about the history of Cuban soccer or the impact of world leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Kwame Nkrumah on the game? This is your kind of blog.