This season, the Premier League's US Instagram account, @PLinUSA, has been highlighting the passionate, diverse PL fandom from coast to coast, in the series Premier League passion in the US: Fans' stories.
Meet Kyle, a Madison man who has the same love for a club 4,000 miles away as he does for one in his backyard.
Kyle
"A lot of American soccer fans have a European team they support, along with an MLS club or a USL club. You don’t always love one more than the other, it’s a different type of dedication.
"Some people wake up at 4:30am to watch Liverpool and we start supporters groups in our cities - that’s dedication. You just show your fandom in two different ways.
"I had always been following soccer, but I became a fan of Liverpool from when my family got Fox Soccer Plus back in around 2008, and Liverpool was one of the teams that was always on.
"Tragedies like Hillsborough united not only the supporters, but the entire city"
"It was so exciting getting into that team, when they had [Steven] Gerrard and [Fernando] Torres, it just piqued my interest and got me absolutely hooked.
"When I got older, I started learning about the local dynamics of the club - how Liverpool as a city has always been different from the rest of the UK, and unfortunately how tragedies like Hillsborough united not only the supporters but the entire city.
"I gained more perspective on how the club connects with the community, and how that has grown outwardly in so many different countries.
"Forward Madison FC is a USL League One team here in Wisconsin. It’s in the third division of the US Soccer pyramid.
"In 2018, they created the team and later that fall, they came up with the name. The logo is to represent the city of Madison’s bird, which is a plastic pink flamingo.
"In 2020, I was on the board of 'The Flock', a supporters' group in Madison, and I’m a co-founder of Featherstone Flamingos, which focuses on Black culture and creates a space so Black people can find someone who looks like them within the supporters groups.
"Trying to start a club from scratch is obviously hard. We didn’t know what our identity would be. Being a Liverpool fan, there were some things I was able to bring to the support.
"We tried to establish that community aspect Liverpool has - it’s not just showing up to games, cheering, and leaving. You get involved with the full community, doing fundraisers, charity, and promoting those things."
