FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — While basketball may be Aroostook County’s most popular sport, soccer is drawing more and more youth, according to Josh Ricker, a member of the undefeated 2015 Fort Fairfield Tigers team and the author of a new book about English soccer culture.
Ricker, who will graduate next year from the University of Southern Maine with degrees in sports management and marketing, recently wrote the self-published book “On The Front Foot: A Guide to Being an American Premier League Fan.”
Along with his studies and an internship with the Portland Sea Dogs baseball team, Ricker said he nurtured his passion for soccer by exploring one of the global sport’s most famous and popular leagues, the English Premier League. Ricker, who follows the Liverpool team, calls the book an “essential survival guide for new English soccer fans,” full of anecdotes and observations on being a fan from this side of the pond.
Most northern Maine teenagers are apt to follow the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins, and Ricker is as comfortable navigating the sports industry broadly. But soccer’s fan culture also runs strong — it is the most popular sport in the world, played and watched by some 3.5 billion people, according to surveys. And in the United States, soccer has a particularly young fan base, with young people of Ricker’s generation following the sport via the internet.
“I wrote the book to simply help people understand more about the game and ease them into becoming a fan because it is a lot different than being an American sports fan,” Ricker said.
“Soccer and English soccer specifically is so passionate. Between the songs, flags and banners that cover the stadiums, it is such an intimate experience to watch the games,” Ricker said. “Every country has a different style of play and when they meet in Europe during the Champions League it is amazing to watch them intertwine.”
Growing up in Fort Fairfield, Ricker said he felt some pressure to succeed in basketball, but was nonetheless drawn to soccer at a young age.
“My high school soccer coach John Ala had a huge impact on my love for the game,” Ricker said, noting Ala’s County United soccer camp.
“My senior year of high school, we won a state championship together after an undefeated season and I knew after that, soccer would always have a special place in my heart.”
Ricker said he found his way to watching English soccer teams partly because the English Premier League’s Liverpool team is often featured on the New England Sports Network. Boston Red Sox owner John Henry purchased the Liverpool Football Club in 2001.
“This made me fall in love with the club, and I am not sure if I picked another team, I would be as interested as I am today with the sport,” Ricker said. Ricker said he has noticed that around Maine, soccer’s popularity is strong.
“To say soccer’s popularity is growing would be an understatement. In Aroostook County
that growth is small, but the youth seem to be genuinely interested.”
Ricker said he’d like to see more soccer clubs in northern Maine that feed into the interest among kids. He’d also like to see more people giving soccer a try as fans, whether by watching the English Premier League or others.
Ricker is aiming to enter a career in sports media after graduation. He also runs a podcast called The Yankee Reds.
For his last year at USM, he is keeping busy, spending another summer interning with the Seadogs and this fall heading to the University of Winchester in England for a semester abroad.
“The school is about an hour’s drive to London and I expect to attend a lot of soccer games,” he said.
