Manchester City have won five English Premier League titles since Manchester United’s last triumph in 2013 but the latter are still ahead in Asia. Compared with the famous red shirts, sightings of a City top have been relatively rare in the streets of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai over the years. It’s starting to change and in the world’s biggest continent the gap has been closing and now, thanks to Erling Haaland, it is closing quicker than ever.
There are a lot of doubtful numbers put forward by European clubs about their followings out east. In 2015, Chelsea claimed a quarter of a billion Asian fans, three years after United had settled on 325 million in the Asia-Pacific region. United have had, along with Liverpool, a base of solid support in southeast Asian heartlands of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand due to English football being broadcast there in the 70s and 80s.
