In the USA, baseball, basketball and football are still among the most popular sports. There is a specific reason why the US rock band Green Day prefers to devote themselves to the topic of football. In an interview with “Welt am Sonntag” (December 10th edition), frontman Billie Joe Armstrong (51) spoke about his decision to become co-owner of the Oakland Roots SC soccer club in his hometown in September.
“In Oakland we recently lost our baseball team, our American football team and our basketball team over a period of five years,” says the musician. These teams gave the city a strong identity, which was then missing. The football club absorbs this a little. “The club has roots in my hometown. That was the reason why I got involved.” He had previously become more interested in football after watching the documentary series “Welcome to Wrexham”. It is about the purchase of the Welsh football club Wrexham AFC by Ryan Reynolds (47) and Rob McElhenney (46).
Armstrong initially followed the various teams from the Premier League and the Champions League and “really let himself be sucked into it”. He also went to games in Oakland with his wife, which were “incredible every time.” The nice thing about football is that “a kind of community spirit is currently developing around these games, compared to other American sports.” American sports are isolated, “nobody else plays American football or baseball. Okay, they still play baseball in the Dominican Republic and Japan. But American football is basically only of interest in North America,” explains the singer. Since he has become more intensively involved with football, he has only realized “how complicated American football is in comparison. Football is just fun.”
He has apparently infected his bandmates, drummer Tré Cool (51) and bassist Mike Dirnt (51), with his passion, because the band will not miss the European Football Championship taking place in Germany in 2024. “Whether we follow the tournament? We would love to play,” explains Dirnt with a laugh in the interview. Armstrong also emphasizes: “We will definitely follow the European Championships.”
