for some reason this fandom and I can't quit each other

[meretricula]

I don't really remember doing this but I apparently signed up to rec football RPF for crack_van? oh self, your optimism is hilarious. Anyway, I think I can handle fic recs just fine but I may end up calling on some of you (especially non-Barcelona fans) to help with the fandom overview. Wish me luck, and if you want to help out drop me a comment!

ETA: as I come up with the list of pairings to (BRIEFLY!!!) outline, feel free to let me know if they're not the big pairing for that team or make a case for including another team. I may ignore you (I've got a pretty good idea of what's popular even if I don't like it) but it can't hurt, especially if you're volunteering to do the one-paragraph summary.

PREMIER LEAGUE
-Liverpool: Gerrard/Alonso
-Chelsea: Lampard/Terry
-Man City: everybody/Silva (if I decide to be self-indulgent, which I may)

LA LIGA
-Real Madrid: Beckham/Casillas, Ronaldo/Kaka (if you strongly feel this should be replaced with Raul/Guti, speak to me, I haven't made up my mind)
-Barcelona: Messi/Villa, Pique/Fabregas/Messi
-Valencia: Villa/Silva

SERIE A
-AC Milan: Maldini/Nesta/Ibrahimovic (can I do this? is this really bigger than Shevchenko/Kaka these days?)

NATIONAL TEAMS
-Spain: Ramos/Torres, Casillas/Fabregas
-Germany: Schweinsteiger/Podolski (Germany fans: will a new fan who just wants to browse fic be significantly hindered by not being introduced to Ballack/Frings? I know that it was a big pairing about five years ago but I'm just asking about your current experience.)

who am I forgetting?

Comments

[fandomonymous.livejournal.com]

You know I'll always attempt to help for things Die Mannschaft and Bayern related (and to a smaller degree Chelsea related - I can tell you plenty about the team and its ships, but I tend to research the fandom/fanfic end of it far less.) I can't guarantee I'll have tons of time to help (especially nowadays) but if you have questions definitely let me know!

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

thank you! if it comes down to that, would you be able to help with Podolski/Schweinsteiger and Terry/Lampard? I'm trying to ruthlessly narrow down the list of pairings to the really crucial ones, and those are really big pairings, but I don't know much about them tbh. XD (we are talking a brief paragraph per pairing so I don't need to know all the history and backstory, just whatever you think is absolutely necessary to understand the ship.)

[nahco3.livejournal.com]

ohh, I'm excited to see what you rec! and I'd be happy to help out with whatever, if you need my expertize, such as it is.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

haha, I'm just planning on pulling my "top twelve" or whatever from my pre-existing recs. I might do something like "epic week" "PWP week" "angst week" and "AU week", some sort of organizational theme, but the fics aren't going to be new to you. XD

and I'm glad I can call on you! I think what I'm going to do for the fandom overview is pick just a handful of the big teams and do a brief synopsis of the one big OTP each team is known for (Stevie/Xabi for Liverpool would be the classic example, I think) and I may need you to help with Silva/Villa. I'm not really up on most of the big pairings in fandom, ironically enough. XD

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that sounds awesome! I doubt you need this, but if you have any questions about the current iteration of Liverpool, let me know!

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

haha, hope it is! given the scope of this, Liverpool's entry is going to be Stevie/Xabi, but if anything comes up I'll let you know. :)

[luxover.livejournal.com]

i will be of absolutely zero use, but lol at your life

good luck boo

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

JUST YOU WATCH

I WILL MAKE luxover/MUSLERA ONE OF THE BIG FANDOM PAIRINGS

I WILL SUMMARIZE YOUR TRAGIC LOVE IN THREE SENTENCES OR LESS

[mimsicality.livejournal.com]

I am useless for reccing stuff, but I have all faith in your abilities, so \o/! I will be looking forward to your posts :D

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

hee, I have faith in my abilities to pull fic off my rec list and use that, so that should be okay, at least. XD in terms of fandom attention, would you say that I'd be better off making RM's entry Ronaldo/Kaka or Khedira/Özil? (or maybe Raul/Guti, idk.) I'm trying to be as faithful as I can to the opinion of each subsection of fandom, but honestly it's hard for me to judge which of those is "bigger". if it were up to my preference it'd be Raul/Mori but oh well. XD

[distira.livejournal.com]

i'd be happy to help out if you need it :)

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

quick poll: in terms of popularity (NOT QUALITY), which would you say was the biggest RM pairing? Ronaldo/Kaka, Özil/Khedira and Raul/Guti are the ones that spring to mind...

[aramley.livejournal.com]

This comment is really just to laugh affectionately at you, and to note that nobody has ever had a more apt default icon than yours <3 Also, at least it's not tennis, right? ;)

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

haha ilu2! (and man, someone who isn't me signed up to do tennis, which is pretty much way worse. XD)

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

I don't think my areas of expertise are terribly useful but obviously if I can help just say the word. :)))

And for Arsenal - maybe Cesc/RvP? It seems to still be pretty popular and there's a decent amount of good fic for it.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

will do! :)

idk, I just don't think that not knowing about Cesc/RvP would hinder someone taking their first steps in the fandom, you know? like, that may be the big Arsenal pairing, but I can only think of a handful of fics. will think some more.

[tyrannicides.livejournal.com]

...no iker/cesc

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

it's there! I gave up and assigned Spain two slots. because let's face it, Spain's about 75% of this fandom right now anyway.

[kitty69lover.livejournal.com]

Villa Messi is a terrible terrible pairing for Barca :( ohgodihatemessila! :(

the best pairing for Barca is Xavi/Iniesta. they're very Barca. not my OTP but i truly love them when written by various.

but yeah, Messilla is 'hot right now' eww, so ignore me lol

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

aww, I think they're cute! just, you know, not terribly canonical. but I'm doing a descriptive overview, not proscriptive, blah blah must accurately portray actual structure of fandom blah blah.

(also the amount of Barca fic skyrocketed after Leo and Villa started having goal-cuddles. not just Messilla fic, all Messi fic! the slut!Messi movement is reaping the rewards of the great Messilla revolution. :D)

[greenpixiehair.livejournal.com]

you got barca's otp wrong


it's TEAM/SLUTTINESS




jsyk

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

I apologize, sensei. I have seen the error of my ways. XD

[louis-quatorze.livejournal.com]

no one ever wrote like, tons of Arsenal fic to begin with? Certainly not to the volume of the other Premier League pairings you've got up there (except for Johnson/Silva), even when Henry and Pires were hanging off each other constantly. but yeah, Cesc/RvP would be the closest to a "big pairing." fandom just preferred to send Cesc back to Spain instead of picking one of his teammates. uh, there was a brief flare-up in Aaron Ramsey/Nicklas Bendtner, but it's died down. Arsenal just does not have the fandom cachet!

they're in a rebuilding season, but my guess is that RvP/Thomas Vermaelen will be the next "big pairing," or possibly something involving Jack Wilshere.

oh, and of course I'm up for helping. :D

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'm just going to assume that while Arsenal's a significant portion of the ontd population in football, not so much in the fic-writing quadrant, which is all I'm introducing. so I'm not going to worry about it too much. XD

then I shall definitely call upon you in times of need! :D

[fandomonymous.livejournal.com]

To answer your question about Grand OTP (Ballack/Frings): unless they go five years back, no. Since both have left the NT (with rather...unfortunate circumstances), it's really not the world's most relevant. (You could probably say similarly about Metzelly and Lahm/Hildebrand nowadays, sadly.)

The thing is, I think a lot of the best fic for the German-side fandom happened back then because 2006 was just that magical, which is why I recommend people know about it anyway. But if they're looking for current stuff, no, it's not really gonna show up.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. if somebody decides they're interested in Germany it's not hard to find out more about them, but I just want to enable someone to look at fbslash and not go OH GOD SO MANY NAMES THAT MEAN NOTHING TO ME.

also: the German fic comm is manndecker, right? is that active enough to be called a fandom resource?

[maiahaha.livejournal.com]

ofc I'm gonna vote for my Serie A ot3 but lol I think Sheva/Kaka probably has more fics? at least, when I look at my delicious I only have a small handful of ot3 fics (all by guede_mazaka), 15 Ibra/Nesta, and 28 Kaka/Sheva. Tho tbh I don't really travel too far outside my fandom circle of friends so idk what ppl are shipping now lmao /not helpful

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

it's hard for me to judge, I guess. (though my listing them as a threesome is my shorthand for "any and all combinations of these three" which does make things a little better, haha.) I'm trying to give an overview of fandom as it currently exists and while neither of those is written a whole lot right now, Kaka/Sheva is just dead. I have seen I think one new fic about them in the entire time I've been in footie fandom. like, I don't even hear wistful "remember when..." about them, although perhaps I just don't know the right people. whereas I have hope for Ibra/Nesta. XD plus I plan on reccing at least one of those guede_mazaka epics fairly early on, and I want them to be comprehensible.

but also I just don't like Kaka/Sheva, lol. idk. I AM BIASED, CAN YOU TELL.