Soccer and music have been inextricably linked since the advent of the sport. Every soccer fan knows what an enchanting feeling a song or just a tune can cause before a match of your favourite team. It has become a tradition to play the club anthem for the whole stadium before the teams take to the field in many clubs. Before national team matches, in many countries, the stadium sings the national anthem. For soccer players, it gives energy and passion for the game, and for fans, this resembles the game’s magic.

In this article, we’ll talk about the most famous songs which are inseparably associated with soccer.

Queen – “We Are The Champions”

Although it sometimes seems as if this song has always existed, the British band Queen’s single with the ambitious title “We Are The Champions” premiered in 1977. The song was the closing song of many of the band’s concerts and quickly became a folk hit.

In 1994 the song was chosen as the official single of the World Cup in the United States. Since then, in one form or another, the song has been used at every World Cup. Since the nineties, “We Are The Champions” has been played after every Champions League final. But most importantly, it has indeed become a folk song. After Leicester’s fantastic EPL title win in 2016, it was Queen’s immortal hit that Foxes fans performed at the stadium. The event came as a surprise to everyone, including bookmakers. If you love not only to watch football but also to place bets, consider checking Vbet, the review of which is available at https://bookmaker-ratings.com/review/vbet-review/.

You’ll Never Walk Alone – The unofficial anthem of Liverpool F.C.

The phrase “You’ll never walk alone” proudly appears on the emblem of the Liverpool Football Club. These exact words can be seen by the fans at the entrance to the home arena of the team – Anfield stadium. The song with this title has become the “musical symbol” of Liverpool and one of the leading soccer anthems in history.

The irony is that the song initially had nothing to do with soccer. It was written for the musical “Carousel” back in 1945. Among the performers of this song were such world music stars as Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.

In the 1960s, fellow compatriots of the legendary Beatles, the Liverpool band Gerry & The Pacemakers offered their cover version of the song, which became momentous. The song experienced a new wave of popularity, making noise in the British charts, and was picked up by local soccer fans. The Anfield stands perform it at the beginning and end of matches.

Champions League anthem

In 1727 on the coronation of King George III of England, the German composer Georg Handel wrote a melody called “Zadok the Priest” and put a text on it that described events from the Third Book of Kings from the Bible. The first official soccer match was then a century and a half away, and the first Champions League final was 265 years away.

It is unlikely that the composer could have imagined that after all that time, his tune would become the basis for the anthem of the largest sporting tournament in the world, the UEFA Champions League. In 1992 British composer Tony Britton arranged the tune by Handel. It was accompanied by French, German, and English lyrics, creating an anthem that has inspired players and fans alike for the past 29 years.

Shakira – “Waka Waka”

Shakira’s hit, which became the anthem of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, is probably the main soccer song for the African continent. The music has become the most famous anthem of the World Cups. At the moment, almost three billion people watched the clip of the song “Waka Waka” on Youtube, which means that about every third inhabitant of the earth did so.

The song has become a calling card and popularized for soccer and the African continent. Interestingly, the roots of the dynamic, danceable soccer song are military. The basis for Shakira’s hit was the Cameroonian military song “Zamina mina”.

Glory, Glory Man United – The unofficial anthem of Manchester United F.C.

One of the most famous tunes, clearly associated with soccer today, comes from an era when soccer was still in its origin and gaining popularity as an international sport. The song, known for its hit phrase “Glory Glory Hallelujah”, is an American patriotic anthem, an American abolitionist song from the American Civil War. Its official title is “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

Having flown from one part of the English-speaking world to another, “Glory Glory Hallelujah” became a “soccer” song in the 1960s. The Protestant patriotic march has initially been “mastered” by the fans of the London team Tottenham Hotspur. The supporters reworked the lyrics for soccer, and the word “Hallelujah” in the hit phrase was replaced by a part of the club’s name, “Hotspur”.

The fans of another English team, Manchester United, popularized the song. The supporters initially performed “Glory, Glory Man United” at Old Trafford in the 1980s and made it an unofficial anthem for the club since.