Famous Manchester City Fans: The Gallagher Brothers To Martin Lewis

It is a curious thing when it comes to discussing famous Manchester City fans, insomuch as the club only really began to enjoy success after the takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Abu Dhabi United Group in the September of 2008.

As a result, older supporters obviously didn’t choose to follow the club because of the ‘glory years’ that came before, instead having suffered through the bad times before being able to enjoy the riches brought along by a nation-state hoping to use the football club to sports-wash its reputation. Nevertheless, there are plenty of well-known names who follow the Manchester-based team.

Noel & Liam Gallagher

When it comes to talking about famous Manchester City fans, it would be wrong to start anywhere but with the Gallagher brothers. Whilst the fact that they fall out with one another on a regular basis means that they would hate the idea of being lumped together, the truth is that most people think of them as one entity.

Noel and Liam Gallagher were born and raised in Manchester, supporting City from an early age and definitely doing so before they hit the heights of fame thanks to the success of their band Oasis. The group performed at Maine Road in 1996, as well as at the City of Manchester Stadium nine years later.

Jason Manford

Born in Salford on the 26th of May 1981, Jason John Manford and his four siblings grew up in Manchester’s Whalley Range area. If you wanted to be cruel, you could suggest that his sense of humour, which helped him become a successful stand-up comedian, came from watching Manchester City as a youngster.

Boasting a season ticket, Manford will often be seen at the club’s home ground and even tried to step in to stop a mass brawl in the wake of the Manchester derby in 2018, having been at the game. He took to social media to describe it as ‘three City fans, three United fans and about 15 or so opportunistic little rat-faced local scallies’.

Clive Myrie

Watching Clive Myrie hosting Mastermind or presenting the news, you’d struggle to picture him shouting and singing at a football match. Nevertheless, the journalist, who was born in the Greater Manchester town of Farnworth in 1964, has supported Manchester City throughout his life, even adding that fact to his Twitter bio.

He used his position to host a series of podcasts about the 130 charges that Manchester City were issued with by the Premier League, asking if the club was at risk of ‘losing it all’. Speaking to The Telegraph, he said, “I’ve been through thick and thin with that bloody club; I’m not one of these fly-by-nights.”

Craig Cash

Another funny man who might well have developed his sense of humour by watching Man City play football matches when he was younger, Craig Cash became known to most thanks to his role as Dave in the comedy show The Royle Family, as well as as the voiceover for the TV programme Gogglebox.

It is entirely possible that fans of the club might know him better through his involvement in an MCFC-themed podcast, Forever Blue, where he often discusses the likes of the club’s performances and the crowd dynamics. In 2023, he was part of the ‘A City, United’ campaign, organised by Heineken UK.

Timothy Dalton

Having grown up in Cheadle in the south of Manchester, James Bond actor Timothy Dalton began attending games at Maine Road during the 1950s. He considered Colin Bell to be the best player ever to play for the club, which perhaps goes some way to confirming his credentials as a lifelong fan rather than a Johnny-come-lately.

His support of the club was obviously a boon for headline writers when they found out, getting to say things like City will ‘scare the Living Daylights’ out of opponents. His celebrity has also allowed him to enjoy moments such as meeting up with the team when they went to the US for a pre-season training camp.

Andrew Flintoff

Andrew Flintoff might well be considered one of the best ever ‘all-rounders’ when it comes to England cricket, taking 79 wickets and racking up 226 runs when he was selected for the national team. When he did an interview with Manchester City’s official site in 2015, he admitted it is ‘more about a day out with friends than the game.’

Even so, the former cricketer’s celebrity has allowed him to have some fun, such as when he appeared in a penalty shootout with James Corden, his fellow League of Their Own presenter, during the half-time portion of the Manchester derby in 2014. How City would love someone of his talent to be part of the team every season.

Martin Lewis

To most people, Martin Lewis is much better known as the ‘Money Saving Expert’. Whether or not Manchester City will ever require his services is likely to depend on whether they’re ever actually punished for their financial misdeeds that resulted in the Premier League issuing them with 130 charges in 2023.

As for why it is that he supports the club, the answer almost certainly lies in the fact that he grew up in the Cheshire village of Norley, close to Delamere Forest, after having been born in Manchester in 1972. Regardless of the reason why, he has been a lifelong supporter of the football club.

David Threlfall

Best known for his role as Frank Gallagher in the TV show Shameless, David Threlfall has often been involved in the club’s media. That includes his narration of the video This City to celebrate the 121st anniversary of the club, and making an appearance on Celebs and their City in 2009.

Born in Burnage in Manchester in 1953, his voiceover was used for a film that played ahead of every home game during the 2017-2018 Premier League campaign. His age is such that he was definitely a fan before the money arrived, heading to see his beloved team play whenever an opportunity presents itself.

Marco Pierre White

With a name like Marco Pierre White, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the world-famous chef hails from far more distant shores. In actuality, he was born in Leeds in 1961 and grew up watching Man City play during the 1970s, which allowed him to fall in love with the side that he has supported ever since.

One of the things that the chef was evidently most pleased by in the wake of the takeover was the fact that the food at the Etihad improved markedly, to the point that he felt that other Premier League clubs would be looking at the Cityzens to see what they were doing with the food on offer around the stadium.

Michael O’Leary

Chief Executive Officer of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary might be best known for doing whatever he can to extract money from his company’s passengers, but the reality is that he’s someone who not only has plenty of money of his own, he also supports one of the richest football clubs in the world of football in Manchester City.

Whilst most of his Irish friends were supporting the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United, O’Leary made the decision in the 1960s to support United’s city rivals. In 2003, he was even offered a 30% stake in the club, turning down the opportunity in favour of continuing to support them from the sidelines instead.

Johnny Marr

Known as the guitarist and songwriter of Manchester band the Smiths, you might suggest that the miserable nature of their songs is down to Manchester City’s performances when Johnny Marr was growing up if you were in a particularly mean mood. For the man himself, though, the love affair is a lifelong one.

In the September of 2019, the Guardian newspaper published an interview that Johnny Marr carried out with Pep Guardiola, who was the Man City manager at the time, which had been done as part of a book called A Game of Two Halves: Famous Football Fans Meet Their Heroes by Amy Raphael, proving that his support is not just a passing fad.