The front page of the internet

You’re about to read the ultimate guide to Reddit’s soccer communities: a breakdown to the single greatest community of passionate soccer fans anywhere on the internet. We’ll cover everything from /r/soccer, /r/MLS/, /r/footballhighlights, and /r/soccerstreams and show you exactly what kind of content you can expect from each one. Step by step, forum by forum, this guide is here to help walk you through what it means to be a soccer fan on Reddit!

What’s Reddit?

The self-proclaimed “front page of the internet”, Reddit is one of the world’s most popular websites. Think of it as one overarching community that contains thousands and thousands of smaller forums. These forums, called ‘subreddits’ in Reddit jargon, cover nearly topics known to man: sports, games, history, and (questionably good) jokes to name a few!

Getting the most out of your Reddit experience takes just a few minutes of work, but for anyone interested in soccer or other sports, it’s a worthwhile investment. Are like-minded individuals all passionate about the same sport? You can’t go wrong.

Understanding the Design of Reddit

Reddit’s design can be a bit intimidating for new users, but don’t worry! After a few minutes, navigating the site becomes second nature.

Divided into distinct communities called subreddits, Reddit is the ultimate in user-generated content. Subreddits use Reddit’s URL in their name, so for example:

• /r/soccer is Reddit’s largest soccer community.
• /r/aww contains the best of the internet’s adorable animals.
• /r/food is loaded with gastronomy delights

The website’s actual front page takes the format of a descending list of posts made by users across a range of popular subreddits. Posts can be anything from external links (say, to ESPN’s Soccer portal) to images to user-generated text posts.

Clicking on those posts will take you to the content itself.

Upvotes? They’re Just Likes

The more “likes” (called ‘upvotes’ in Reddit jargon) a post has, the higher it ranks. This allows the most popular content to shoot to the top of the website.

Every post on Reddit comes with a “comment” section, where the core of Reddit’s functionality exists. Like the front page, comments and replies are sorted by user votes in accordance with their popularity.

The more popular the comment, the higher it appears.

While there are sitewide rules, each subreddit is run by volunteer staff called “moderators”. These moderators ensure that the content posted in their specific subreddit is appropriate for that community. Reddit is self-policing, which helps, for example, keep /r/soccer’s content mostly in the realm of soccer.

What’s With the “Slashes”?

Reddit is divided into thousands and thousands of user-run forums called subreddits. If you’re familiar with traditional internet forums, think of Reddit as the platform on which a bunch of other forums run.

We already know that Reddit is divided into communities called subreddits. But that strange /r/ format might seem a bit weird. Think of it this way: the /r/ is just part of the URL. Instead of www.reddit.com/r/soccer, we shorten it to /r/soccer. Easy!

You’ll also see usernames that begin with “/u/”. /u/ is simply shorthand for “user”. If you see “/u/CristianoRonaldo” posting in a thread mocking Lionel Messi, you’ll know it’s the Portuguese legend himself. Or just a fan. 

How to Use Reddit

Along the left-hand side of every post is an up and down arrow. If you have an account with Reddit, you’ll be able to vote up or down on a particular submission.

Once you register an account with Reddit, you’ll be able to subscribe to your favorite subreddits. Subscribing to a subreddit makes content from that community appear on your personalized front page—that’s how you make the best of your Reddit experience.

And unlike some other more traditional forums, you only need one account to participate in all the subreddits on the site. 

For those users who like to actively participate in discussions, Reddit has a “karma” system. Someone upvotes your post? There’s a point. Ten more people join in? Ten more karma points in the book. Karma is nothing more than a way to count how many times people have liked your posts, but it does help boost your credibility with other users.

When it comes to commenting on other people’s content, feel free to be as active as you like. If you participate in smaller, more niche communities, you might even develop a bit of name for yourself!

Reddit’s Soccer Communities

Sports subreddits are some of Reddit’s most popular communities, and soccer is no exception. Widely regarded as the best sport ever made (and rightfully so), soccer has that magical ability to bring people from all walks of life together. Experiencing Reddit’s soccer community is a fantastic and worthwhile experience, so let’s start off with a quick breakdown on some of the larger subreddits. 

The largest subreddit is /r/soccer, with over 1.2 million subscribers. The next largest is /r/soccerstreams, with 350,000 subscribers. /r/MLS sits comfortably with nearly 100,000 users. /r/footballhighlights rounds out the list with 75,000 active users.

Going Big With /r/Soccer

/r/Soccer is the hub of all things soccer on Reddit. With 1.2 million users—20,000 of whom are actively browsing the forum at any given moment—/r/soccer offers a place to discuss anything and everything soccer.

Welcome to the Back Page of the Internet

A play on Reddit’s tagline and also a nod towards how the sports page is at the end of most European newspapers, the self-proclaimed “back page of the Internet” is your ultimate source for general soccer discussion on Reddit.

Straight From the Pitch

Over a million users mean this forum is an endless supply of entertainment. This is a subreddit filled with quotable goodies, but Kroos’ legendary goal vs Sweden in the 2018 World Cup sparked some true gems:

/u/babganoush17 remarked, “For those who dont know why 3 billion people like

Football, here’s why.”

Following Leicester City’s legendary win, /u/itsandercontrol called LC’s run to the Premier League 2015-2016 championship the “greatest underdog store of all time hands down.”

Anonymity is a sure guarantee of expertise— /u/Scrench97 reveals his background as a professional sports psychologist by dubbing Brozovic’s sliding block a “200 IQ” play.

What Goes Here?

Anything and everything soccer goes here. As you might imagine from a community formed around the general concept of ‘soccer’, /r/soccer contains a healthy mix of soccer news, player interviews, match predictions, and team news. In addition to the usual run-of-the-mill discussions, you can expect a lengthy thread anytime a scandal breaks. Everything is fair game, so if you’re looking for a “do-it-all” soccer community, /r/soccer is your new home.

If there’s one type of content that /r/soccer loves, it would be quotes from players or managers. Usually obtained from Twitter or other public platforms, this is a community that positively loves to tear apart and analyze every word of a player’s post. 140 comments from a single line of Coach Mourinho’s interview that cast the smallest of doubts on of his players is nothing to sneeze at!

Why Visit It

If you’re looking for a one-stop solution for your Reddit soccer needs, /r/soccer is the place for you. Need a quick breakdown of any major developments in the soccer world? Missed the results of the last match, or interested in seeing what people think about Usain Bolt allegedly pursuing a professional contract with a soccer team? /r/soccer is sure to have the information you need.

When matches are live, /r/soccer’s live report threads burst with thousands of people chiming in all at once. Good luck getting a comment to the top of the pile when that happens, but if you do, take pride in the fact that you managed to stand out from the crowd! When Arsenal played Leicester City in October of 2018, the live report thread garnered more than 1,500 comments and 28,000 upvotes from community members. That’s a lot of people in one place!

Most Popular Post

/r/soccer’s most popular post of all time came about when Leicester City won the 2015-2016 Premier League championship. A simple link to an even-simpler Twitter post by LC with nothing more than the LC logo and the words “Leicester City. Champions of England.”

That’s class.

Keeping it in North America with /r/MLS

If /r/soccer is dedicated to all things soccer on a global scale, /r/MLS is a community aimed specifically at soccer in North America. While the name implies the community is aimed mostly at MLS, the subreddit actually acts as the North American soccer hub.

Boasting a solid 100,000 or so subscribers, /r/MLS is nonetheless far smaller than other Reddit soccer communities. What they lack in numbers, however, they make up for in passion (and rage). Few things bring that passion to life as much as whenever the USA fails in the World Cup!

Straight From the Pitch

As a predominantly North American community, you can imagine that /r/MLS didn’t respond too well to USA’s ignominious World Cup failure.

The community didn’t shy away from calls for mass resignations. /u/tggadcox had this to say: “Everyone except Pulisic and Yedlin should never play for the team again.”

When the San Jose Quakes won the Anthony Precourt Memorial Wooden Spoon Award (given to the worst-performing team in MLS), /u/zanzibarman expressed his disillusionment by saying, “In true San Jose fashion, we get an award named after a man who did a thing that happened to us but nobody seemed to care that time.”

What Goes Here?

Much like its bigger brother in /r/soccer, /r/MLS focuses heavily on discussions centered around player swaps, trades, and staffing changes. The subreddit truly explodes when the time comes for drama, such as Team USA’s catastrophic loss to Trinidad & Tobago in 2017. Failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 32 years to the world’s 99th-ranked team? Ouch.

Drama aside, the quality of discussion /r/MLS is unparalleled. This breakdown of the stakes for the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs is evidence enough—there’s enough math and soccer all mixed into one big analysis that puts most soccer conversations to shame.

Why Visit It

/r/MLS is a lot smaller than its big brother in /r/soccer. That makes the forum a lot more personal—you’ll recognize other users more often, and the content is more localized. Participating in discussions aimed at your specific location is always more intimate: the teams and players discussed in /r/MLS are in your own backyard.

Reddit’s MLS community also tends to a bit more lax on moderation than other forums, meaning a lot more entertaining and drama-filled content bounces around. More memes, more rough-around-the-edges commentary and a more communal atmosphere give /r/MLS a vastly different vibe than other soccer communities.

Most Popular Post

/r/MLS’s second-most popular post of all time came about on April 1st, 2017. Titled “World Cup Trophy: Upvote so that people who search it in Google see the true trophy”, the post linked to a picture of the MLS Championship trophy. The most popular post ever came about from USA’s nightmarish failure to qualify for the World Cup

Best of the Best With /r/footballhighlights

What’s better than an entire community dedicated to cataloging the absolute best of soccer plays? How about one devoid of spoilers?

Reddit’s premier soccer highlights community is /r/footballhighlights. Updated constantly with sources from around the world, this subreddit hits it out the park when it comes to getting you the very best of professional soccer. Think of it as one big highlights video, but one where you can easily find the exact match you’re looking to see.

Straight From the Pitch

It’s a spoiler-free community of soccer highlights, so the discussion is inherently at a minimum. That said, sometimes less is more:

/u/amosbr says, “I use this sub every single week. Thank you!”

What more could you want?

What Goes Here?

As the name suggests, /r/footballhighlights is absolutely filled with quality videos and links to the very best bits of soccer. A huge mix of news sites and soccer websites are listed in this community. Automated bots post links to highlight reels of recently played matches and there’s usually alternative mirrors available for when links inevitably go down.

Why Visit It

No one has the time to sit down and watch every game for every bit of exemplary play, and /r/footballhighlights helps you catch just the best parts. There’s no need to rummage around on Youtube or risk spoilers from other sources—find the match you’re interested in and watch the highlights. It’s that simple.

The best part is that the moderation staff are incredibly active. A mix of automated and live volunteers are constantly on the prowl to remove any comment that even hints at the result, and the post titles themselves are completely neutral.

Not a single spoiler. 

It’s beautiful.

That said, don’t expect a lot of soccer discussion here. It’s a community dedicated to providing access to soccer highlights and the culture reflects that. A strict no-spoilers policy makes having productive discussions on the highlights difficult, so it’s best to keep your play analysis away from this subreddit.

Most Popular Post

Rather amusingly, the most popular post of all time is actually something of a Reddit pat-on-the-back. The community at /r/footballhighlights is rather pleased with its reputation as one of the best soccer highlight aggregators, and this thread shows it.

The second most popular post of all time focuses on the Barcelona vs Paris Saint Germain UEFA Champions League in March of 2017. The thread is filled with highlight reels and excerpts, discussions on technical issues, and not a single spoiler is in sight.

Watch it Live with /r/soccerstreams

r/footballhighlights may give you the best moments from every match, but sometimes you need to watch it live. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to watch a match without resorting to third-party viewing options. /r/soccerstreams acts an aggregator for individuals linking to live streams of matches from a variety of different sources.

Much like /r/footballhighlights, /r/soccerstreams doesn’t claim ownership nor responsibility for any of the streams posted on their subreddit—they provide the link. You do the rest.

Straight From the Pitch

Links are the most valued currency on /r/soccerstreams, and this is a community that prides itself on always having access to live matches.

/u/slmndow says, “Thanks for streamers and of course the moderators…you can’t imagine how i appreciate to have this soccer subreddit…sry, my english”

/u/DonCorleoneSaysHello mentions (besides saying hello), “I love you guys!! Nice, crisp streams of all La Liga games. Keep up the good work!”

What Goes Here?

/r/soccerstreams is the hub of all soccer streaming on Reddit. Everything from paid subscription streaming services to unofficial streams is posted and discussed. It’s a forum for streams and that’s it—don’t expect particularly high-quality discussion or unique analysis of soccer play.

Why Visit It

Need a way to watch a match? /r/soccerstreams is what you need. While /r/soccer and /r/MLS are better options for actual live reports and match analysis, /r/soccerstreams will have the link you need to watch the game you care about. Nothing beats watching matches live, and this subreddit makes it possible for you to find a way to watch the games in real-time.

Most Popular Post

Another congratulatory most popular post of all time, /r/soccerstreams has no shame in its status as Reddit’s number one sources for viewing soccer streams.

Remember, this is a community that aggregates streams, not discussions. The work it performs is invaluable, and the content it provides fuels discussions on other subreddits.

Getting the Most Out of Reddit’s Soccer Communities

Reddit is a powerful resource for soccer fans, and getting the most out of your Reddit experience doesn’t have to be complicated.

First, make an account. Once you’re registered, you can subscribe to all of the soccer subreddits listed in this guide and receive constant updates on your personalized front page.

Try dipping your toes into content creation. Thoughtful discussion is the lifeblood of Reddit’s soccer community, so if there’s a topic knocking around in your head, see what other people think. Don’t worry too much about the Reddit lingo you see, nothing is more than a Google search away.

After that, it’s really up to you. Try posting in threads that pique your interest. Looking to organize meet-ups at local soccer events, or looking for a place to watch the match? Look for a discussion on that very topic, or make your own. Just need streams for matches or want a weekly highlight reel? That’s why those communities exist!

The Take-Away

Reddit is a collection of communities, and communities always give back what you put into them. If you’re looking to follow soccer news and developments, /r/soccer is sure to check all the boxes. For those of you looking for North American soccer information, /r/MLS may be a better fit. Likewise, people looking for soccer streams or highlight reels can find a home in /r/soccerstreams or /r/footballhighlights.

What’s great about all these communities is that none of them are mutually exclusive. Feel free to subscribe to all of them at once and reap the benefits of an entire ecosystem of passionate soccer fans!

Like-minded individuals all passionate about the same topic is a sight to behold. Reddit is a global community for global interests and soccer is a perfect fit.

Soccer is about community—make Reddit your community.