From Rohit Sharma's love for Real Madrid to Virat Kohli being Ronaldo fan - Favourite football clubs of cricketers

It is not an unknown fact that former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a football fan, especially a Manchester United fan. He was even made the brand ambassador for the Premier League for their telecast on Star Sports.

"I am an avid EPL fan and I just played out a real situation in front of the camera," Dhoni had once said. 

"If I am not busy with cricket, I am always busy with EPL during weekends. Football is extremely exciting and very close to my heart. I was a goalkeeper during my school days. Even today, I play football as a warm-up game ahead of key cricket matches".

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is a huge supporter of Real Madrid. In fact, he was also a brand ambassador of Spanish top-flight in India.

When Madrid lifted the Champions League title recently against Liverpool, Rohit took to his social media account to celebrate the success.

National head coach Rahul Dravid is a fan of Arsenal and is often seen supporting his favourite club. He also got a chance to witness the match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou.

Speaking after the match, Dravid said he felt privileged to witness a match at Camp Nou.

"It's a huge honour and it's one of the things I've wanted to do to watch a football match at Camp Nou, to here and witness the atmosphere is absolutely electric. It's incredible to be able to watch players like Messi and Suarez play live is fantastic for me and my family," Dravid had said.

He had also termed Messi a genius. "He's an absolute genius and it's incredible to see what he does. It's fantastic to see what he does with the ball but it's incredible to see him without the ball and be able to find spaces. I don't think there's been a better player than him ever and it's fantastic to watch him play," Dravid added.

Former India skipper Virat Kohli loves football, but he is a huge fan of Cristiano Ronaldo. He basically follows the club Ronaldo plays for.

He had shifted his loyalty from Manchester United to Real Madrid because of Portugal forward. "Yeah I support Real Madrid," he had once told NDTV.

"It's mainly because of Cristiano Ronaldo. I used to support Manchester United when he was playing there. Now my loyalties have shifted because of him. I think he is a truly amazing player. I love watching him play".

So does he support Manchester United again?

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had said that Manchester United is his favourite club. In 2020, when Ganguly was doing an Instagram Live chat with broadcaster Anant Tyagi on the official handle of the Indian Super League (ISL), he had named the Premier League club as his favourite.

"My favourite club is Manchester United. They are not at their best at the moment, but this can happen in sport, I thought they will recover under Solskjaer last year, but this year has been different. Hopefully, they will recover and hopefully, under Solskjaer, they will get where they used to be. Everyone thinks about what Alex Ferguson achieved, but people like Alex Ferguson don't come along easily, he is once a generation type of coach," Ganguly had said.