As Europe’s major football leagues return from their summer/World Cup break, fans in Spain and the UK are especially eager to get the ball rolling.

In both countries, 78 percent of self-identified sports fans say they follow football teams or competitions - more than in Italy, Germany or France.

Indeed, as Statista's Felix Richter details below, the appeal football extends well beyond dedicated sports audiences.

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Data from Statista Consumer Insights shows that 46 percent of all respondents in Spain and 42 percent in the UK follow football, compared with 37 percent in Germany and 32 percent in France.

The United States remains an outlier among the countries surveyed, with only 11 percent of all respondents following the sport.

It will be interesting to see if the World Cup can make a meaningful difference in raising that number, so stay tuned for next year's edition of the survey.