Which football team would Sherlock Holmes have supported?

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, was a brilliant writer and a keen soccer player. Many people know about Holmes, much less about the author, and few about his soccer career. As a young man, Doyle, being quite tall for his time (185 cm vs. average 168 cm), defended the gates of a soccer club. His height and excellent reactions made him an indispensable goalkeeper in an era when the requirements for goalkeepers were much more straightforward than they are now. Unlike a modern-day Neuer or Alisson, goalkeepers of the time were mainly in a goalmouth position; their job was to deflect shots rather than actively play out of the box.

Conan Doyle played under the pseudonym “AK Smith”, using his initials and a typical English surname. The choice of pseudonym may have been due to the prevalence of the surname Doyle (about 75,000 bearers in 2010) compared to the surname Smith (nearly 2.5 million in 2016), or it may have been due to the Irish origins of the surname Doyle. He defended the goal of the now-defunct Portsmouth Association Football Club, which only lasted 13 years.

Now let’s move to speculations: who was Sherlock Holmes himself rooting for? In most screen adaptations, Holmes appears as a physically developed man, but he is never shown playing soccer. However, based on his creator being a soccer player, and given English soccer traditions, we can assume that Holmes cheered for a London club. Knowing his address (221b Baker Street), we can narrow down the potential teams. Sherlock was born in 1854, so some clubs fell off:

  • Arsenal (1886) – too late
  • Tottenham (1882) – a bit late
  • Crystal Palace (1861): Sherlock was 8 years old, and he may have started cheering for them as a child
  • Chelsea (1905) – too late
  • Brentford (1889) – too late
  • Wimbledon (1889) – too late
  • Fulham (1879) – Sherlock was 25 years old
  • Millwall (1885) – a bit late
  • Charlton Athletic (1905) – late

That leaves two candidates: Crystal Palace and Fulham. The distance from 221b Baker Street to Fulham’s stadium (Craven Cottage) is about 10.3 km (about 1 hour 50 minutes), and to Crystal Palace’s stadium (Selhurst Park) is 17.7 km (3 hours 3 minutes). Thus, Fulham seems the more likely option as it is closer and was founded when Sherlock was a young man.

There is also the possibility that Sherlock was interested in cricket. Still, soccer was going through a period of its youth at the time. The popularity of cricket at the time of the Sherlock stories was much higher.

Interestingly, the modern version of Holmes is also likely interested in cricket. Statistics show that this sport has become popular again. Moreover, the British watch local competitions and are interested in cricket in their former colonies. To understand this, it is enough to study sites with bookmaker reviews—especially IPLbettingapps, which lead the search engines and provide information about betting apps. If you look here, you can find a lot of well-known applications in Europe and the USA that are betting on IPL. And all because many fans of this sport make bets. Therefore, the modern Sherlock could also be among the cricket fans.

It is possible that Holmes would have played other gambling activities as well. Slots about fishing and different themes, roulette, and gambling arcades – all attract millions of players around the world. And the famous detective could well be among them.