Re: The most prominent (developed) and most popular sport(s) in your country
I'll make a comparison between
and
- I would say handball is the most popular. Why? It is a pretty big sport over there and in both the men and the women category. It is the only sport where the women enjoy so much popularity.
In case you didn't knew Kometal was the Champions League winner in 2002 (womens category) and has been twice more in the final (also has been quite many times in the 1/4-finals.. it used to be a common participant in the CL). The women were also 7th in the World Cup in Germany 1997, and have been many times in the top10. The men's handball is obviously popular as well. Macedonia was 5th on the last European Championship, couple of months ago actually. The hall in Skopje is always full for the national teams and believe me it is hard and almost impossible to win there.
- Soccer is kinda equally popular (maybe more, but because handball is popular in both categories, it's fair to be ranked #1). Everyone cheers for somebody in Premier, Italian Calcio, Primera, Bundesliga, etc. The new people in the federation brought promises and hopes to the fans, so slowly but surely the national team is getting more attention.
- Basketball is also there in the popularity. Macedonia was recently 4th on the EURO championship, ahead of big countries such as Lithuania, Greece, Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Germany, Turkey, Israel. The club championship is followed intensely.
Fights among fans spark sometimes outside the field (surprising for me, since this is basketball) and can happen once a year.
Also, Macedonia hasn't lost an official home match in 10 years.
- Waterpolo is getting popular, as the national team has been in the European Championships recently and the biggest success was an 8th place I think
- Volleyball is sorta popular. Used to be more popular before (when there were teams participating in CEV cup and reaching even the 1/4-final)
- Tennis is popular in both Macedonia and Canada. In Macedonia people bet on it, have favourites (whether it is Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Sharapova, Ivanovic, Cilic, Tsonga, Williams or Tipsarevic). Canadians have the Rogers Cup and now we have Milos Raonic who is in the top20 on the ATP list I believe???
- Ice hockey is like a religion here!
Canada is pretty superior in Ice hockey. There are couple of teams from Canada in the NHL. It is an expensive sport here to play, but regardless, so many talented players from Canada play for teams in NHL. One Canadian with Macedonian origin
was the top scorer just last season in the NHL. Both the guys and the girls are very good at it this sport.
- American football is also being followed (NFL). Especially for the final game (there is always so much pizza, chicken wings, beer and more beer for that game
), where many people gather to watch it on TV.
- Soccer is on the rise of being pretty popular. The women's team just earned a bronze on the Olympics (would have been gold, if the referees didn't help the States to win that game :twisted
. Also, the easy group that Canada has for the qualifiers for Brazil, makes people more into this sport. BMO field was pretty packed for the last home match that Canada won against Panama with 1:0. CL games are being broadcasted here and also qualification games as well. The interest is bigger than it was lets say 7-8 years ago.
- Baseball is also pretty popular here. The Blue jays are from Toronto.
- Curling is also popular.
- Event-vise, I would say the Olympics (both winter and summer). They are being followed and there was quite a coverage for it.
- Basketball is not that popular, even though the Raptors are still there (they exist
). Canada used to be much better in this sport, but not much now, surprisingly.