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Debates have raged on for years over just who is the most popular football team in the world. Many people consider it to be Manchester United of the English Premier League. And while they may be the richest club out there and the most valuable financially, they get a run for their money when it comes to popularity.

While United may have more fans spread out all over the world, a recent study has shown that Spanish Primera Liga clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid are actually the most popular when it comes to fans in Europe.

The study was conducted by Sport + Markt and it revealed that Spanish champions and powerhouse Barcelona actually has the largest amount of supporters in Europe with their arch rivals Real Madrid coming in as the second most popular club. However, they come in a distant second.

There are four English Premier League clubs and four Italian Serie A teams in the list of the top-20 most supported and popular European clubs. As predicted by most fans, the top two English teams are Manchester United and current league champions Chelsea. They came in third and fourth on the overall list, just ahead of German Bundesliga team Bayern Munich. Arsenal came in sixth place and Liverpool was ranked number nine in popularity.

The Italian teams were AC Milan and Inter Milan at seventh and eighth with Juventus coming in 10th place and Roma just making it at number 19. Russian team Zenit St. Petersburg, Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev, and Holland’s Ajax also made the cut.

The study of the top 20 football teams analysed the number of supporters of teams in 17 different countries in Europe. These were France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Holland, Austria, Greece, Switzerland, Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. The extensive survey saw over 10,000 football supporters between the ages of 16 and 69 interviewed for their opinions.

The complete table along with the estimated number of fans in the millions is as follows:

1 – BARCELONA (Spain) 57.8
2 – MADRID (Spain) 31.3
3 – MAN. UTD (England) 30.6
4 – CHELSEA (England) 21.4
5 – BAYERN MUNICH (Germany) 20.7
6 – ARSENAL (England) 20.3
7 – AC MILAN (Italy) 18.4
8 – INTER MILAN (Italy) 17.5
9 – LIVERPOOL (England) 16.4
10 – JUVENTUS (Italy) 13.1
11 – ZENIT ST. PETERSBURG (Russia) 12.6
12 – CSKA MOSCOW (Russia) 10.5
13 – SPARTAK MOSCOW (Russia) 9
14 – O.MARSEILLE (France) 7.8
15 – AJAX (Holland) 7.1
16 – GALATASARAY (Turkey) 6.8
17 – O.LYONNAIS (France) 6.6
18 – FENERBAHCE (Turkey) 6.1
19 – ROMA (Italy) 6
20 – DYNAMO KIEV (Ukraine) 5.3