This is said pretty often on the internet but as a sports fan I don’t get it.
Like, if I wear my favourite player’s jersey, I don’t wanna portray them in any kind or form. It’s a show of support and a form of tribalism, really, that can easily be mocked without wildly misinterpreting it.
I wanted to find a good analogy but first came up with wearing colours to sports events, ha! But really it’s like wearing a band shirt on a live show; nobody’d call that cosplaying.
Edit: of course there’s full kit wankers but in decades of visiting mainland European footie stadiums I’ve only ever seen one. Seems to be a British thing. Let’s not talk about them.
Okay I’ve gladly also never seen this in league football. Normally just a jersey and a scarf, which can hardly be called cosplay. Fair point!
But I especially thought cosplay is especially impersonating somebody. Might be my own bias; but otherwise I know it as fancy dress or whatever, not cosplaying.
Aaaanyway, LLAP!