I think it matters for this sport, as much as fans like to read about facts of other sports players. They read biographies and autobiographies to get to know people they may not ever meet or be close enough to know those details. I think it is beyond knowing a baseball player’s skill to play baseball, or a basketball player’s skill to play basketball, or a football player’s skill to play football…it is knowing who they are as a person, their upbringing, background, where they are from, because a lot about "culture"makes up who we are too. Some fans want a connection to the person. It does not have to do with ethnicity or nationality necessarily, but it is part of the equation for some people. If I was in Africa, watching a soccer player, and found out that he was also an American like me, I might say to myself, “He has awesome skills, gives to charity…seems to be nice, and American too…SWEET!” It does not necessarily matter for how he plays soccer, but you feel something in common and it’s a nice connection for some fans to have. I have heard fans say about music artists, things like, “He lost his mom to cancer when he was young…so did I, and because his music is great, and we have that in common, I think he’s great.” It will be some connection you did not realize would even have anything to do with the music. It does matter to some people, and I personally think they are entitled to that, as it does not hurt anyone to feel that way.
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What TA said.
Hiroyuki Suzuki is Japanese, I mean a human being he’s a muh-sheeen…