It’s madness really, against all football lore, bordering on the freakish, yet a club in the United States are pulling in such outlandish numbers of supporters — 53,000 average with 72,000 piling in when they decide to open the gates fully — that they rank among the top 15 most-followed teams in the world. And their inaugural match was only 19 months ago. Traditionalists will shudder, choking on their Bovril, but it is impossible to deny that Atlanta United are what their goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, calls “a phenomenon”.

What makes the Atlanta experience even more eye-catching is that the men accelerating their footballing development are those with backgrounds in established clubs. There is Guzan, once of Aston Villa, the coach Tata Martino, a familiar name