Sports history from a European perspective

I am reading the book Psmith in the City, by P. G. Wodehouse, the great English comedy writer. It was first published in 1910. Early in the book, Psmith worms his way into the confidence of one of the managers at the bank where he works by pretending to be a fan of Manchester United. I am not particularly a soccer fan, but M. U. is one of the few team names that I know. And they were a household name, evidently, in 1910, much the same as the Cincinnati Reds would have been here in the States. Maybe Manchester United is the New York Yankees of Europe, and they have old franchises that are the flagships of the sport just as much as we do.