Meet Preston North End's celebrity supporters from ex-WWE superstar to England rugby union manager | OneFootball

Lancashire is perhaps a tough place to have a football club if you're not in the Premier League, with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Man City all within the vicinity in the North West of England.

Preston North End have found that only too well - a club that have not been in the top flight of English football since 1961 and see many of their city's inhabitants follow the likes of Jurgen Klopp's Reds and the Red Devils at Old Trafford.

Those clubs have more famous and celebrity fans too, but despite some giants of English football being in their radius, PNE also have their fair share of well-known watchers - let's take a look at who they are.

Andrew Flintoff

The city of Preston has seemingly been a good breeding ground for athletes, and one of the greatest has been Flintoff.

Raised in Ribbleton, just a couple of miles from Deepdale, Flintoff of course became a star cricketer for England after leaving education, racking up 79 test matches during his career as well as 141 One Day International's.

Flintoff won numerous Player of the Year awards in the mid-2000's, captained England's cricket team, won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 2005 - mainly due to his performance in the Ashes that year against Australia - and was also handed the Freedom of the City of Preston.

He has never fully forgotten his roots though despite a brief liason with Man City in his cricketing days, revealing that he attended Deepdale regularly as a child in the early 1990's and he has since been back multiple times post-retirement from his sport.

And in 2019, Flintoff even urged Joe Hart to make the move from Burnley to PNE when he was out of favour at Turf Moor, showing that he's got the best interests of the Lilywhites in his heart!

Mark Lawrenson

Another Preston-born athlete who did good things in the world of sport was Lawrenson, whose first club was PNE, where he made his debut in the 1974-75 season.

Lawrenson was a top defensive talent, and after just a few years at Deepdale he signed for Brighton & Hove Albion, but his best days came with Liverpool, where he won five top division titles, an FA Cup, a European Cup and several other honours.

Post-playing, Lawrenson stepped into management but was more prominently a pundit for the BBC for a number of years - he's never lost sight of PNE though and has been a regular in the Invincibles Stand for a number of years.

Wade Barrett

Many British wrestlers have gone over to America for a shot in the WWE, but perhaps one of the most successful of recent times has been Stu Bennett - better known as 'Wade Barrett'.

The 43-year-old was born south of the River Ribble in Penwortham and grew up in Preston, but moved away to Wales at the age of six - yet his love for PNE came from when he attended university in Liverpool and travelled up to Deepdale to watch the club in action, as well as to various away days.

Steve Borthwick

One of the most revelant names in the rugby union world right now in the form of Borthwick grew up as a North End supporter - despite being born in Carlisle.

Borthwick's education was at Hutton Grammar School - just a few miles away from Preston - and this is where he became a fan of the Lilywhites in the 1990's, much like the aforementioned Flintoff.

He went on to be capped 57 times for England as a Lock and is now their head coach, leading them to a third-placed finish in the 2023 World Cup, and just a few years ago he admitted his dream was to play for PNE when he was growing uop despite his rugby roots!

Kevin Kilbane

Another famous face to support and have played for PNE is Kilbane, who came through the youth system at the Lilywhites in the 1990's, debuting in the 1996-97 season under Gary Peters.

Kilbane went on to become a solid Premier League level player and appeared over 100 times for the Republic of Ireland, and he had the chance late on in his career to return to PNE where it all started - but with Darren Ferguson's future uncertain and the club battling relegation, he opted for Huddersfield instead.

Now living in Canada, Kilbane will ultimately not attend PNE anymore as a fan, but he did admit in the mid-2010's that he had become more of a follower of the club than when he was in his youth before he started playing, so you can assume he will still be following Ryan Lowe's side from afar.