Fan Focus - Venezuelan Bohs

If you win one game in the season, make sure it’s the derby. A term and sentiment that regardless of the league in question, is just about the opinion of most passionate supporters. Possibly even putting aside lofty league finishes, the derby and ensuing 90 minute spectacle must be won at all cost. So although Shamrock Rovers will most certainly finish above Bohemians come the season’s climax later next month, with Rovers fans dreaming of more European adventures to come, it will be the Bohemian fans that will take all the bragging rights from the Big Two Derby.

With two respectable draws taken away from Tallaght and not to mention a certain summer’s evening game that was sandwiched in between, it’s being a memorable season for the Gypsies.  With Bohemians denying Rovers seven points over the three league derbies, the north siders might also take credit for putting a serious dent in the lofty ambitions of their great Dublin rivals, whom with their star studded squad harboured genuine expectations of mounting a serious league challenge to Cork City and Dundalk at the start of the season.

But when the online football station Capo90 came to Phibsboro on the north side of the Liffey on a sunny summer’s weekend in Dublin, Rovers and their title challenge imploded, while the Jodi Stand exploded amid scenes of jubilant partisan joy from the victorious Bohemian supporters.  The derby going viral and League of Ireland fans receiving plenty of respectable plaudits for their “spit and saw dust” passion was perhaps the defining image of that weekend. The dirty aul town never looked so good.

So fast forward to the most recent encounter of the two and what have we got? Cue the now infamous hashtag #GreatestLeagueintheWorld, and on the same weekend Dublin and Mayo competed in the much more fashionable G.A.A in front of 82,000 in Croke Park, Keith Buckley of Bohemians was taken a selfie with Bohs fans on the Luas after a positive result in Tallaght, right before he unchained his push bike and cycled home. You really couldn’t have made that one up. But one remarkable and standout image from that fixture was taken in the away end as the Bohemian supporters again celebrated a better result for their team and baited their Rover counterparts.

It was an image of a tattoo clad jubilant Bohemian supporter waving the national Venezuelan flag that proudly displayed the wording, Venezuelan Bohs. Couldn’t make this one up either, and with our famous Irish humour the #GreatestLeagueintheWorld is a cheeky play on words to delightful effect. The greatest league in the world it is not, but if it’s good enough for someone that has travelled as far as Latin America, maybe we’re doing something right and it’s the 82,000 people in Croke Park whom are missing out rather than your average couple of thousand LOI supporters of each team.

Allow me the pleasure to introduce to you Luis De Lima. A qualified teacher from Venezuela who spent many formative years growing up in Miami, Florida, Luis and his Spanish wife moved to Ireland a couple of years ago in search of adventure, to experience a different culture and in Luis’s case, in search of football. Scouting the net for the Irish football scene he came across two of the five LOI football teams in Dublin, Bohemian FC and Shamrock Rovers. He reached out on social media and it was a Bohemian supporter whom came calling. Luis admits that he was already swaying in favour of Bohs before coming to Dublin; he was more impressed with their history and was slightly put off by the apparent fame and favouritism label attached to Shamrock Rovers. Coincidently Luis’s home team of Caracas FC play in Black and Red.

Luis’s first taste of League of Ireland football was hardly glamourous or even exciting. It was a pre-season friendly against Bohemians north side Dublin rivals Shelbourne. Played out in a neutral venue on a wet, windy and miserable weekend in Dublin Luis recalled getting soaked to the skin and the truly uncomfortable feeling from wet hair, to wet clothes and wet socks. Anybody that has stood in a League of Ireland ground can attest to the miserable conditions and emotions one will experience when attending…. the greatest league in the world. Sunny Caracas this was not. But Luis was hooked and now in his second full season supporting Bohemians, I find myself in a well-known Bohemian drinking spot in Phibsboro swapping stories with him about our football memories and travels. The league itself can’t be particularly explained or why one would put themselves through the torture of supporting Bohemians and or indeed Shelbourne.

You’re either in or you’re out. I mean in what other league would I find myself in a pub drinking pints with a man from Venezuela wearing a Bohemian away jersey from the early 2000’s, with McNally on the back. The sky-blue jersey of Bohemians was something of a hit with their supporters over ten years ago, when it might have even being mistaken for a Dublin jersey on Hill 16. Furthermore the jersey in question was actually a gift from the player himself. One of Luis’s first jobs in Ireland was working in a distribution warehouse in Dublin. Coming in for plenty of stick from many of his Shamrock Rovers supporting co-workers, he was told Paul McNally done some couriering for the company. Admitting he didn’t know much about Paul McNally at first, he later found many of his credentials online via Wikipedia.

With a charming and passionate personality Luis had no qualms about approaching McNally, talking football and sharing his new found love for Bohemians with the former player. With a number of European games to his name and a league title, McNally presented Luis with one of his jerseys from his successful spell at Bohemians, signed and all. The greatest league in the world question again maybe? Well it’s certainly something.

On from his goal celebrating picture from Tallaght earlier this month, Luis has become a well-known and liked figure in Dalymount. From the friendly banter with the staff on the turnstiles, to the number of his fellow Bohemian supporters in the Jodi Stand who just wish to shake his hand and shout, hey Venezuelan Bohs. I think that name might be sticking. Amongst the many impressive flags on display in Dalymount celebrating former hero’s such as Glen Crowe, Kevin Hunt and even a flag in the style of a famous Queen Album cover, you will find the national Venezuelan flag.

Commenting on his own footballing journeys, Luis admits “football has brought me friendship and brotherhood. 90% of my friends are from football, through the good times and bad times. It’s a family.”

So from Limerick to Drogheda Luis has also become a regular on away trips outside of Dublin. He recalls the atmosphere of Bohemians victory in Limerick at the start of the season when he brought two Mexican friends along. Speaking ahead of what will be the final Dublin Derby between Bohs and Rovers this coming weekend in the Leinster Senior Cup, he can’t withhold his excitement. “There is nothing like the derby, live football. It gives me goosebumps”.  

The summer derby between Bohs and Rovers was a memorable night with Luis and his fellow supporters practically landing on the pitch as the celebrated Dean Kelly’s match winners with a surge towards their hero’s. With a great admiration for Kelly, current captain Roberto Lopez and another former player in Dave Scully for his tenacity, Luis has truly bought into the league. Luis ponders how one cannot fall in love with live football when it can offer such memorable occasions and moments.

I am not too quick to tell Luis I was at his first game on that wet weekend in Dublin. I do have my own passion for derbies, my stories, my travels and I also have my Dublin football team, Shelbourne Football Club. But from growing up with plenty of Bohemian supporters, the greatest league in the world allowed me the chance to share a pint with a Venezuelan Bohemian supporter.  Brotherhood and friendship indeed, but for the 90 minutes of the derby, no chance, the derby must be won at all costs, but in Luis’s case I’ll happily cheer for Venezuelan Bohs against Rovers.