Everton: Love At First Sight
Alejandro Bedoya Vanin, Colombia
Alejandro Bedoya Vanin is a member of Bogotá Blues in Bogotá, Colombia. He lives in Cali, Colombia and has been supporting Everton since 2012.
It was love at first sight for Everton and me.
In August 2012, I was at my aunt's house and decided to watch Everton vs Manchester United with no allegiances at the time to either side. Everton won the match with a Fellaini goal, and the game was perfect: the passion, the intensity... it took me by surprise and from that point my head was turned.
I started researching the club and its history, the work they do with the community and the more I learned, the more I identified with it. I did not know then the impact that supporting the club would have on me, but now I could not picture it any other way.
I was connected to the Bogotá Blues through Alex Swift, the founder. We met on Twitter and became friends through our common love for the club. I live in Cali, so I have not yet met all the Bogotá Blues.
The influence of Yerry [Mina] and James [Rodriguez], while he was at Everton, has been huge with the Colombian audience. They are players that are talked about a lot and so the club is in everyone's mind. The other two players that are well known and followed are Richarlison and Dominic [Calvert-Lewin].
I watch the games with my family, my parents and sometimes my grandparents, along with my aunts and my dogs Bruno and Luna. They all have become supporters. I also watch and talk about football with my friends, some of whom have a soft spot for Everton. I mean, who does not?!
I make preview and reaction videos in Spanish for the YouTube fan channel The Toffee Blues and have a blog of my own called Panorama Fútbol where I write about football, tactics, and sports psychology.
I lived in Liverpool for four months in 2015. I had the opportunity to go on an exchange to study English, so I picked the city with the place I most wanted to go, Goodison Park. I went to several matches including the Derby, which was amazing and even met Kieran Dowell walking down the street.
My grandfather died in 2015, before I travelled to Liverpool. A year later I sent his name to the club, and he appeared on the big screen at Goodison Park in a tribute to those that had died over the past year.
I graduated in April 2021 and Im starting to work as a psychologist in football. I am a founding member of the sports psychology association in Colombia (ACOPDAF) and part of the ethics committee. I hope to land a job at a football club in Colombia. Next year I will be applying for a Masters in sports psychology at Liverpool John Moores University - and after that I plan to get my coaching badges.
Football is the biggest sport in Colombia, people are very passionate about it and there are kids dreaming every day of playing professionally. It is played all over the country, from the Amazon to the Caribbean, passing through Cali, home of América and Deportivo Cali, the teams my father and mother support. Even though their teams are rivals they used to go to the "clásicos'' (derbies) and other matches together.
This summer I was in Miami, so I travelled to Orlando for the Florida Cup and watched Everton play Millonarios (from Colombia). It was amazing. It had been 6 years since I had the chance to watch Everton live. I met lots of Evertonians from the US and UK - some even recognized me from the videos and from Twitter. It was great being with all those fans - and meeting Everton and USMNT legend Tim Howard.
Football is a huge part of my life; I wake up thinking about it and I go to bed thinking about it. I play the game myself, maybe less than I would like to. I also want to be a manager someday, so football is a part of my past, present, and even more so my future.
