Boro Fans, You Are Not Alone!
AMERICAN Boro supporter Bob Waeltermann met a fellow fan in the flesh for the first time in another success story for the Boro Fans United scheme.
Since it was launched by Middlesbrough Official Supporters Club chair Sue Gardener, BFU has helped hundreds of fans scattered all over the globe to get together.
Bob randomly picked Boro as his Premier League club a few years ago and has since become a loyal follower.
But until another of Sue's BFU contacts, David Marshall, from Toronto, visited his hometown St Louis recently, he had been all on his own.
David was in the area for a convention and when Bob heard he had car rental trouble, he happily stepped in to taxi them around.
"This is the absolute first time that I have physically met another Boro fan," said a delighted Bob.
Our photo shows David Marshall, Bob Waeltermann, David's wife Kathy and his business associate, Michael Anstey.
Meanwhile, father and son Anthony and Aaron Hughes and two of Aaron's uncles travelled to Teesside from California for the Manchester United game.
Anthony has been supporting the Boro since the 1960s and they decided to come over for the game.
They read about another visit from American fans on this page and wanted to find out if there are any other Boro supporters in California.
Sue has put then in touch with our USA-based Supporters Club.
The photo is of Aaron and his Dad.
BORO'S Supporters Club in Singapore is celebrating its fifth birthday.
Set up by Boro-mad Ariff Ahmad on June 3 2004, the thriving club united local fans and expatriates.
Our picture shows Ariff with Steve Gibson during one of the Boro chairman's visits to Singapore.
For more information visit http://mfc-sg.blogspot.com/.
BORO fans from the United States and Canada made the pilgrimage to the Riverside for the Manchester United game.
Matt Lamont was over from New York while Ben Church visited from Toronto, enjoying a few drinks with members of Middlesbrough official Supporters Club beforehand.
Matt insisted on having this photo taken holding up a scarf he had brought for the occasion from the local bar where he now watches Boro games, Nevada Smith's in New York.
Matt moved to the US about five years ago and tries to get to see as many Boro games as he can.
Ben is a Canadian national who is currently living in Edinburgh and seeing as many Boro games as he can.
Our picture shows, from left to right, Matt Lamont, Sue Gardener, Joe Elstob, Ben Church and Dave Elstob.
SERBIAN Boro fan Nikola Mandic paid his first ever visit to the Riverside to see Marlon King's last-minute goal grab a potentially vital point at home to Portsmouth.
Nikola, from Belgrade, was a guest of the Twe12th Man's Dave Dyson, from Norton, and Stafford-based Mark Richardson, who took him on a visit to mima and for a few beers before arrival at the stadium.
Nikola said: "Although I had been to two away games in the past, coming to the Riverside was a special feeling and all the Boro fans treated me like a brother.
"In Belgrade, most people support either Liverpool or Manchester United as their English team but only Boro matter for me."
Back home, Nikola supports OFK Belgrade and his father's hometown team, Hajduk Split.
CALLING Boro fans in the Republic of Ireland!
Boro Fans United organiser and Middlesbrough Official Supporters Club chair Sue Gardener is putting together a list of fans who want to get together in the Emerald Isle.
There's already a thriving group north of the border, Northern Ireland Middlesbrough Supporters Club.
If you're interested, contact Sue on suem.g58@googlemail.com.
CANADIAN Boro Fans United contact Ben Church was on Teesside for his first ever live Boro game - and what a game to choose!
Ben saw Boro beat title-hopefuls Liverpool 2-0 at the Riverside, one of the team's best performances of the season.
Unfortunately he also took in the Spurs game before heading home, so he won't have exclusively happy memories of his trip.
The photo was taken in the Central pub in Middlesbrough after MOSC's usual pre-match venue, the Ironopolis Club, was evacuated before the game.
It shows, (back row, left to right), Donna James, Joe Hammilton, Dave Elstob, Ben Church and MOSC secretary Geoff Richardson.
Front row: Sheila Richardson, Joe Elstob and Sue Gardener.
Our second photo shows Finnish Boro fanatic Virpi Kytoaho amd son Joona with Seamus and Kerran Crudden, from Northern Ireland, before the Wigan match.
When Sue's husband, Terry, asked her what she wanted for a wedding anniversary, her answer was instant - if a little unusual!
Sue explained: "I said I'd like a brick and after the usual questions of which type of brick - house brick, Lego brick etc - I said a Boro Brick."
They took advantage of the special offer by ordering along with their Season Card application and she decided on the inscription "Boro Fans United - Cheers Sue G".
"It puts our BFU in the public eye and I thought was a good way to thank all our Boro fans abroad for their help in this scheme," Sue added.
The BFU scheme continues to go from strength to strength with around 30 new supporters club branches formed over recent years.
For more information contact
suem.g58@googlemail.com.To find out more about the Boro Brick Road, click here.
ONE of Boro's youngest fans in South America is flying the club's colours with this Juninho-sized kit presented to him by his grandparents.
Linda and Ian Moore made their first visit to meet little Boro babe Santiago over Christmas.
Santiago's proud dad Craig Moore is a lifelong Boro fan who was with the Boro School of Excellence for a couple of years in the early 1990s.
He is now teaching in Colombia with his Colombian wife, Sandra, and Santiago came into the world on April 1 2008.
Naturally, his grandparents were asked to bring a Boro strip for him.
"As you can see it is a touch big but he looked really sweet in it," said Linda.
BORO scarves have been proudly on display in two major sporting events in the United States.
Lynn and Mike Whisson are pictured at the MLS Western Conference play-off semi-final second leg between Houston Dynamo and New York Red Bulls at Robertson Field in Houston.
Both veterans of Ayresome Parks' South Stand Chicken Run and former White Book holders in the South-East Corner at the Riverside stadium, they now live in Houston and follow the Boro's fortunes avidly from Texas.
They now follow the Dynamo avidly.
American police officer Gary, pictured above, visited a steel plant on Teesside and watched a few games while he was here, becoming a confirmed Boro fan.
The pictures were taken at the 2008 World Series baseball, which the Philadelphia Phillies won against Tampa Bay Rays.
THEY can't all be there for every game, but Boro exiles and fans around the world are making their presence felt on matchdays by bringing some colour to the Riverside.
Teessiders have populated distant corners of the globe since the days of Marton-born explorer Captain Cook and many still travel for work and leisure, while an increasing number of football fans with no connection to the area are adopting Boro as their team.
But the fortunes of the team are never far from their thoughts.
Now, as part of the Twe12th Man's ongoing drive to get the fans at the Riverside working together, supporters clubs from far and wide are leaving a permanent stamp on the stadium in the form of their own banners.
The idea came from Boro fans based in Newcastle, the group behind the imaginatively-titled Smog on the Tyne banner.
They contacted Sue Gardener, chair of Middlesbrough Official Supporters Club and coordinator of the Boro Fans United scheme in conjunction with mfc.co.uk, which has helped establish 27 worldwide Boro fan branches.
She in turn got in touch with Mick Dunne, of the School of Art and Design at Our Lady of St Bede's School in Stockton, to help with designing and making some of the banners.
Along with the main MOSC banner, which bears the legend Angels All Over The World, flags from Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Canada and Newcastle have already been put up and Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan and Nigeria should follow soon.
A special MOSC banner was put up as a centrepiece for the individual flags and banners from around the world.
Sue says the scheme has come to fruition thanks to the club, MOSC, the Twe12th Man group and the school all working together.
"A lot of hard work by individuals and groups has gone into establishing these new branches of our supporters club," she explained.
"The flags and banners around the stadium are a way of acknowledging this work, as well as making it known that Boro have fans on every continent and not just around the Teesside region.
"As one branch member said to me, 'Even though we aren't big in numbers and can't attend live games at the Riverside, we give huge and excellent support to the Boro from around the world'."
Branches in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Nigeria, Northern Ireland and New York are among groups run by locals rather than Teesside exiles.
MOSC chair Sue Gardener has been helping Boro fans throughout the world get together to form branches of the supporters club.
If you are interested in forming a branch where you live, contact Sue at suem.g58@googlemail.com.
See our Supporters Club page for contact details of all the branches formed so far.
