Interviews
VIE 14.04.2023
Like millions of FIFA players around the world, AJ Ricketts and his friends used to play as the same top teams as everyone else: Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester City, PSG, Bayern Munich, etc.
As his soccer fandom grew from playing the best-selling sports video franchise on the planet, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, to following clubs week in and week out, Ricketts wanted to go against the grain with which clubs to support.
Rather than hitching his wagon to Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal or Liverpool in England, he began following Tottenham.
When a friend asked which LaLiga club he followed, Ricketts’ response was far from common: SD Eibar.
“Everybody’s Barça. Everybody’s Real Madrid. Or even Atlético,” he says. “Who can be different? Honestly I was scrolling through teams on FIFA and I never heard of SD Eibar, so I started playing with them. Me and a buddy kept playing with them and from there I started looking more into the club.”
Founded in 1940, SD Eibar is a fan-owned club with approximately 8,000 shareholders from 48 countries. Until SD Huesca qualified for LaLiga in 2018, Eibar was considered the smallest to have ever played in Spain’s top flight.
From 1950-2014, the Basque side played in Spain’s lower leagues before earning its first-ever promotion to LaLiga for 2014-15. Eibar spent seven seasons in the top flight—finishing as high as ninth in 2017-18—before being relegated following the 2020-21 campaign.
Currently atop the Segunda División, SD Eibar has its sights set on returning to LaLiga.
“They have such a fascinating story,” Ricketts says. “They spent decades and decades in the second or third division then they started getting the results on the field to get up to LaLiga, but had to fundraise through the Defend Eibar campaign.
“Hopefully they can make their way back to the top flight.”
Ricketts, a Florida-based sports broadcaster who covers Florida International University and MLS Next Pro, said he’s in awe of the club’s passionate fanbase as well as its intimate 8,100-seat stadium: the Ipurua Futbol Zelaia.
“It seems like a really intriguing place that really loves their team,” he says. “Man, I’d love to get out there for a match one day.”
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