Interviews
JUE 26.01.2023
Real Oviedo was in real trouble in 2012. Once a mainstay in LaLiga, the Asturias club was on the verge of bankruptcy following years of financial negligence and political strife.
In a last-ditch effort to save the club, Real Oviedo sold shares in the team online for 10.75 euros ($14). Sid Lowe, a British sportswriter in Spain, helped promote the effort on social media, spurring people around the globe from China to the United States to buy shares.
Sheba Rawson, an elementary school principal and Portland Timbers fan in Oregon, heard about the saga and even pledged to get a tattoo of Real Oviedo’s crest if fellow members of the Timbers Army, her local club’s supporters group, bought 100 shares.
“It took a day,” Rawson recalls. “I was like, ‘OK, I guess that’s happening,’ so I made an appointment for a tattoo.”
The New York Times got wind of the club’s peril and, of course, Rawson’s promise.
“Somehow The New York Times got a hold of it and sent a photographer to my house and took more pictures than I had at my wedding,” she says. “I was part of this global movement to save Real Oviedo. It’s not like I did a thing. … The point was it brought all of this attention to this then-third division team.”
With the club saved thanks to the worldwide fundraise as well as investment from former players including Santi Carzola, Juan Mata and Michu, and a $2.5 million investment from Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim, the recently tattooed Rawson was ready to hopefully watch Real Oviedo’s return to Spain’s top flight rather than its demise.
Rawson was first introduced to the club through conversations she had with a graduate student from Oviedo on soccer message boards. The two bonded over the similarities between the Pacific Northwest and Spain’s northwest as well as their “big love for a small club.”
Three years after Real Oviedo was given a second life, Rawson made her first trip to Spain. Alberto, the graduate student now living in Madrid, took time off from work to meet her at the airport. In Oviedo, Rawson was treated like a local celebrity—she was given an Airbnb for free for the week, while another fan who she never met in person took half a day off at work to meet her train and show her around.
“It was amazing,” Rawson says. “I’m sure I didn’t buy a cider the whole week. I also had this over/under on how many times I’d have to show the tattoo, and I was way under.”
Under the assumption she was getting coffee with some supporters, Rawson was surprised with a visit to Estadio Carlos Tartiere where she was greeted by the first team and handed a signed jersey before touring the club’s museum with the players.
The entire experience, which was capped by watching Real Oviedo in person with Lowe, wasn’t without more fanfare as Rawson was met with a standing ovation returning to her seat after getting a soda.
“I love how people around the world supported this team and willed it to continue to exist,” she says. “A story like mine that’s wacky just gives people hope like, ‘Hey, if that can happen, anything can happen. We can do this. We can pull this off. We can continue to exist.’”
FULL SERIES:
A Breakaway from Household Support
Real’s remontadas roped in this fan
Unexpected Encounter Leads to Unforgettable Experience
Sevilla Fandom Comes Full Circle
UD Almería unites community in New Jersey
Basque Roots Grow in Meaning for Boise Student
Local peña helps Celta Vigo fans overcome morriña
San Diego, the Birthplace of the first Cádiz Peña in the U.S.
Fate, luck and curiosity brought this fan to Atleti
Real Sociedad fandom blossoming in Boise
Growing up in awe of Sánchez, Real Madrid
Ortegas proudly promote Real Betis around the globe
¡Vamos mi Sevilla! ¡Vamos Nueva York!
Mexico’s Márquez Converted This Culé
Covid can’t stop this Valencia CF socio
Living near the Bernabéu led to this fan loving Real Madrid
How a U.S. Elementary School Principal Helped Save Real Oviedo
© LALIGA - 2023