The Blue-Haired Fanatic: ‘Not an icon but a servant’

By Alexandra Jessica Esponga
INQUIRER.net

We are used to cheering our hearts out for our favorite teams, scream boo’s at our bitter rivals, celebrate whenever we reach victories and mourn with the teams in heartbreaking losses.
Most of us put up banners and endlessly wave them through the bleachers while others design T-shirts and have their idols’ names imprinted on the front.
Ebong Joson, a football devotee, does all that and more.
He went to the Panaad Stadium for the Azkals vs. Mongolia AFC Challenge Cup with the Philippine flag painted in his entire face while wearing a curly blue-dyed wig. Unsatisfied, he grabbed by the hand a humongous Philippine flag, jumped off the grandstand and ran through the football field like a madman.
“We have to strike while the iron is still hot,” said Joson in an exclusive interview. “We have to take chances while they are still there and take risks while we still can.”
Such fanaticism is understandable in the Philippines’ first love, basketball. Football, on the other hand, is relatively new to us and since it has only reached its peak of popularity for only almost a year, the sport obviously needs a solid support system.
Luckily, Joson and other football friends were able to understand that and they decided to invent a new booster squad for the sport.
Taking their cue from the Azkals, the moniker for the Philippine men’s squad, they called themselves the Kaholeros.
“It was hard because we really have no history of having a booster squad in football, we are all new at this,” Joson, who is also known as The Blue-Haired Fanatic said. “Even though I knew that there was a big possibility that I would be embarrassed, I took the challenged and now, here we are.”
After sometime, Joson was appointed head of fan management of the Philippine Football Federation and with his faithful apprentices, they were destined to fight with the Azkals side by side in every game the team had and will have.

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