‘Honestly, I fell in love with Didier Drogba’s style of play, and everything else just clicked.'

'This was during a time when you couldn’t necessarily watch your favorite team each week so it required commitment and a bit of innovation to watch highlights or follow the schedule.’ A sentiment most Chelsea fans can appreciate, and one which highlights the lengths our supporters go to to keep up with the team.

Meet Mike Ryan Ruiz, executive producer of ESPN’s The Dan Lebatard Show and an ardent Chelsea supporter, spends his days producing and providing banter on one of America’s most popular sports talk shows. For any viewers of the show, two things about Mike quickly become clear - he loves Miami and he bleeds Chelsea blue.

Given his involvement with ESPN, he is a face that many American fans already recognize. Mike was also featured on the @ChelseaFCInUSA account during the Final Whistle On Hate in Boston and shared his live reactions while watching Chelsea defeat Arsenal in the Europa League Final with the South Florida Blues. He began following the club in the early 2000s and has been a die-hard fan of the club for the better part of the last 15 years.

Mike is of Cuban descent and, though Cuba isn’t necessarily known for its football, according to him the Latin experience in Miami is one of embracing all sorts of footballing culture. ‘A couple of days out of the year, I put on my Colombia jersey just so that I don’t miss out on the party,’ he joked.

He is a member of the South Florida Blues, his local Chelsea Supporters Club, but Mike also enjoys taking in a match with other chapters in whatever city he travels to. ‘I obviously enjoy watching at the bar, but when I’m traveling I check out the 5th Stand App to look up where the Chelsea supporters are. It’s always my preference to watch with other CFC fans. I take in the game, have a few pints, that’s the normal routine. Depending on how big of a victory it is, I might stick around to hang and watch the other Premier League games.’

When asked about his favorite times as a Chelsea fan, Mike didn’t skip a beat. ‘Mourinho will always be my favorite manager. I was into the whole ‘special one’ moniker and I even used to watch all of his press conferences on YouTube. My all-time favorite Chelsea moment has to be Drogba’s equalizer in the 88th minute against Bayern Munich, in the 2012 Champions League Final. I had dragged two friends of mine out with me who didn’t have a favorite club at the time but are now Chelsea fans,’ he said proudly. ‘They were there for that experience and I was just an anxious mess. I wasn’t able to fully celebrate until hours later because I was so drained after the game!’

‘If there was one specific moment that made me utterly devoted to the team it was the Torres goal vs Barcelona in 2012. I didn’t realize how invested I really was.’ If ever there was a time during our recent Chelsea history which could embody what it means to live and die with the team as a fan, it was the ups and downs of our Champions League run in the 2011/12 season.

As someone who has a routine, we wondered if Mike had any pre-match superstitions that he maintained. ‘I’m big into jinxes,’ he admitted. ‘I get a weird premonition when an opposing player is going to score on us. If I had one superpower it’d be knowing when Daniel Sturridge is going to score against us. If you were watching with me I would have told you 10 seconds before it happened,’ he laughed.

Mike has traveled to Stamford Bridge on several occasions, and he’s seen the Blues when they’ve come stateside for a preseason tour, but we wanted to know what lengths he had gone to in order to support the club. ‘One time, in Vegas, I stayed up for 36 hours straight in order to watch! It was a combination of flying in after a workday, the time difference, alcohol, Red Bull and thinking I had the willpower to only stay at the craps table for a few games,’ he said ruefully.

‘I actually ended up having Australian open wagers that I stayed up for and, before I knew it, it made no sense to go to sleep because Chelsea vs Arsenal was right around the corner. Chelsea ended up losing 2-0 in one of the worst games of the season, so I went right back to the craps table to gamble away my sorrows,’ he explained. ‘Until then, I thought it was impossible to have a bad time in Vegas - I was wrong.’

To wrap up, we asked Mike to describe what being a Chelsea supporter means to him. ‘I kind of lean into the reputation. I know some opposition fans say Chelsea didn’t exist before [Roman] Abramovich, and I know why. Sixteen years with him as the owner, 16 trophies won. I’d be upset too.’

‘Most football fans in this country who aren’t Chelsea fans just dislike them. Nobody’s lukewarm on the club. Whenever Chelsea are in the throes of a ‘crisis season,’ amidst all the chaos, when people are taunting me in November and February over results, somehow by the end of the season I’ll circle back and remind them of a phrase from well-known Chelsea fan @JoeTweedie that I’ve come to love: chaos and trophies, that’s what Chelsea does.’