Bohemian S.C.

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Bohemian Sporting Club

Emblem in black and white
Full name	Bohemian Sporting Club Manila 1910
Founded	1910[1]
Dissolved	1930s
Home colours

Bohemian Sporting Club was a football club based in Manila, Philippines. It was founded in 1910 and was one of the first clubs to be established within the country. The club, during the earliest phases of football in the Philippines, imposed its dominance in the country, winning 10 national championships in the early 1900s.^[2]

After ceasing to exist by the 1930s, due to the socio-political shifts in the Philippines as a colony, then as an independent nation, followed by the breakout and aftermath of the second World War, a group whose headed by chairman Jason de Jong formed, in 2017, a football school and an academy as a tribute to the legendary club. In 2018 the group launched on the field its football club, adopting the historical club's emblem to honor the success of its history. The new Bohemian Sporting Club's ownership group now operates in developing the youths by giving them the opportunity to play in variuos tournaments, while the men's amateur senior team also participated in the 7s Football League in 2019 and 2020, a 7-a-side football league based in Manila.

Established in 1910, it was, alongside the Manila Jockey Club (1900s), Manila Sporting Club (1906), Sandow Athletic Club (1906), Manila Nomads Sports Club (1914) and Aurora Athletic Club (1910s) one of the pioneers of football in the Philippines.^[3][1]

After football was introduced in the Philippines by English sportsmen, right before the begginning of the 20th Century, football clubs started to be formed and the first few matches started to take place. The popularity of the game rose to the point that a National Football Championship, the first ever in the country, was organised in 1911. Bohemian SC became the second football club to be crowned as "Champion of the Philippines" in 1912 as the previous and first ever Filipino champion was All Manila.^[2] In 1913 Bohemian added to their tally a first "continental" success winning, by 3 goals to 1, the "Campeonato del Carnaval" against South China AA^[6] and successfully defended their Philippine title winning it back to back. The Bohemians, in 1914, failed to defend their crown and complete a three-peat, as a club founded in the same year, Nomads SC was able to dethrone the mighty team and win the National Championship, becoming also the first to do so and the third ever Filipino club champion.^[7] Bohemian SC wasted no time in showing the newly champions and the other clubs which one ruled the national football scene, as the Bohemians regained the title in 1915 as well in 1916 and were reinforced by Paulino Alcántara who helped them, not only, win a three-peat in 1917 but also complete a four-peat in 1918. In that year, a certain Virgilio Lobregat was also present, who was still a teenager. Right after Alcántara left the club to return to play for the Culés,^[8] he took over and led Bohemian to a second three-peat to start the new decade, winning the title in 1920, 1921 and 1922. In those years the National Championship started to feature foreign clubs which were making it difficult for the Bohemians, also aided by the fact that a lot of the veteran players stopped playing for the club as they got older. Filipino football saw different champions before Bohemian, still led by Lobregat, won its tenth Philippine National Championship in 1927.^[2]

Bohemian Sporting Club ruled Philippines football during the 1910’s to the late 1920’s and fielded some of the best players of the country, who were often chosen to represent the, then called, Philippine islands in the Far Eastern Championship Games. Among those players, there were Paulino Alcántara who played for the club from 1916 to 1918 and one of FC Barcelona's legends where he played from 1912-27, as well as Virgilio Lobregat who was considered the Philippines’ best player next to the blaugrana great and a Filipino legendary figure himself.^[9]

The club, alongside Sandow Athletic Club represented the Philippines in football at the 1913 Far East Games which was held in Manila and were able to win over China, giving the Philippines its only football gold medal in this tournament's history. The gold medalist's team were formed by Bohemian's German Montserrat, L. Lara, Enrique Lopez, Jose Llamas, Jesus Cacho, Joaquín "Chacho" López and Manuel Nieto.^[6] After the first edition of the Far Eastern Championship Games was over, Bohemian SC played a match against South China AA, which represented China during the tournament, for the "Campeonato del Carnaval" and came out on top to win one of the first ever interclub football tournament in the Far East.^[10][6]

Bohemian SC, as the football powerhouse of the country, continued to contribute the national team which were fielding its players also in the 1915,^[11] 1917^[12](edition where the Philippines recorded its biggest victory, by margin, in an international football match which also became Japan's biggest defeat, finishing the game 2-15), 1919,^[13] 1921,^[14] 1923^[15] and 1925^[16] editions of the Far East Games but always coming up short in the decisive games against China and ending every edition with a silver medal.

Former Philippine national team player Jason de Jong and his group began talks in 2017 regarding the possible revival of the Bohemian Sporting Club. The following year the ownership group established the Bohemian Football School and the BSC academy in honor of Paulino Alcántara and the story of the club as a vehicle to draw in youth players to develop for the club. In 2018 the name, the crest of Bohemian SC resurfaced on the football pitch for the firsts times, after more than 80 years, through the youth academy teams and it immediatly saw an early success as, some of them were able to win the Aboitiz Cup and the Agila Cup in their respective categories.^[17] The group sent its men's amateur team to join the amateur 7's Football League, a Metro Manila-based 7-a-side football league and debuted in the third season of the competition in 2019. Among the players of the Bohemian side there were some UFL and PFL players such as Izzeldin Elhabib, Hamed Hajimehdi and former Philippine national team player as well as chairman of the club Jason de Jong.^[18] The group has stated that it plans to organize a first team for the club in the next years as it intends to be, firstly, sustainable before launching themselves to the professional football world.^[19]

It's believed that white and black were the social coulours of Bohemian SC but there are no source suggesting what the colors of the original club were, as also, every photographic materials about the club are all in black and white. Nonetheless, the jersey, originally was a representation of the club's crest, a plain one with a "colored" stripe that crossed it, along with the acronym of the club (B.S.C.) written on it.

The revived Bohemian club adopted what are assumed to be the colours and the historical crest, while also adding above it a star to symbolize the achievement of winning ten Philippines National Championships. The club, in the various competitions of every category its teams joined, utilized white for the home kit one and black for the away kit, while also combining the two colors.

Home kit example 1

Away kit example 1

Home kit example 2

Away kit example 2

•   Record

Player Intenational player for Position Bohemian career Trophies won at Bohemian Ref. German Montserrat  Philippines GK 1912-1919 7 [6][13] L. Lara  Philippines DF 1912-1913 3 [6] Enrique Lopez  Philippines MF 1912-1913 3 [6] Jose Llamas  Philippines FW 1912-1919 3 [6][11][12][13] Jesus Cacho  Philippines FW 1912-1919 7 [6][11][13] Joaquín "Chacho" López  Philippines MF 1912-1925 10 [6][11][12][13][14][15][16] Manuel Nieto  Philippines FW/DF 1912-1919 7 [6][12][13] Joaquín Loyzaga  Philippines GK/DF 1915-1921 6 [11][12][13][14] Federico Garcia  Philippines MF 1915-1921 6 [11][12][14] Eduardo Rodriguez  Philippines — 1915 1 [11] Ramon Marco  Philippines FW 1915-1919 4 [11][12][13] Ricardo Aldana  Philippines — 1915 1 [11] Luis Moreno  Philippines MF 1915-1917 3 [11][12] Ricardo Garcia  Philippines — 1915-1917 3 [11][12] Geronimo Canda  Philippines — 1915 1 [11] Paulino Alcántara Riestrá  Catalonia  Philippines  Spain FW 1916-1918 2 [12] Eduardo Yrezabal  Philippines — 1917-1925 5 [12][13][16] Virgilio Lobregat  Philippines FW 1918-1927 5 [13][16] Alberto Villareal  Philippines FW 1919-1925 3 [13][14][15][16] Restituto Ynchausti  Philippines — 1919 — [13] Fernando Villareal  Philippines — 1921-1925 2 [14][15][16] Jesus Cui  Philippines — 1925 — [15][16] Ernesto Hernaez  Philippines — 1925 — [15][16] Miguel Diaz  Philippines — 1925 — [16] Angel Villareal  Philippines FW 1925 — [16] Jose "Peping" Villareal  Philippines — 1925 — [16] Emilio "Lolo" Pacheco  Philippines FW 1925 — [15][16]

Note: The years spent at the club by the players are reported by the "Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation"^[20] but only during the far eastern games.

Note2: The number of trophies won by the players are considered only in the period of time the players were at the club per "Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation"^[20] as the exact years they spent at Bohemian is unkwown. Only exception is for the players who participated in the 1913 Far East Games as it took place at the beginning of February and the Philippine team was formed by the members of the 1912 championship team.

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