The shocking story of the Cameroonian boxer named Bocas Junior who dreams of qualifying for Paris 2024

24 years ago, Boca Junior lived a glorious time. With players like Juan Román Riquelme, Martín Palermo and managed by Carlos Bianchi, the team built a cycle that saw them later win the Copa Libertadores in 2000 and 2001. Surely no one in Argentina suspected that the Xeneize club would end up inspiring the name of a child with a touching life story thousands of miles away: it’s about the boxer called Bocas Juniors.

“My father watched Boca Juniors games a lot, that’s why he called me that” begins by saying the 24-year-old boxer in conversation with the site Relief. His path seemed destined for football, but the Cameroonian-born man says that was not the case: “When I was a child, I played football in the streets, but I never thought of anything else. I didn’t play sports, but everything changed in the center where I spent the first six months in Ceuta (Spain)”.

As a teenager, he made the decision to leave Africa; leaving behind his family and the place where he lived his childhood to undertake a dangerous journey to Spain that took him five years. “I didn’t go to school, but I learned to weld and at 10 I had a job. A friend started telling me about life in Spain and I decided to go with him. I didn’t even know it was a country where white people lived,” he said.

The first big barrier was when he wanted to enter Europe. He had to walk north accompanied by a friend to Ceuta, where he was able to enter with a bit of luck, he admits: “I managed to cross the fence on my first try. I was lucky, but the path was very hard. I didn’t even know what to expect. My mother was able to help me all the way by giving me some money, but my friend was not so lucky and we had to work in the countries we were crossing to be able to pay for everything. I couldn’t move on without him. It took so long. » .

Bocas Junior settled in the town of Avilés, where he had his first approach to boxing in a rather curious way: “I asked to do strength sports and they enrolled me in a weight room. I do not like. Next door was a boxing club. I tried it and fell in love from the first moment”.

Of course, its context remained very complex. There was no money and sometimes not enough to eat. Sport at this stage was fundamental: “I had nothing to eat. The coach there told me that if I wanted to train seriously, I had to go there every day. He came and before training he gave me money to buy me a sandwich and a juice. Was difficult”. The now sporty has found a job, but admits having had to experience the anguish of a migrant: “I finally found a job as a mason. It was very dangerous because I had no papers and I could get in trouble, luckily nothing happened.”

After that, and having no papers, he had to move again in search of better opportunities. He had bad times in Oviedo, during which he confesses to having met bad friends, until he arrived in Madrid.

In the capital of this country, he received help from a relative, and again football crossed his path. He found work in a gymnasium in the Rayo Vallecano stadium, where he continued to learn boxing, a sport that brings him great results today. Indeed, in 2021 he obtained a bronze medal at the Spanish championships, feats he repeated last year and this year. “Now I live from boxing. I train 100% and I can pay for my house and my expenses thanks to this sport,” he said.

Now, Bocas Juniors are savoring success and whetting their appetite: they want to represent their country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: “My goal right now is to go to the Games.”

His incredible story and, of course, the name of the young Cameroonian, created a real idyll between Bocas and the fans of the Argentinian club on social networks. In fact, messages from Xeneizes fans in their Instagram posts are recurring. His successes and even his training are celebrated on another continent by trans-Andean fans, who will surely follow the career of this fighter who attracts the attention of the world.