Gamboa FC

Abiodun’s Gamboan Club is a sports club based in the Gamboa peninsula, an area of the coastal town of Abiodun in southern Candelaria famed for its pristine beaches and high property prices. The club is most regularly associated with its former professional football team, known as Gamboa FC, which played in the CMSC.

Two-time league champions, the club was part of the CMSC1 for nine of its fifteen ‘International Era’ seasons. Gamboa’s domestic ownership, once among the wealthiest in Candelariasian football, struggled to match the financial support provided to more popular clubs with multimillionaire and billionaire foreign owners during this later period, though the team’s yo-yo status was somewhat offset by four CMSC2 titles and four appearances in Series B Champions Cup finals, the latter two being victories. Such was the club’s success in the competition, they were formally awarded the original trophy after its fiftieth edition – albeit held in trust by UICA, given Gamboa’s current state of dormancy in tandem with the rest of the CMSC.

Early years
Initially devoted to yachting and similar pursuits, Gamboa FC was established in 1956 – not in fact as a team for the members of the high-class Gamboan Club, but as a professional side to compete in the NFBL and act as a source of entertainment for its wealthy members and other locals. It immediately became one of the country’s most influential outfits in the transfer market, and their small attendances compared to the Abiodun Muttonshells and typically superior attitude to the nation’s favourite sport rapidly led the team and its supporters to become among the most loathed by opposition fans.

Having never been directly involved in the title race, Gamboa FC pulled out of the NFBL in 1971 and soon became the leading lights of C&M’s developing amateur scene. Going on to win the CMS Cup in its first and third incarnations during the modern era, Gamboa turned professional once more in time for CMSC V and promptly won the league, playing attractive football and earning a whole new following among floating supporters in the Abiodun region not yet committed to Abiodun North and affluent individuals from across the country. In later years they suffered however, with the governing conglomerate unwilling to risk funds during turbulent economic times – particularly with other sides backed by multimillionaires now dominating the league.

Focusing instead on youth development, Gamboa eventually assembled a crop of players capable of taking on the best of the CMSC – and the team promptly won the XXII season. A threatened era of dominance never surfaced however, with the squad breaking apart and the club relegated just three seasons after lifting the title.

The SBCC years
Thereafter the financial support given to the team would increase markedly, and the club stayed up comfortably in XXXI and appeared set to press forwards, looking for Globe Cup qualification. They already had an SBCC run behind them, reaching the final of the fourth tournament – beating McDonald SC along the way, in the first ever ‘international’ clash between Candelariasian sides – before losing to Hatton Town of Ad’ihan.

In XXXII however they were relegated, despite sacking manager Carl Woods in favour of Cafundéu-born club legend Sargento Castelão. The untested new manager faced a real challenge to keep the club competitive throughout, particularly after losing key youngsters to sides in Pasarga, but a young and attack-minded side soon prospered in the CMSC2, building on the goalscoring talents of Jerry Chambers and John Potter and eventually taking the division title to bounce straight back up. As had been widely expected, Castelão strengthened his squad predominately with experienced Cafundelense stars; with powerful forwards Jorge Roberto and Lacerda joining Potter in a nimble 4-3-3.

The new players initially ill at-ease in the new surroundings of the CMSC, and not helped by the regular presence of anywhere up to half a dozen under-21 players. A season marked by another significant struggle soon became evident, and Gamboa ended the Apertura bottom of the table with just two victories and twelve points to their name. The club’s form arguably wasn’t helped by the distraction of SBCC10, in which a series of comeback performances saw them make the knock-out stages, oust two Capitalizt sides as well as Cafundelense outfit Engenheiro Peres, before falling to group stage rivals Stade du Dauphin in the final at the Marble Ground.

Domestically however, the run appeared to enthuse them anew. New confidence, coupled with several months experience in the Candelariasian top-flight, left them a much more dangerous proposition throughout the Clausura, and Gamboa lost just four more league fixtures to finish an unexpectedly comfortable twelfth.

The following season Gamboa finished thirteenth, again outstripping many expectations, though it was their earlier Apertura form that truly surprised many – with the club sitting ninth at the half-way stage, enough to qualify for a Globe Cup spot and become the first Candelariasian side to ‘graduate’ from the SBCC to the secondary UICA competition.

Their Globe Cup 13 campaign proved to be relatively short-lived however – ousting opposition from Graziland, FC Drongosnort and Panuul before unluckily drawing to face Medoria Löwen and losing home and away. The distraction of their international campaign, coupled with what remained an extremely thin squad, saw their Clausura form fall away quite considerably – winning just three games during the second half of the season – but their earlier points-accruing performances were enough to comfortably confirm their top-flight status once more.

The following season saw experienced former Cafundéu international ‘keeper Bartolomeu join the club, with Albrecht FC striker Simon Chinn another key arrival to succeed Lacerda. The comfort of the previous term appeared set for a repeat early on, with Gamboa still sitting in second place after four games, but the club’s defensive naivety and the waning powers of the Secristaianian duo and Chambers in midfield saw the side soon begin to fall away once more. Though most experts saw them as having enough to escape the drop, Gamboa found themselves needing a home victory on the final day to secure their safety – against relegation rivals El din Marbles, as providence would have it – and a single goal from Erik Visser served to condemn the Abiodun side to the CMSC2 once more. Castelão was sacked soon after, and the Cafundelense era at the club effectively brought to a close.

In his place, former Port of Clotaire and AFC MN Smith manager James Hannah was brought in and given enough resources to trawl the CMSC2 for players sufficiently talented to push for promotion. Their league title victory was a surprise however, and Hannah wasted no time in attempting to upgrade his side for a top-flight campaign with cheap, Rushmori players, though the team remained built around the king of the penalty box flop, Jorge Roberto.

That Gamboa would finally lift the SBCC in the tournament’s eighteenth outing would prove insufficient an achievement to save Hannah’s job – he lasted not a season in the top-flight before receiving a by now very accustomed sacking. After a one-match spell in the dugout from Clayton Knight he was succeeded by former C&M international and Albrecht Turkish centre-half Steven Williams, making the step up after a successful spell with Turkish’s de facto B team, Magnus United.

Williams’ largely intact team coasted to the CMSC2 title – the fourth time the club had taken the opportunity to win the second division title in a row – and had a sufficiently large squad to marry the achievement with a fourth SBCC final and a 2-0 win over Candelarian rivals Webley Stadium.

A 2-1 final day win over Castellano Hills would however prove their final match in domestic football, with the CMSC bowing out thereafter and the Gamboan Club’s football project wound up. There was time for one more brief tilt at the SBCC, a side shorn of its various Nethertopians and Malak Free State internationals ousted in the group stage after a 2-1 home defeat to Sandwell Rangers of Krytenia in the team’s final match.

Home stadium
Gamboa moved into Wallpark Road shortly after the start of the CMSC, with the thirty-thousand all-seater stadium instantly becoming the new competition’s plushest – a status it would arguably retain, as least as far as the ‘prawn sandwich brigade’ are concerned. Often considered part football stadium, part luxury apartment complex; around a third of the 4,300 executive boxes also served as apartments in which the right to watch all games for free came as an integral part as the exorbitant asking price.

Coming hand-in-hand with this situation was a reputation for the worst stadium atmosphere in the country, not helped by the positioning of the away end – perched high on top of the main stand, looking out glumly over the smug shininess of the Gamboa district.

The apartments are still there; the former pitch a manicured garden.

Notable CMSC1 International Era players
Goalkeepers
 * Bartolomeu
 * Andy Halford
 * Raheem Kay
 * Murphy Matthews
 * Ivan Volodinsk

Defenders
 * Aldo
 * Boris Atroshchenko
 * Kire Barnett
 * Leo Delamater
 * Clayton Knight
 * David Lacombe
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Andrew Ryan
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Akram Sabzvari
 * Geert Winnick
 * Sam Young

Midfielders
 * Gabriel Bell
 * Jerry Chambers
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Chris Coventry
 * Adlai Dobson
 * Kevin Ely
 * Jua Huwang
 * George Jones
 * Andrei Mirnyi
 * Kayben Nixon
 * Flag of Ex-Nation.png Scott Tollison
 * John Yeoman

Forwards
 * Zachary Adekunde
 * Sargento Castelão
 * Simon Chinn
 * Rusty Katic
 * Lacerda
 * Mars Mottram
 * John Potter
 * Cas Richardson
 * Jorge Roberto
 * Robbie Shannon
 * Ryan Taylor