Chelsea supporter Hector Ortega is the latest to discuss his USA Tour memories and how one visit ended an 11-year wait for him to watch his team.

Proudly from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I am one of three who now runs our Milwaukee Blues supporters club.

The team is such a big part of my life, but obviously living on this side of the Atlantic over 4,000 miles away, watching them in person is tricky. But that is why Chelsea touring over here has given me so much.

I had actually started watching football in 2004, at the age of eight years old. But my brother and my father were already huge fans.

But there’s a bit of a football divide with my brother. My father is a Chivas fan, as he’s from Mexico. But my brother almost has two teams, supporting Barcelona but also Arsenal.

The banter never dies down between us, but I didn’t support Chelsea purely to annoy him!

I had just seen a few games on TV and one day realised to myself ‘that’s my team’ I’m going to go with them they are the club for me. It’s been a beautiful ride ever since.

I think there was a lot of pride in watching the three big guns of that era in John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba that first drew me in.

In honesty, Terry probably made me a Chelsea fan as growing up playing I always played centre-back. So I looked at his game and tried to follow it. He was a wall at the back, captain, leader, legend – nobody compares.

So when we heard Chelsea were playing over in Charlotte in 2015 against PSG, it was finally a chance to see them play for real. My uncle got the tickets and invited me with a couple of mates, I was so grateful.

For those who don’t know, Milwaukee isn’t exactly close to Charlotte. It's about a minimum 12-hour ride, but I had to do it. We actually drove all the way over there, it was my first time driving that far.

Once we got there, after a quick check-in at the hotel, we went straight to the stadium. There were activities for fans going on outside, so I got a photo with both the Premier League trophy and the League Cup, at the time I was so excited because I never expected that.

We were outside of the stadium then saw the team bus drive by. I saw Jose Mourinho, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa just sitting there, it all felt very surreal. They were laser focused on the game still – but for me it was crazy having watched them on TV so many times but they seemed so far away.

Even in something as simple as the warm-up. I was just watching John Terry and studying how he was practicing heading the ball. I was transfixed, it sounds strange but that was one of my main memories of the day.

It was a moment I could never forget, after such a long journey to get there, actually seeing these players in person was huge.

We drew that game 1-1 in normal time but then won on penalties. In a way my day was already perfect, but the win just added something extra.

Since that first game I have managed to watch us play on tour plenty of times since.

In 2016 against Real Madrid, 2022 against that team from North London and also against Borussia Dortmund in Chicago last year.

That 2022 trip brought another surreal moment in Orlando. We went to the open training session the day before the game.

I took my jersey with Hudson-Odoi's name on the back, he was my favourite player at the time and I still respect him to this day.

Towards the end of the session the players came over but there were so many fans. I was yelling 'Callum, Callum' waving my jersey frantically so he could see. He finally came over and I made the most perfect throw of my jersey.

He signed it, I thanked him and it was just awesome. I’ve never worn it since, although it probably would be a little tight if I tried.

Later on I got to meet Roberto Di Matteo, which was incredible. After all there’s only one Di Matteo. I thanked him right away for 2012 and making one of my childhood dreams come true and for everything he did for our club.

That was an honour to meet him. To meet any former player is something but he is a living club legend.

The next day we had an unfortunate game against Arsenal (a 4-0 loss) but just to have that experience and be around so many Chelsea fans, it was still a really special memory for me. As I said earlier, I’m now involved in running the Milwaukee Blues along with Nick Korth, who founded the club in 2014, and Scott Dykton.

We always meet up at the Highbury pub and watch the games together. Ever since our first meet-up in 2014 - for that 6-3 win at Everton when Diego Costa had just arrived and we were flying – we’ve had some amazing times supporting the team together.

There’s no other group I would rather be with on matchday, even if it means getting up early and being in the pub for 6am. Helping run the club is hugely enjoyable, it’s a big part of my life.

As we know, football is more than just a sport it’s a way of life. Chelsea is my club and I bleed Blue now, it means everything to me and is a part of who I am.

So I’m very grateful to the US tours for giving me the opportunity to see them in person. Someday the plan is for me to actually get over to England and watch a game from Stamford Bridge. And when that day does come I’m sure it will be hugely emotional.

But it is a memorable experience to watch the team wherever they play. I’ll always try and see them when they're over here.

This year there’s quite a good amount of us heading to watch the game against Celtic at the Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana, I’m already counting down the days.

Thankfully, it'll take us about three hours to get to the stadium, so it’s a much shorter road trip this time around than that first game nine years ago!

Chelsea’s USA Tour 2024