Rojina, right, comes up against LOI legend Joey Ndo during Bray Wanderers v Bohemians in November 2009 - Rojina's second and final game for Bray. David Maher/Sportsfile
2026 world cup
David Alejandro Rojina Reyes: The untold story of Bray Wanderers’ unlikely Mexican man
Chris Shields, Eddie Gormley and Pat Devlin recall the defender’s brief stint at the Carlisle Grounds.
THE BRAY WANDERERS side of 2009 featured many now well-renowned names: Chris Shields, David Webster, Dane Massey and Derek Pender to name a few.
But there is one player who has always been overlooked, until now.
Bray were staring down the barrel of relegation in 2009 when manager Eddie Gormley brought in defender David Alejandro Rojina Reyes with just a couple of months remaining in the season. Sadly, this is not a story of how an unlikely arrival rescued the Wicklow club’s season, but simply a tribute to one of the League of Ireland’s many forgotten men.
With Mexico set to get the World Cup underway on Thursday, there’s no time like the present to remember Rojina, a rare Mexican representative in the LOI.
“All of a sudden, there was just this Mexican fella, Alejandro, in the changing room,” now-Linfield star Chris Shields tells The 42.
“It was a funny squad in 2009 at Bray when Alejandro came in because we were all trying to stay up. There were a fair amount of young lads like myself, David Webster, Brian Kane, Shane O’Neill. We were all quite friendly.”
Shields and co. did their utmost to help the new arrival adapt to his very new and different environment despite communication challenges.
“We did our best to help him settle into the changing room, although there was a massive language barrier.
“There weren’t many of us in that Bray changing room who were fluent in Spanish. I’ll tell you, we probably could have told a few boys that he spoke Mexican, and they would have believed it.
“We did our best with him off the pitch but we didn’t have many team social outings because it was towards the end of season and we were fighting relegation so we didn’t get to bring him out for initiation beers.”
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On occasion, however, Shields and teammates Webster, Gareth Coughlan and Gary McCabe would invite Rojina to join them at The Plaza Bar in Tallaght for Sunday’s famous €2.50 drinks, but the centre-half never took them up on the offer.
Shields in action for Bray in 2009. Cathal Noonan / INPHO
Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
“Alejandro didn’t say a whole lot in the changing room. He’d just come in, train and try to be as friendly as he could. We didn’t get the best stories out of him about what he was doing in Ireland for Bray, but I’m nearly sure he said his dream was to try and get back to play in Mexico or in the MLS, and he was just in Ireland because it was a pro club at the time.
“He was a nice fella, but he was a tough boy in training. He’d absolutely half you. He must have had severe intensity wherever he trained in Mexico, because the tackles he’d put in training, oh my god, like knee-high stuff. Then we’d run in like ‘whoa, whoa, whoa’, and he’d just get up and give us the auld ‘Que?’ after halving Shane O’Neill or Detser [Derek Pender].
“I don’t know how but he sort of just turned up in Bray. He was just there and that was that.”
So how does a player from Mexico end up on Bray Wanderers’ radar in the middle of a recession-era League of Ireland season?
In addition to managing Bray, Wanderers’ boss Gormley also worked at Dublin Oak Academy, a Kilcroney-based boarding school serving Mexican, Spanish and Chilean students. There, students would generally spend a year studying the traditional subjects of an Irish secondary school, except for the Irish language, before returning home at the end of the academic year.
Unsurprisingly, the task of looking after the school football team fell to the man with elite level managerial experience.
“We’ve had a few very good players through the years. We had another lad who ended up in the Atlético Madrid academy,” Gormley tells The 42.
“David Alejandro was the standout player that year. He was technically excellent. He would have impressed so much in the school team games that I just said, ‘Listen, come down, and we’ll give you a couple of training sessions with Bray and we’ll see how you get on.’
Rojina’s impressive showings wouldn’t have been surprising to anyone who was aware of his previous experience at underage and reserve team level at Club América, Mexico’s most successful football club.
With permission from the school granted and necessities like insurance sorted out, Rojina officially became a Seagull in August 2009.
“It was never going to be a long term thing for him because he had to finish his studies and head back to Mexico. He just seemed to be in the right place at the right time. It would have probably been at a point in the season where one or two lads were out injured and we would have said, ‘We lose nothing by putting him in’”, Gormley says.
Wanderers legend Pat Devlin was not directly involved at Bray when Rojina was brought in, as he had previously taken a role in Steve Staunton’s Republic of Ireland setup as ‘B’ team coach. Devlin, however, was on the terraces at the Carlisle Ground every week without fail in 2009, before returning as Director of Football that September.
“Bray in its own way was a platform for everybody to move on from. If you come out to Bray the likelihood is that if you’re good enough, you get the chance. At another club you could be sitting there for a couple of years and never get the chance,” Devlin tells The 42.
“Most players who go to Bray, even to this day, get an opportunity and that can help them potentially move on to a Premier Division club or a team in the UK.
“Whether you’re winning the league or fighting relegation, you’re always looking for somebody to add a little bit more to it, a spark, flair, a bit of competition. That’s probably what Eddie was looking for with David Alejandro.”
While Rojina only made two appearances for the Seagulls, his brief stint was far from quiet.
The Mexican was handed a surprise debut as part of a five-man defence for Wanderers’ trip to Sligo Rovers in October, but was hauled off in a tactical switch up after just 26 minutes. Rojina could only watch on from the sideline as Eoin Doyle bagged the game’s only goal to pull Rovers out of the relegation zone, with Bray sitting rock bottom.
Rojina’s second and final game in Bray colours was on the final day of the 2009 season in a 1-1 draw at home to Bohemians as Bohs retained their Premier Division title, the club’s most recent league success to date.
Paddy Madden celebrates with goalscorer Jason Byrne as Bohs retained their league title. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
Former Seagull Jason Byrne put the Phibsborough side ahead in comical fashion after 65 minutes, after Rojina and goalkeeper Brian Kane collided while trying to deal with a long ball, allowing Byrne to finish into an empty net.
Refusing to bow out from his time in the league with only negative memories, Rojina made up for his role in the opening goal by scoring a cracking volley on his Carlisle Ground debut.
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The Mexican’s left-footed strike over his shoulder went past a crowded area and beat an unsighted Brian Murphy in the Bohs’ net to draw the game level.
“I still remember his goal that night, it was a great little finish,” Shields says.
“Bohs were there to win the league and went 1-0 up but Alejandro’s goal – it was like an overhead kind of axe kick finish. If anyone has the footage, it was a great strike.”
Devlin added: “We were all delighted for him when he got that goal to be honest, for him to have a memory like that forever.”
The goal was jubilantly celebrated by the Mexican contingent of Bray’s support, as students of Dublin Oak Academy, Rojina’s schoolmates, were in the house for his final game in green and white.
“We used to bring the lads down to the Carlisle on most Friday evenings,” Gormley says.
“They were only up the road in their dorms so they’d come down to watch us play. They were fairly noisy lads, so it was great. They brought that atmosphere that they’d be used to seeing back home.
“I’d say that was probably the best-selling year of Bray Wanderers jerseys ever!”
Bray would go on to be relegated that season, with Rojina not featuring in any of the playoff games, but they were reinstated to the league for the 2010 campaign following Cork City’s demise.
Shields says: “Alejandro probably would have benefited from another year, but maybe Bray was just the wrong club at the wrong time because we were a bunch of gurriers playing, like the young lot, the likes of myself, Webby and all, we were just trying to find our feet and trying to keep Bray up at the same time and it wasn’t to be. Although we didn’t actually go down.
“Listen, auld Dave can say he got relegated from the League of Ireland Premier Division but he didn’t play a game in the First Division.”
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David Alejandro Rojina Reyes: The untold story of Bray Wanderers’ unlikely Mexican man
THE BRAY WANDERERS side of 2009 featured many now well-renowned names: Chris Shields, David Webster, Dane Massey and Derek Pender to name a few.
But there is one player who has always been overlooked, until now.
Bray were staring down the barrel of relegation in 2009 when manager Eddie Gormley brought in defender David Alejandro Rojina Reyes with just a couple of months remaining in the season. Sadly, this is not a story of how an unlikely arrival rescued the Wicklow club’s season, but simply a tribute to one of the League of Ireland’s many forgotten men.
With Mexico set to get the World Cup underway on Thursday, there’s no time like the present to remember Rojina, a rare Mexican representative in the LOI.
“All of a sudden, there was just this Mexican fella, Alejandro, in the changing room,” now-Linfield star Chris Shields tells The 42.
“It was a funny squad in 2009 at Bray when Alejandro came in because we were all trying to stay up. There were a fair amount of young lads like myself, David Webster, Brian Kane, Shane O’Neill. We were all quite friendly.”
Shields and co. did their utmost to help the new arrival adapt to his very new and different environment despite communication challenges.
“We did our best to help him settle into the changing room, although there was a massive language barrier.
“We did our best with him off the pitch but we didn’t have many team social outings because it was towards the end of season and we were fighting relegation so we didn’t get to bring him out for initiation beers.”
On occasion, however, Shields and teammates Webster, Gareth Coughlan and Gary McCabe would invite Rojina to join them at The Plaza Bar in Tallaght for Sunday’s famous €2.50 drinks, but the centre-half never took them up on the offer.
“Alejandro didn’t say a whole lot in the changing room. He’d just come in, train and try to be as friendly as he could. We didn’t get the best stories out of him about what he was doing in Ireland for Bray, but I’m nearly sure he said his dream was to try and get back to play in Mexico or in the MLS, and he was just in Ireland because it was a pro club at the time.
“He was a nice fella, but he was a tough boy in training. He’d absolutely half you. He must have had severe intensity wherever he trained in Mexico, because the tackles he’d put in training, oh my god, like knee-high stuff. Then we’d run in like ‘whoa, whoa, whoa’, and he’d just get up and give us the auld ‘Que?’ after halving Shane O’Neill or Detser [Derek Pender].
So how does a player from Mexico end up on Bray Wanderers’ radar in the middle of a recession-era League of Ireland season?
In addition to managing Bray, Wanderers’ boss Gormley also worked at Dublin Oak Academy, a Kilcroney-based boarding school serving Mexican, Spanish and Chilean students. There, students would generally spend a year studying the traditional subjects of an Irish secondary school, except for the Irish language, before returning home at the end of the academic year.
Unsurprisingly, the task of looking after the school football team fell to the man with elite level managerial experience.
“We’ve had a few very good players through the years. We had another lad who ended up in the Atlético Madrid academy,” Gormley tells The 42.
“David Alejandro was the standout player that year. He was technically excellent. He would have impressed so much in the school team games that I just said, ‘Listen, come down, and we’ll give you a couple of training sessions with Bray and we’ll see how you get on.’
Rojina’s impressive showings wouldn’t have been surprising to anyone who was aware of his previous experience at underage and reserve team level at Club América, Mexico’s most successful football club.
With permission from the school granted and necessities like insurance sorted out, Rojina officially became a Seagull in August 2009.
“It was never going to be a long term thing for him because he had to finish his studies and head back to Mexico. He just seemed to be in the right place at the right time. It would have probably been at a point in the season where one or two lads were out injured and we would have said, ‘We lose nothing by putting him in’”, Gormley says.
Wanderers legend Pat Devlin was not directly involved at Bray when Rojina was brought in, as he had previously taken a role in Steve Staunton’s Republic of Ireland setup as ‘B’ team coach. Devlin, however, was on the terraces at the Carlisle Ground every week without fail in 2009, before returning as Director of Football that September.
“Bray in its own way was a platform for everybody to move on from. If you come out to Bray the likelihood is that if you’re good enough, you get the chance. At another club you could be sitting there for a couple of years and never get the chance,” Devlin tells The 42.
“Most players who go to Bray, even to this day, get an opportunity and that can help them potentially move on to a Premier Division club or a team in the UK.
While Rojina only made two appearances for the Seagulls, his brief stint was far from quiet.
The Mexican was handed a surprise debut as part of a five-man defence for Wanderers’ trip to Sligo Rovers in October, but was hauled off in a tactical switch up after just 26 minutes. Rojina could only watch on from the sideline as Eoin Doyle bagged the game’s only goal to pull Rovers out of the relegation zone, with Bray sitting rock bottom.
Rojina’s second and final game in Bray colours was on the final day of the 2009 season in a 1-1 draw at home to Bohemians as Bohs retained their Premier Division title, the club’s most recent league success to date.
Former Seagull Jason Byrne put the Phibsborough side ahead in comical fashion after 65 minutes, after Rojina and goalkeeper Brian Kane collided while trying to deal with a long ball, allowing Byrne to finish into an empty net.
Refusing to bow out from his time in the league with only negative memories, Rojina made up for his role in the opening goal by scoring a cracking volley on his Carlisle Ground debut.
The Mexican’s left-footed strike over his shoulder went past a crowded area and beat an unsighted Brian Murphy in the Bohs’ net to draw the game level.
“I still remember his goal that night, it was a great little finish,” Shields says.
Devlin added: “We were all delighted for him when he got that goal to be honest, for him to have a memory like that forever.”
The goal was jubilantly celebrated by the Mexican contingent of Bray’s support, as students of Dublin Oak Academy, Rojina’s schoolmates, were in the house for his final game in green and white.
“We used to bring the lads down to the Carlisle on most Friday evenings,” Gormley says.
“They were only up the road in their dorms so they’d come down to watch us play. They were fairly noisy lads, so it was great. They brought that atmosphere that they’d be used to seeing back home.
Bray would go on to be relegated that season, with Rojina not featuring in any of the playoff games, but they were reinstated to the league for the 2010 campaign following Cork City’s demise.
Shields says: “Alejandro probably would have benefited from another year, but maybe Bray was just the wrong club at the wrong time because we were a bunch of gurriers playing, like the young lot, the likes of myself, Webby and all, we were just trying to find our feet and trying to keep Bray up at the same time and it wasn’t to be. Although we didn’t actually go down.
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2026 world cup Bray Wanderers Chris Shields David Alejandro Rojina Reyes Eddie Gormley Irish Football League of Ireland Mexican football Pat Devlin Soccer