Paola Ramos
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
So in 2016, just he's 26 years old, he goes to Bogota, to Colombia. He finds money and he keeps playing in Colombia because that love for soccer is always there. He kind of keeps in touch with this soccer club that sees him growing up. He returns to that beautiful feel that the coach shows me on his phone.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
There's this like turning point, no? In who Real Madrid is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And so not only does Jersey come back, but he starts coaching some of the very same kids that grew up in the same town that Jersey does.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
The coach is saying that every time Dersi would come back from Colombia, he would visit the soccer club and he would train the kids and he would train some of the goalies.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
He had no ego. He sort of never forgot where he came from.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
I'll put it this way. The coach at one point tells me that when he looks at his team, he sees, in his words, una crisis de fútbol. That means that at one point, he sees that most of his soccer players are gone.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
that he doesn't have enough soccer players to literally play games. And the reason why is because many of them have had to flee Venezuela, to leave Venezuela, and the same reasons why Ndersi did, to get better opportunities and to find things elsewhere that they just couldn't find in Venezuela, to immigrate, to get out of the country.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
A country that for many years at this point has been in the midst of a political and economic crisis.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Nicolás Maduro is someone that many people in Venezuela and around the world would call a dictator.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Because he's someone that continues the legacy of Hugo Chávez. Chávez has raised Nicolas Maduro to the seat of power. But he's particularly known for his political repression.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
The idea of having civil liberties and rights and freedom of press does not exist in Venezuela. On top of that, and I think this is when it becomes very real for people like Dersi and these soccer players.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
For the last seven plus years, there's been over seven million people that have left Venezuela, that have migrated. And so I'll put it this way. Many of the images that you may remember from those thousands of asylum seekers.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Well, I remember Iker Casillas. And I'll tell you, even as gay as you can get, but Iker Casillas. Everyone loved Iker Casillas, even my old little young gay self.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Many of them were Venezuelans escaping the Nicolás Maduro regime.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Trump casts himself as an anti-Maduro, anti-socialist, anti-communist American president. So Nicolás Maduro is one of Donald Trump's biggest enemies. This is where Darcy's fleeing from. He's fleeing from Maduro.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
So Dersi did something that thousands of Venezuelans did. Dersi decides to take the streets. And it was really brave knowing that is that in February 2024 and in March 2024, he decides to protest against the Nicolás Maduro regime. And I say that's very brave because we're talking about a regime known for having political prisoners.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
So in the second demonstration that Dersi participates in, things get really dark. From what we've been told, after one of these protests, he's taken to this clandestine building.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Allegedly, his treatment involved electric shocks and suffocation. So we've been told that Darcy was threatened by the Nicolás Maduro regime, and that if he were ever to march again, that he would be, quote, disappeared, and that he would spend the rest of his life in prison. And I've been told that Darcy was really worried that this could actually happen, because it has been happening.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
None whatsoever. He has no criminal records in Venezuela.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
I mean, the first thing that his family would say and that his sister says is that he's a good guy, right? This is, we're talking about someone that doesn't drink. He doesn't smoke. He literally has a record of having countless jobs on the field, playing soccer, and his life was and is football. But like I said, there is no criminal record of Jersey in Venezuela.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
The only crime that he committed in the eyes of the government was protesting.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Yeah, so a little bit after March 2024, he kind of is faced with a decision that many migrants are faced with. Do you leave or do you stay? In his case, he's facing, of course, sort of this political repression in Venezuela. He's facing the reality of his parents, his dad that needs this glaucoma treatment.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And he comes to the conclusion that he has to leave Venezuela and head towards the United States. Dersi goes through the Darien jungle. Now remember, the Darien jungle is over 10 miles of one of the most dangerous... places that I've been to in my life. He makes his way towards Mexico. Mexico, also from what I've been told by his sister, becomes a very, very dangerous place for Gersi.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
There's thousands of asylum seekers like him that have to live in limbo. He then goes through the legal system to apply for asylum and to enter the United States. What does he do? He opens his CBP One application.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
It takes him approximately five months from when he leaves Venezuela until he enters the United States through the CBP One application.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Exactly. So here comes September 1st, 2024. Dersi presents himself at the border. He's permitted to enter legally immediately, but then he's placed inside an ICE detention center in San Diego.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
That's right. Dursey at this point is waiting in limbo for a month. He's waiting for his scheduled immigration hearing. And he's there for so long that by January 16th, 2025, he actually spends his birthday inside this detention center. He turns 36 years old inside.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And so as sort of Trump is rising, Jersey's inside this detention center waiting for this alleged immigration hearing to take place. Fast forward to March 14th, 2025. Jersey's sister told us that she got a call from her brother to wish her a happy birthday. Well, the first thing she talks about is that she notices something different in Jersey's voice.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
That she notices that he's shaky and nervous and that he's not being himself.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And then Jerzy asks about one of his daughters.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
He's able to talk to one of them. He says, what are you eating? And the daughter responds, I'm eating cheese, daddy. I love you. Jerzy says back to his daughter, I love you too. And then he says, I don't have much time to talk. And that's the very last time that Jerzy is able to talk to his family.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
For a reason, right? So the gangs are part of the story in a very important way. Now, the reason why Dirce disappears is because the Trump administration claims that that Real Madrid tattoo that you and I talked about at the beginning, that tattoo... is what allegedly makes him a part of El Tren de Aragua.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Literally. This young man that has no criminal records in either Venezuela or the United States, that has never even set foot outside a detention center in the United States, this man is now being accused of being part of El Trindaragua because of this Real Madrid tattoo.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Yeah, again, like, why do people get tattoos? Because they have passions.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
We're literally talking about a tattoo. This is a story about the tattoo from hell. We're talking about 2018, the small town of Venezuela. And this tattoo is inked by this guy called Victor. And during that time, one of his best friends, Jersey Reyes Barrios, walks in, and he asks for a tattoo of the Real Madrid, the favorite soccer team of Jersey Barrios.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
If these soccer players and basketball players and sort of famous celebrities were not in the public eye, and if they were just like random black and brown men walking down the streets, Potentially, from what we know of the legacy of ICE and previous presidential administrations, they would be racially profiled because of their tattoos.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And very likely could end up like Dersin. And I've seen this. I've reported on this in the past. Racially profiling people because of these mundane tattoos with no evidence whatsoever to showcase that they are actually dangerous criminals.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
It's lazy. It's cruel. It's racist.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
It's literally a rock and roll sign. A sign that has often been used in sign language to say, I love you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
He's just a goofy guy. So I talked to his lawyer, actually, to Indersee's lawyer, who spent a lot of time sort of dissecting this tattoo image and dissecting this hand gesture. The hand gesture. The hand gesture is this. One of her responses to the government was literally just like, check your emojis, right, on your phone.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And she's not just protecting Jersey at this point, but she's literally taking on the government.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
This is what she told me about the very last time she talked to Dirse.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Jersey is someone that ends up becoming a goalie, ends up becoming a professional soccer player in Venezuela, but his very favorite soccer player is also Iker Casillas from Real Madrid. I mean, that was his dream and his idol growing up. He has a bunch of other tattoos. He has musical notes, a map of Venezuela, a goalkeeper, a hand with the pinky and the index fingers going up.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
He loves this, right? And so I think at this point, like, these are exactly the images that he wants people to see.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
What do you call that? What do you call this image? What do you call this transfer of Venezuelans from the United States to El Salvador? Do you call that deportation? Do you call that kidnapped?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
She says, if you come to our country illegally, number one, Dersi didn't come illegally. He used a legal process. Number two, and they're making this assumption without any evidence that everyone that is standing behind her is part of El Tren de Agua or MS-13. And so this is for sure a show of strength from the Trump administration.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
That's exactly that. And he also has tattoos of his two daughters. That's who Jersey is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
But the biggest weakness is that in doing this, they have completely dismantled any democratic norm, any sign of due process.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Who would have known that this guy that grew up loving soccer, that became a soccer player, that wanted this Real Madrid tattoo, that left his country inspired by what the United States is supposed to mean, inspired by what Venezuela doesn't have, which is law and order, due process. freedoms, rights, basic liberties.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Who would have known that that person would have ended up in El Salvador?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Unfortunately, there's no surprise here. And I think watching this country turn into the Venezuela, almost, that Jersey escaped is alarming.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
It's all based on his love for Real Madrid. And he asked for something very simple, and that is a ball with a crown sitting on top. If you zoom into this tattoo, it's the ball, a crown on top, a rosary.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
I mean, I think there's two stories. There's a story of pain that his family is feeling. His sister and his parents are waiting anxiously every single day to just know if their brother and their son is alive. Jersey's daughters are waiting.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Jersey's partner is living in limbo right now in the U.S.-Mexico border, in Tapachulas, in one of the most dangerous Mexican towns, also wondering if her partner is dead or alive. But then there's the flip side of the story, right, which is the essence of who this man is, you know, and that is the impact that he had in that soccer field years ago.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
The impact that he had training those kids, talking to those kids about this sport that has given them dreams and opportunities outside of Venezuela. If you walk through Dirce's hometown right now, you'll see a mural of him. If you go to his soccer team, to Perijanero FC... And the kids are talking about him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
This kid, Alan Carvajal, he's a goalie in the youth team in the very same field, again, where Jersey grew up. And his message is clear.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And I think the part of the story is also understanding that any one of those kids and any one of these kids that are now trying to be Jersey, could end up like Jersey, where, you know, leaving the soccer team can end up taking you to a detention center, mega prison in El Salvador.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Practice now ends with a prayer. And practice ends with Dirce's name in people's minds. He's remembered. Thank you for this day and also for our families. We ask that you help us and also members of the family. Help Gersi, who was a great trainer for us, guide him wherever he is, help to free him, liberate him so he's free wherever he is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Father, give him strength and courage and let him know that he is with us, the Venezuelans. Amen.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
To save him, yeah. I mean, it's beautiful that he remains alive in that field with them somehow.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Thank you for letting me do that. It really was a true honor.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
When Dircy walks into that tattoo parlor, he's specifically thinking about this team. And that's what the tattoo artist will tell you, that when he walks in and he gets this inked in his skin, it is all to sort of romanticize Real Madrid.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Literally, he's probably thinking about that. But you know what he was not thinking about in that moment? That is the fact that this tattoo would, years later, turn him into this alleged criminal gang member, and that that tattoo would essentially make him disappear.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Your fandom for Real Madrid is... It's real in the sense that I grew up in Madrid in the 90s when it's sort of exploding. I played basketball. Basketball was my thing. But there was no way to not love Real Madrid as a kid during those years. Everyone sort of was pulled into the game.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
You felt it in the streets. You felt it everywhere. It was amazing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
So everyone you talk to when they mention the name Gerse is that he was sweet. He's this very sweet, kind, young boy. He grows up in northern Venezuela in a town called Machique. It's literally known for cows. It's rural. Everyone says that he loved to draw. He likes to dance salsa. I talked to his sister, Yorgely Reyes.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
When she talks about her brother, she remembers him loving baseball as a very young kid.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
So Diercy kind of grows up watching his dad playing soccer, and then he starts to sort of love the game and love the sport. Diercy's father starts training his son. Slowly, Diercy kind of forgets about baseball. He's completely focused on soccer, and this love for Real Madrid starts, this obsession with the game starts.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
That was like, to me, like 1998, I believe. It's when it happens. I think I'm like 10 years old. It's one of the first times that my mom lets me stay up super late. And we're all watching the Real Madrid team parading through the streets of Madrid, ending up in this huge fountain called Cibeles. They take off their shirts and they're just like drinking champagne.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
One of the things that his sister told me repeatedly was, I mean, literally, when his sister talks about Jersey, it's just football. That's literally all that she talks about because that's the image that comes to her mind. The thing about Yersin, that's what his sister describes, is that he kept going, like he kept fighting for this dream.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
He starts training with one of his dad's former teammates. It's this coach named Yogerse Jose Viloria.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
This coach is still in the very same town where Diercy grew up.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
What was, I think, beautiful about this conversation that I had with the coach is that he was just like kind of, he couldn't wait to get out of that room and show me the field where he watched Diercy grow up. So there's this moment where he literally like takes me out. He's like, come with me. And he walks down the street and he starts, you know, he flips his camera the other way.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Help Jerzy, who was a great trainer for us, guide him wherever he is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
And he literally shows me this very humble field in the middle of nowhere. And you can see there's literally like not much around there. This gives them so much pride. This gives them so much dignity. And this is the field where this coach watches Jersey grow up.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
He joins these travel teams. So he gets to travel across Venezuela, different regions, different cities. He then becomes a starting keeper on a champion under-16 national team. He actually made it to a tournament in Barcelona. So I'm just picturing Dirce. Oh, it's a dream. Exactly. This kid that is obsessed with Real Madrid. And he eventually makes it... knowing the Venezuelan pro football league.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
That's what the coach kept talking about. El ultimo torneo. In the last tournament he played in, in 2024, when he was with us... You know, this specific moment in this specific era where Djerse leads his team to the final of the third division.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
From what he describes, it comes down to penalty kicks. All this tension building up, whether they make it or not, depends on these penalty kicks. Then what the coach says is that Diercy's team scores, so all eyes are on him. Right?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Yeah. Will he stop the next goal or not? He just needs to do this one save. Crowd goes wild.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
That he becomes a hero, he becomes this idol, and that I think is one of the reasons why to this day he's so beloved and remembered.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Because he proves he can take this small, humble team to the next level, and that's exactly what he does.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - The Goalie Who Disappeared
Life gets in the middle. I mean, I think the reality of Venezuela in that time is that many people like Herse have to leave. So Herse is a soccer player, but he also suddenly becomes an immigrant. And he goes to Colombia to find better economic opportunities to support his two daughters, to support his father, who needed a very expensive treatment for a glaucoma that he had to deal with.