Raider Nation's citizens span globe

Forget Raider Nation. Think Raider World.

Even if their team doesn't win the Super Bowl, Raiders fans want to rule the planet. And they already have active fifth columns representing the Silver and Black in at least 20 nations from Norway to New Zealand to Nicaragua -- not to mention all 50 states.

"We are everywhere," said Rick Bengle, 43, of Toronto. "We are conquering the world."

Many of the international fans are expatriate Californians. But others like Bengle have never set foot in Oakland. And some have never even been to the United States and knew nothing about American football.

But something about the Silver and Black, the pirate emblem, the working- class rebel mystique, seduced them. Now they swap e-mails that refer to the Black Hole in terms usually reserved for the Vatican, Jerusalem or Mecca.

"I was in Denver on Dec. 8, 1980, when Lester Hayes intercepted Craig Morton's pass and ran it back for a touchdown," said Bengle, who caravans with Canadian Raiders fans every time his team goes to Buffalo.

"I was the only person in Mile High Stadium who was jumping up and down shouting," he said. "That was my high point as a Raiders fan. But someday I promise to make it to Oakland. That would be the greatest."

Guy Simon said that growing up in Belgium he had never heard of the Raiders or American football, but now he wants to move to Oakland. On Sunday, he will watch the game on satellite and listen to KTCT Radio over the Internet.

"Back in the day, Ice-T was my favorite rapper, and he was always wearing this Raiders hat," Simon wrote. "That Silver and Black, the mystique, Al Davis,

players like the Mad Bomber, The Ghost, Kenny Stabler, Sistrunk, Willie Brown,

Alzado, Shell, Upshaw, Hendricks. . . . there could never be another team.

"You bleed these colors or you don't," he added. "It's that simple."

The international fans don't have the baggage of some Bay Area residents who felt betrayed when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1982 and returned 13 years later. To them, it's all California, all Silver and Black.

"All of the members, bar one, are British or European, many have followed the Raiders for years like myself. Some are new to the game and the Raiders," said Stuart Harrison, 34, president of the Oakland Raiders Fan Club of Great Britain.

Harrison has been obsessed with the team since Super Bowl XVIII, when the Raiders crushed the Redskins 38-9 in Tampa, Fla. The Liverpool resident publishes the "Raiders Report" for fans in Britain and continental Europe. He also has collected 700 Raiders programs, including all the Super Bowls and the very first Raiders game in 1960 at Kezar Stadium.

Some overseas Raiders fans often feel like missionaries converting the locals to their faith.

"Lot of people don't get it," said Mario Rubio, who hosts Raiders parties in his Mexico City home. "But some people, they get it. You can see it from the look in their eyes after a great play. Soccer is a beautiful game, but no one hits like the Raiders."

Nicole Joyner, a Richmond resident who oversees a fan Web site, said that when she attended language school years ago in Ecuador, no one had heard of the Raiders.

"Now, I visit there, and I see Raiders gear all over," said Joyner, who helps overseas fans link up via e-mail on silverandblackattack.com.

Through her site, soldiers in Afghanistan and aid workers in Kenya have organized Raiders parties, as have South Africans, Australians and Brazilians. There are even unconfirmed reports that a fledgling Raiders fan club has sprouted in Mongolia. So there may be people in the same land that gave the world Genghis Khan cheering for Bill Romanowski on Sunday.

"Raider Nation really is global," Joyner said.

Rodney Ramseur, owner of the Leidniz sports bar in Berlin, is a lifelong Raiders fan from North Carolina. On Sunday, he is going all-out to promote the Super Bowl to expatriates and curious Germans. The game starts just after midnight, but he expects a packed house.

"Germans don't know that much about American football," Ramseur said. "I figure the bigger the picture the better."

Some Raiders fans have roots in Oakland but work, love or life in general has led them elsewhere at key moments in Raiders history.

Oakland native Gaylord Virden saw his first game at Kezar and still regrets that he missed the infamous "Heidi" game against the Jets in 1968 while working for Kaiser Aluminum's office in Bogota, Colombia. He also recalls struggling to tune in key games via shortwave radio while in Belgium, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.

"Now, I am in Albuquerque, where I find multitudes of citizens of the Raider Nation, and whole sports bars dedicated to showing our Raider Nation's games," writes Virden, who passed his loyalty to his two sons.

Raiders fans in foreign countries may deal with indifference, misunderstanding and bad satellite connections. But few of them have encountered outright hostility.

The toughest outposts for Raiders fans are stateside, especially Colorado and Texas.

"I am a member of the Raider Nation living in enemy territory about an hour north of Denver -- a.k.a. donkeyland," said Jim McIntosh of Wellington, Colo. "Been a Raiders fan since 1970. Surprisingly, there are a lot of us out here living among the heathen" Broncos backers.

Chronicle Foreign Service correspondents Elizabeth Bryant in Paris, Veronique Mistiaen in London and Jody K. Biehl in Berlin contributed to this report. / E-mail Jim Zamora at jzamora@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 16 of the San Francisco Chronicle