Gabriel Agbonlahor is the all time leading scorer for Aston Villa Football Club – he is a true legend there and we dive into his time there - but when I think of Gabby I think of this -

It’s an interesting time for a player when it comes time to retire.

They are still young – usually in their early 30’s – they're famous, have a ton of money, a ton of time, they don’t really know how to do anything else, and used to the rush of 50,000 people screaming for you once per week. And well - it does not always go well for a young man with that set of circumstances.

And when I think of Gabby Agbonlahor – I think about this moment in his life. He remembers how it crept up on him – like, wait – 'I can just grab my lads and head to Las Vegas, or Monaco, and hang out and party?

And when Gabby retired he did this - for one year – way too much booze, living a fast and hard life – until he had a moment – a personal moment of reflection that wise people can have – that his life was veering out of control and he had to right the ship.

So, Gabby caught himself before he fell too far - and he entered the field of soccer journalism and punditry and found himself right at home. He now talks football on the biggest radio station in the world – and he’s quite good at it – full of humor and charisma – and often with a controversial take that lands him in the papers.

Gabby also counsels other football clubs on how to deal with life after the game – how to plan ahead – how to avoid trouble, care for your mental health and live a good post career life.

I learned a lot from Gabby and I hope you find him as interesting as I did.

Episode 17 – Gabriel Agbonlahor

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He was the best American soccer player when America could care less about soccer.

Today, the most talented 21 year old American player – we know that guy. He is probably quite famous, rich and playing at a massive club. This was not the case in 1989 for John Harkes.

But his ability could not be overlooked, and as such he was able to play at levels no American ever had before: the Prem, FA Cup, Wembley.

He would star in two World Cups, and with his teammates and friends, were so successful that the US National Team will never again be as irrelevant as it was when John was coming up.

He was a key member to the initial launch of the MLS – and while more lucrative opportunities lay elsewhere – as a US Player, who never really had ‘a league of their own’ he, along with his colleagues, wanted to leave one for those players that came after.

I loved my chat with John – smiled the entire time - Give us a listen and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

EP: 16 – the great John Harkes

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This is a really sad one for me – Andreas Brehme tragically passed away this week – at the age of 63 in his home town of Munich.

If you do not know of Andi, he is a true legend of German football - having scored one of the biggest goals in that nation’s history to win the World Cup in 1990 in Italy.

But I will always remember and have love for Andi as he was the first guest I ever reached out to that actually said ‘yes’ to my interview request. I was lucky with my timing in that he was working on his memoir at the time. I am sure he thought: ‘sure, I will sit with this silly American as I have been reliving memories for my book – why not do it for a podcast – whatever the hell that is’.

‘Come to Munich’ he said – ‘and I will get you interviews with a lot of my friends’. Not knowing if it would entirely work out, we did go – and he was good on his word and secured us 12 sits with German internationals all over the country.

As a player, Andi also spent time with Inter Milan and is a sort of legend in northern Italy – ‘Come to Milan’ he said – ‘and I will get you interviews with my Italian friends.’ We did go - and he connected us with 7 Italian internationals who only sat with us as it was a favor to Andi.

He said once that we would do another podcast one day – ‘I was your first one, you were my first one – but you come back and I will be your 100th episode, and we will see how far you have come’

I would have loved for that to have happened. But I guess this will have to do.

So I hope you enjoy my talk with this great and funny man. And if this is your introduction to his career and life – I truly hope I do it justice here.

Andi Brehme – SoccerPod #15 – Thank you Andi!

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Ray played 15 years for Arsenal. And he was there for the arrival of the great Arsene Wegner – and he would go on to bring some of the greatest players to ever grace the Premier League - Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera to name a few.

In the 97-98 campaign, Ray was playing exceptionally well – maybe the best year of his career – and it was only natural that the national team – coached by that Tottenham legend – Glenn Hoddle - would give him a look.

Coach Arsene himself lobbied the coach that there is no better winger in all of England.

Glenn Hoddle was a believe in: ‘faith healing’ – and the team had an appointed faith healer – a woman named Eileen Drewery.

As Ray was on trial with the Three Lions, he had pulled his calf. And coach Hoddle sent him to see Miss Eileen for 'treatment'. Eileen sat him in the chair, walked round to his back and began rubbing Ray’s scalp. Ray being Ray goes, 'Allright Love, take a little off the the sides and the back, but leave the length on the top’ (this is a slight paraphrase, but you get the gyst)

Unbeknownst to him, Ray had deeply offended Mr Hoddle with this, and would miss out on playing in the 98 World Cup as a result.

But his smile was big as he recalled this story – as was mine – and it was a real joy to hear him tell me so many others – I hope you enjoy them as well - here on the soccerPod #14.

Enjoy!

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There are currently some 13000 players in the youth system of English premier league clubs. Of these 13000 players – the best youth players in the country - less than 1% - way less - will ever see the field for a premier league side.

Now if you adjust those odds for a 23 year old American – who plays in the English 9th division – who has to work odd jobs to make ends meet – well the odds – they become much longer than 1%.

But that is what Jay Demerit did – he began his professional career in England playing at parks for no pay and within 2 years he was playing at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 people. He went from guarding guys who would have beers at halftime, to guarding Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford.

His story is truly remarkable and as far as American soccer careers go – there are few that are more screenplay worthy than Jay Demerits.

I hope you enjoy him as he lays it out for us on the soccerPod – Enjoy!

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If you are an American soccer fan of roughly my age – mid 40’s - you may remember a movie called: Victory, with Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine - directed by the great John Huston.

The film is set in WW2 where a group of war prisoners – captured from around the world – are forced to play a football match against the Nazi German squad – for propaganda purposes.

The filmmakers secured real footballers for the prisoners – the great Pele, Bobby Moore and a young kid from Cordoba, Argentina who looks to be the best of them all. At one point, he dribbles the entire Germans – even includes a rainbow over a defender - scores and even the Germans in the crowd applaud his skill. And he does look – for what its worth for a staged film production – like he is the most skilled out there.

And this turned out to be a normal occurrence for Oswaldo Ardiles.

In 1978 Oswaldo won the World Cup on home soil for his beloved Argentina. Then he did something that was rare for the time. He took his game to north London and signed with the Tottenham HotSpurs with his good friend – Ricardo Villa. As is his tendency, he won over the fan base immediately – but it was during this time unfortunately, that his country of birth and his country of employment went to war in the Falkland Islands.

It was a strange time for Ossie – the English began to look suspiciously on him as an Argentine and his Argentine countrymen did the same – as if this Londoner was not to be trusted.

But Ossie weathered this as he did all things. His career spans nearly 30 years as a player and another 30 as a manager. We met in his hometown of London in a small flat and he could not have been cooler to us. I hope you enjoy our conversation – the great Ossie Ardiles.

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Paul Merson is one of the most popular soccer pundits in the UK. And his voice and childlike enthusiasm serves as nice commentary to go with some of the biggest moments of recent English football.

He is a legend at mighty Arsenal as his runs down the right and crosses in were a mainstay of that era. He has his fair share of trophies - and he played in and won a game that in my view – is the most important in Premier League history – where it entered a new strata of popularity.

But Paul is also in recovery – from alcohol, drugs and what he says is the worse one by far – gambling. When we booked Paul – he required a fee for his time – not an unusual thing for us. But what was unusual is it was made very clear to us on several occasions that we were never under any circumstances to give money directly to Paul. Directly to his wife was the firm instruction.

Paul’s phone is disabled from adding apps so as not to allow for any gambling.

The reason for this worry had to do with a gambling relapse Paul had recently suffered – He had worked hard with Sky and BBC - and saved up for 18 months for a down payment on a new home with his wife – 160,000 pounds was now sitting in savings.

Covid had made him antsy though and as he put it - the monster awoke in him. Within half a day – one 4 hour session - he had lost it all - on various sports - mostly table tennis – of which he knew nothing, but was one of the few sports that he could find during the lockdown - but he had to bet on something. It was for him – rock bottom.

He contemplated two choices. Tell his wife – or commit suicide. And for 2 weeks he wasn’t sure. Hard to believe walking around for 2 weeks with that operating on your mind. But in the end, and as he spent time with his children, luckily the answer was to come clean and tell his wife. And luckily, she stood by him - sought help from the right people, and things seem to be ok.

I think of that as being a heroic moment for Paul – and he allows for some pride to come out as he recalls the decision – which was cool to see.

Paul was a year clear of this when we sat with him in Twickenham in West London – and he seemed well. We spoke about his tremendous Arsenal career, his national team experience with the Three Lions – and of course his demons off the pitch.

As he put it – all we have is one day at a time.

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If you have children that play youth soccer, I hope you will give a listen to Bruce Murray.

He has a brain condition called CTE. In his 30’s he began forgetting things, he developed a sensitivity to light and began to develop a problem with impulse control. It really scared him - he went through dark times and ended up in some dark places.

He and his doctors have no doubt that this is related to the repeated heading of the ball while his brain was still in development as a boy and young man. He has a foundation to help other athletes that suffer from this – and actively campaigns for rules of the game to be amended – especially at the youth levels and notes that ‘no developing brain should collide with a soccer ball at some 40 mph.

He is happy and doing well now though – and this campaign is what Bruce cares about most now, but he also had a fascinating career as a player. He was part of that crew of American National Team guys that played for a county that didn’t care too much about what they were doing.

And he was a huge part of that 1990 World Cup Team that qualified for the first world cup for America in 40 years. That campaign from qualifying to competing is the greatest American soccer story there is – and every generation that comes after owes these boys a huge debt - and Bruce was there for all of that.

I really do love Bruce Murray – in many ways, of all the sits I have done – he is my favorite one.

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