How a 21-Year-Old Built a 1,000-Player Soccer Company in College | EP197

Speaker A: When all in. Play my cards right. Entrepreneur Perspectives is produced by Quiet Loud Studios, a production company and content network. Learn more@quiet loudstudios.com I'm gonna start with this. I don't typically do this, but, like, I'm not an intro guy, like, getting on the podcast. So the show notes, do it. The title, do it. But youth for youth football club. I read it. Player led pathways to pro and college soccer. Powered by Nike, Largest player led soccer program in the US and you are at Brown University. Maybe on a hiatus right now. I think that's still going on. Tell me about it.

Speaker B: I'm still there. I, uh, spend two days a week up there in Rhode island and I take the Amtrak down, spend Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday in New York, and then head back up. And that's because I had started this when I was 16. So the quick backstory, I had played at kind of all levels of academy soccer, like sort of professional academies, local academies. And at 16, I started to see my best friends go make their professional debuts.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And I looked inwards and I was like, this isn't happening for me. And so I thought, what would have propelled me forward? What was something that was missing in this journey? And I knew immediately it was like, brotherhood, right? It was that player led aspect. It was knowing someone who lived this journey, who had made the mistakes that I was about to make, and who could guide me through. Right. And so at 16, I started this. And fast forward. Today we're serving almost a thousand players across eight states, and we have over 50 professional and college players who serve that role, who provide the training, the mentorship, the recruiting showcases to those players with a simple goal of getting them in the exact same positions that we are in and beyond. Right. Of kind of holding those doors open for the next generation. So I, I got to school. When I got to school, we had like a hundred players. So this is, this is like a little over two years ago. And I like to say I had a year of a decent, uh, college experience where I got to be a student. My friends call me the dropout when I go up there, but I like to say I'm the drop in because I do go there. But last I was off for a bit, and then now I'm back and I'm scheduled to graduate on time. So we'll see.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's good, man. You must have brought a lot of credits with you to make that happen. But that's wild. So we're gonna go a lot of different directions. Recruiting with Nil. How many years have you been in school then? Like when were you recruited?

Speaker B: Well, I started in September 2023, but I had a crazy recruiting journey where I had committed to play elsewhere and then I got into Brown academically. It was a long, winding journey and I think part of the fact that like I had. There's other people on our staff who had really clear cut journeys who committed on June 15th of their sophomore year.

Speaker A: Right, right.

Speaker B: The first day you could commit.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: And then there was me. I had committed to multiple schools like over. I had decommitted and had this crazy process with injuries and coach changes and everything you can imagine. And then by the time I got to college, it was pretty much all in on youth for youth and it was like, okay. I think the journey of like pursuing the professional game or even the high level collegiate game for me is something that is great. But where can I distinguish my footballing experience, my soccer experience? It's in this, right. It's in coupling it with the storytelling, the impact, the company that we build around this. And so that was the direction that I took.

Speaker A: Yeah, I heard you talk about maybe the dream's not there anymore. Right. Maybe I'm not going to be in the Premier League.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Something like that. I'm not going to play MLS or wherever it might be. But you realize you could have an impact and that's an honest conversation for anybody or anybody. And especially for someone who's young and who's like, yeah man, I'm. It's going to happen. You know, we all. And that's cool. Right. I think everyone should have those dreams. But your dream somehow pivoted. I don't know if you were like on the pitch one day you're like, uh, this isn't.

Speaker B: Wasn't a one day moment. Yeah, I think it was a culmination of moments that kind of beat me down a little bit. Right. Whether it was like, I think it all started with. Everything was smooth sailing until I was probably 13, 14. I started growing really quickly. First time I had ever had to take us take some time off the game because I was getting all these weird growing diseases like Severus disease and ostrich slaughters and. And I think that was moment number one. And then moment number two, I had trouble with one of the coaches that I had. And then things started compiling that also ultimately led me to my realization that none of these things were as the gravity that I gave them. Like I sort of over exaggerated the influence of these moments in my mind and I think having had a mentor, having had like a big brother who lived this journey would have helped me in that process. Right. And that's when I think about why, for why. It's like I always just ask myself the same question. What do I wish existed when I was a youth player? When I'm setting up a new coach who's running a session, I say, how do you wish that this session looked when you were 14 or when you were 12?

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: How do you wish that this recruiting showcase. There was never a recruiting showcase in New York. Right. Never, uh, a free one either. And so we built that. So I'm constantly just asking myself this question, what do I wish was there?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And we're so close to sp. I'm 21 years old. I was there three years ago. Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And it's funny that the, the players, a lot of the players who don't know my age think I'm way older,

Speaker A: but too much wisdom coming out there.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: I mean, I saw you talking on the. I saw you talking like before training, maybe it was this weekend. And I mean, you're telling them to show up like you're like a coach. Like, uh, you're a 21 year old coach out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: That was, I think from yesterday, from last night.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Doing this big street soccer event with Nike and we're doing like our identification rounds. So I was telling these players, I said, listen, everything we do is obviously like optimized for exposure 11v11 play, getting to the next level. But this is about expression. This is about an alternative pathway. So. So you got to relieve the pressure. Sometimes you gotta relieve the pressure and kind of jog a bonito. Enjoy yourself a little bit.

Speaker A: You got to. Right. Beautiful game. Right. That whole thing.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker A: When you talk about recruiting. So one of the things I'm hearing, you know, nil is going on right now, 20, 23 obviously was happening then. Now it's to another level. A big thing I'm is. And I don't know, it's different in every sport, but the recruiting is not happening at the high school level as much as it is in the transfer portal.

Speaker B: Oh yeah.

Speaker A: What's going on in soccer right now that you're seeing?

Speaker B: So there's a couple things going on and you also have to consider the regulations and the rule changes that are happening around this. So let's say 10 years ago, college soccer was predominantly about recruiting out of high school. Players would transfer only if they're having a terrible experience. At their, at their college and it was less common. Nowadays, what you have, you have high school still is the number one, like most recruited kind of environment, but number two is now the transfer portal. There's guys on our staff who have played for four schools in three years. Right. And that's because they have, you have two months for a season. Right. And so if you have a bad two month season, you spend the next 10 months before your next season thinking about how do I optimize my next two months, that two months season that I have. And so you're going to transfer and transfer and transfer. Whether it's upwards mobility, whether it's like sideways. Right. Whether it's just going to another program, you might play more. And I think there's that element. And then there's also the international players.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: Again, now there's regulations that are going to be voted on this summer or like in the late spring about how old international players can be when they start. Because you have 22, 23 year old freshmen who've got paid under the table making their debut and you know, the Norwegian First Division, whatever it might be, who kind of were pursuing that professional career and at some point realized, okay, this isn't going to happen. But they were 22 when they realized that. I think it's a difficult question. We obviously create opportunity domestically, we create opportunities for players coming out of high school. And for me, my rule is, uh, a player has to have three years of eligibility to be at like one of our showcases. Right. Because you know, of course three is not four, but at least it's a predominant part of their, of their college experience and they can offer the coach some long term vision of what they can become as a player in that program.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: But there's a balance here where I think it's great to increase the competitiveness of college soccer by, by, you know, having this aggressive transfer portal while having so many internationals come in and raise the bar. But we have to make sure that we've created this great system for domestic players that doesn't exist elsewhere. Elsewhere. When players stop playing academy, that's it, you know, go get a job at Lytle. Right. Like that's it, it's over versus here. It's like there's 20 players on this team, three are going to make the first team and 17 are going to go play Division 1 and get money off to play college soccer and get a great degree and maybe keep playing, maybe get a job. So we need to protect that experience for domestic players.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard because the coaches want to win, right? So my son, just to give you a little context, he's. He was a keeper, right? He's in college, he's playing club soccer. He's at Arizona State. And he had opportunities for D2 and D3. D2 was like, don't come in as an 18 year old keeper. It'd be 26 year olds coming in your box and good luck. So you're gonna have to, you know, you can come here, but maybe go to grad school and at that point maybe you'll play. D3 was a little different, but then he's like, I don't want to be in the middle of nowhere playing soccer, so I'm gonna go to Arizona State, play club soccer. And anyway. But it was a men's league, right? Division two, all these things. And then you talk to some of the other ones, you're like, at least half of our roster is international. So that this kid's from Germany, he's a keeper, this kid from Portugal. You're like, okay, this is different, man. Like, you're good, but that's different. And it's tough, right, because we. There's this pathway that you think is there and then once you get into it, you're like, oh, no, that's not there. Like the best kid in Charlotte at that time. The best keeper in Charlotte. Like legit, like really good kid. The whole thing. He ended up going Division 2 nearby was crazy. Is that university shut down his sophomore year and they had five keepers on the team, I think 45 players on the roster. And it was an old private school and they literally shut down and it was the whole school, whole school, um, which is happening, right? Because if they don't have the money, they had to raise. I don't know the true fact. I think it was like they had to raise $6 million. They raised $2 million. Shut the school down. Every kid, a lot of athletes had to go transfer somewhere else. Yeah. Uh, you know, so. And then. And go into these other places is, you know, you look at a Virginia Tech roster or something. I don't know. At one point, I think it was like 75% international. And I get it right? The coaches are paid to win and make money and do all that kind of stuff. And if they don't, well, then what are we doing? But now we're telling them, but we need to follow the pathway that we're laying out for them. So it's like this huge disconnect. And I get it because like, well, if I can go get a 24 year old from Portugal versus a 19 year old from Charlotte, like, what's the question? Obviously, um, you're right.

Speaker B: So, yeah, Eric, it's funny that you've actually seen this firsthand. The worst recruiting experience in the game is being a goalkeeper trying to play college soccer. I see it firsthand because, you know, we try to get goalkeepers recruited. It's so difficult. I have coaches call me too, and they're like, listen, I need a guy ready to play.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I don't need a guy. I'm going to develop any guy who can get in between the sticks tomorrow.

Speaker A: Right, right.

Speaker B: And you can always go find that. When you find some kid who played, like trained with a Bundesliga club for three years in the first team, you know, like, that's the truth of the matter.

Speaker A: Who's not going to make it right to that next level? But he's obviously good enough to play.

Speaker B: Yeah. For him, coming and play collegiate ball might be a joke.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: I think it all comes down to continuously improving the domestic model, where in five to ten years time.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: On a pretty short timeline, college coaches are now faced with the fact of, hey, we actually do have a domestic guy who might be better than that international guy. We might have an American player who might be better than a guy coming from Portugal, from Germany.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And that doesn't mean that those guys still can't come and as I said, amplify the environment. Right. Bring in a new, a new taste, bring in a new style. But can we build youth soccer up enough where coaches no longer have to say, yeah, sorry, I can't support domestic players because I need to win the ACC and I'm not going to recruit a guy who's 18 years old and just played academy versus this guy who trained with Harry Kane last week.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: You know. Yeah, yeah. And that's the dilemma.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But it's our responsibility to fix it. Build a domestic system up.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah. What is it as it relates to domestic system? The mls. I know you got people working with you, part of the mls. I'm sure you're highly involved with them. Where do you see the MLS today? Where's it going? Obviously we can mix it into the World cup, but like right now, MLS and what we're doing there.

Speaker B: Yeah. So, number one, this is a really exciting time to be experiencing what's happening in soccer. United States, every other country has had their status quo, like, set in place every other major footballing nation. So if you think about the European Ones has had their status quo in place for so many years. Here's the system. Premier League, football league, right? You go from championship, you get promoted, relegated, et cetera. This number one, the MLS is obviously a closed model. There's no promotion, relegation, which I think is obviously creates a safety net for MLS owners. But I think there's also a sense of how do you build a culture that's competitive enough where there's, there's something truly at stake. Right. Because that's what soccer is about. It's not necessarily about the franchise model that you see in the other sports. So if we actually youth freeze, we have a partnership with nycfc. Right. And I've been a massive NYCFC fan for a while and NYCFC actually won the MLS Cup. I think it was 2021 or 2022. And I always say it's like NYCFC is finally getting their own stadium, but there was a period where they were playing at Yankee Stadium and it did feel like, hey, this isn't truly, let's say football, right. This is, people say this is soccer, not football because we're playing in other, other sports stadiums because we haven't got the adequate investment. Now you're starting to see these clubs gain their own identity. What you're also having is the usl, which uh, for me is very competitive. The USL is now creating this promotional relegation system, creating clubs that in the Open cup oftentimes can compete with those MLS first teams. Yep, I'm all for it. I'm all for a battle between the MLS and the usl. As long as it means that for the youth, for the culture, this grows the game. Right. I think the competition grows the game. But I think if the MLS remains the dominant model and remains closed, it has a obligation to build a system that can still create like the top down fan culture. The competitiveness, the sense of risk that you get from, you know, from Tottenham for example, almost being relegated now West Ham's about to get like, who knows what's going to happen there, right? That creates a whole new dimension that we don't have in the US that I think we may need. Yeah, to create the adequate fan culture to trickle down to the youth that wants to play soccer, that wants to get developed, that comes to people like us and sees a long term goal of not, hey, I want to go play in the Premier League. Hey, I want to go play in La Liga, but I actually want to play domestically. I want to go play for nycfc. Oh, you guys have a partnership. That's my main goal.

Speaker A: Yeah, they're in all these cities, right? Uh, and you see it, right? So in Charlotte, it's big club. They play where the Panthers play. But. Yeah. And there's a passionate fan base for it. Right. There's a culture around it. It's building. They have camps, they have the branding all around town, and they have MLS net. Right? There's all those things. And. And they're tying into the community, right. And they're bringing in kids for rec soccer stuff, which I think is super important as well. Like, just. We just want people playing the game. And I think if you see it, the other thing is you have. Is the tickets are accessible.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: A lot of these leagues is so expensive. In the US it's gotten crazy. I mean, before we got on, we were talking about the NHL playoffs, and you're talking about the Sabers and the Lightning and like, to go to a Sabres hockey playoff, uh, game right now, like, minimum in is like 350 bucks in the nosebleeds. Right? And so MLS, like, you have access to go see the games and, like, what does it look like? And when you sit like people, it's like, I don't know about this sport. I don't know about soccer. It's like, go to a game and like, even you could sit anywhere, but sit down low and just like, watch what's happening. Like, uh, and it. You might change your mind on it.

Speaker B: I feel the atmosphere.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. The singing, the chanting. And it's quick, too. I've. I'm a big proponent of, like. I think one of the issues in, like, college football, for example. Love college football. It takes four hours plus to complete a game. I mean, it's crazy. It's commercial. Soccer is 90 minutes. They're like, well, there's no goals or whatever happening. I'm like, it's the anticipation. Watch the. It could be a nil. Nil, right? And one, one. And it's the anticipation before it. And you're. You're feeling it right as I'm saying that, uh, like, that's a real thing that I think in this. In this country, like, we want more points, right? The NBA is like, let's score 140 points. To me, that's like, I don't know. It's too easy at that point.

Speaker B: But, yeah, people say, oh, uh, we should just make a goal outside the box worth three, a goal inside the box worth two, and a penalty wor. Fourth one. And now we're in business.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: What was the final score? It was 129 12.

Speaker A: 9. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Speaker B: It was actually 4.

Speaker A: 3. Yeah. Where do you see the MLS? I'm always interested in this because I've thought about it. You know, we always like, what's the best league in the world? Right. Is it the Premier League, Is it whatever? And then where does the MLS fit in that hierarchy?

Speaker B: That's a tough question.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I think what you see in the mls, I think the MLS is one of the leagues in the world, has the biggest skill gap between the, let's say the best and the worst players.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: Where the best player in the MLS is the best player of all time.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker B: Obviously elephant in the room. It's like his, the kind of end of his career and you know, he's in Miami, like sort of runs the club.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: But you look at that and then you look at like the lower level players in the mls. Like I've played with a lot of MLS guys who are much far off that versus if you look at a Premier League, the worst player in the Premier League is levels above a mid guy in the mls. I think you have to consider that I'm all for like, people are like, oh, it's a retirement league. Like, I don't necessarily think it's a retirement league. When you have a guy like, like Puig, for example, who played for Barca, Obviously now he's having a lot of injury trouble, but he came to the MLS early on in his career because things weren't working for him in Europe. And he had an amazing first two years, first year and a half in the mls. Like the more we have that, the more we have players mid career coming over to the United States to play. Even Timo Werner, like he just came over, he's having a good start so far and maybe injured, Uh, I didn't check on that yet. But he's a younger player who's coming here. So I think the more we have that, the less of an association with this retirement league you have as the mls. And also when you have these like mid career players come in and raise the skill gap, the more and more you have that, the higher the threshold is right for like that worst player. I mean, I think the truth is though, we're still really long ways from getting to where the European leagues are at.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: This is a massive debate that people have. People are like, is the MLS better than the championship in England? I probably think no. I think maybe most MLS clubs are somewhere between a bottom level championship and a high level League 1. But I think what's going to happen is that's going to. They're just going to get better and better. Like, I truly want the MLS to become one of the best leagues in the world. There's so much that needs to happen to get there.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But I think if we can build a good domestic league, we are in a great place. We don't want to be a, uh, Brazil. Brazil has one of the best talent development, not systems, but track record in the world. But their domestic league is not great. It's wonderful to wash some great clubs, great players coming out of it, but it's not on par with what we have in Europe. And I think what Brazil has to do is they consistently have to export talent.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: To import them back on the national team. But it's like, you know, Neymar's on Santos. It's always a question of when does Neymar go to Barcelona? Not if, you know, it's at, uh, what age is he passed a regulation where it's like you have Endrick being signed to Real Madrid way before he. He can even leave. You have the same, like all these kind of. Estevalo had the same system. He plays for Chelsea. I think we, if we can create a system where talent does not want to export, where we don't need to export talent. Now we're talking. Now we're in business.

Speaker A: Yeah. Uh, does the World cup set that up? Help set it up?

Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So 1994 World Cup. Last time the World cup was on U.S. soil, part of the bid was, hey, we're going to build a league here. We're going to build a proper league. That's when the MLS is born, really starts two years later, 1996. Now we have our professional league. I think where you put in. So you, uh, know there's. The federation will make a hundred million dollars. It'll have $13 billion of economic impact in the U.S. that money, in my mind, and this is where we come in, is where youth for youth comes in. This is where I come in. Needs to be poured directly into youth.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: It needs not only into, hey, let's find talent and develop talent. Let's create the infrastructure where no stone is left unturned. But we are going into every community, we are finding every sliver of footballing potential. We are breaking down the pay to play barriers. So we're not cutting our player pool with each level that we increase, and we are making sure that at each level we maximize the talent pool and that we bring those best players in, that's where we come in, where it's like, hey, you know, you have the showcase model for college soccer, for pro soccer. How do we come in, make that free so players don't have to pay to show their talent. It should be free to show your talent. Right. But there's so many barriers. I, uh, have a player who was actually at our showcase, he came last night as well to our Nike event and he was telling me he had played for Philly Union. He had to leave Philly Union because obviously the Union Academy is free. But he had to do residency because he's from Long Island. He didn't get a full scholarship for residency. Right. And he had to go back and he came back and played here locally for a great club, for Gotcha. But he had that opportunity and he couldn't pursue it because of this associated cost. How do you destroy, with all the windfall, with all of the, the funds that come out of the World cup, how do you break all barriers in domestic soccer? So we create one of the best systems in the world. And of course at the end of the day everyone thinks, okay, how does this come back to bottom line? This comes back to bottom line because if you're developing the best talent, you're getting the biggest transfer fees, the most attention, more money in media rights and it keeps trickling down.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: I think that's in our best interest as an economy and from an impact standard, from the standard of we have an, a moral obligation to create this infrastructure.

Speaker A: Yeah. And the question is, are they willing to see long term? Right. In uh, down the road. And there's a lot of things, right. The valuations of these, if Charlotte FC or NYC FC went up for sale, like I don't know how much, let's say they're valued at 4, 4 billion or whatever. Like the numbers be higher because there's only one available. So whoever can write the check, Live sports is the last place these sports franchises are like at another level. There's scarcity is to another level.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: And that'll continue to drive it. Obviously the TV deals, the meteorites is going to be the big one. That's how the NFL and the NBA make their money, Right. They sell tickets, they sell merch, all that kind of stuff. It's the tv, it's the media. There's a lot of money in that. So if they can continue to build that up, like the moral obligation. But that's a long term vision and a lot of times we don't want that. We want to Pull as much money out of this as possible because you can go to that game. And like I said, it's accessible to go to Charlotte FC game. Not if you buy a beer and popcorn and all this other stuff and parking and whatever else you need to do because they're jacking the prices up. So a family of four or even two is like, this is crazy. So that's the money side of it. Like you said, economics. And the pay to play thing is real. Like, I remember early on we were starting Sportspreneur and I was talking to these guys in England and they played soccer. I think one of them was a keeper for Celtic. And the whole thing, it drove them mad how much money kids were paying to play in the United States were there. Again, you owe your life almost like not military, but you know what I mean? If you play there, you play in the club. In the second, you're not good anymore. They will discard you, they'll send you the U.S. you'll go play for whatever. And you might play for Virginia Tech, a good program, uh, but you're not playing for the national team. Right? So, so that, that drove him crazy. And that pay to play things real, like, again, I've lived it. And it's not just pay to play, it's like, then you gotta travel, right? Like we had Gordon Hayward on the podcast and he's talking about basketball. He's like, you're traveling six hours to go play a team, uh, actually from your hometown. Like you could have played them right here. And we're just sending these kids and all. Anyway, there's a lot we can go down there, but the economics of it is something real. Because for what you guys are doing at, uh, Youth for Youth, like, you need that and I guess Nike and others are helping fund that. Is that what's going on here to make sure that we're going to have that or investors? Like, how does that happen? Because everything's still happening right now that we see. Not with you. All right? With other organizations it is pay to play. Like you're talking about showcases. Those are some of the biggest rip offs you'll have for players because they only care about the two kids that are the best there. And everyone else is funding that experience for them. Right. And for the coaching staff. And the colleges need to make the money because soccer is not the breadwinner for the universities. Yep, that was a lot. So take that any direction.

Speaker B: Uh, here's what I think. Profit incentives are not evil. Profit incentives move the needle where you have these systems where you don't have to pay to play. So you have the keeper who play for Celtic, for example, maybe he came through Celtic Academy. Right. He didn't pay a dollar to play for Celtic Academy because they perceived the talent development that they provided him with as an investment, not as cash flow. So in the US you even have a lot of nonprofit academies that you know, on paper, nonprofit's great, but these nonprofits are still pay to play because they need, they need to generate the adequate cash flow, obviously to break even and you know, all of those intricacies. But it's like where you have these profit incentives where you view talent as investment. Right. Uh, and then of course, what we have in the European system, especially in the uk, is they fail to now offload the talent. Once they cut them, once they don't care about them anymore. How do you create a better system for that? But when you have the system where you look at talent and you think, hey, we are investing in this talent because this could make us money later, then you flip the switch. I think where that becomes helpful in the United States is you need more mid market players. Uh, when I say players, I mean like competitors. Right. So you need more USL clubs that know, hey, we're going to develop this kid and he might make us $15 million down the line and $50 million for a USL club and a transfer fee is a lot of money. Yeah, I think it would actually be a record. Right. That's where you need now for an MLS club. It's still great, It's a lot of money, it's amazing cash flow. Right. But for a USL club that changes the game. How do you create a system where we are now seeing this talent, thinking we need those gems, we need those diamonds in the rough, we need to find them and we can eventually quote profit off of them. But you are still, you're not necessarily doing a player disservice. If you develop them 15 years and you sell them off to another club, you make a lot of money off of it. They make a lot of money off of it. Their life has changed and the trajectory of your club has changed. How do you create a system where those mid market players are now looking for that model because that's why it's so successful elsewhere. Because a fourth division club in Germany might not make that much ticket revenue, but they know we are going to pour every dollar of this into academy. We're going to drive the kids to and from the game, we're going to cover travel fees, we're going to visit the family and make sure they know what's going on, because this kid could help us with our profit incentives later on.

Speaker A: Yeah. And like you said, though, you have to go get numerous kids in the system, right. That you work with them, and that's what you guys are trying to do. And I think you're right. I think the profit thing is important because when you can look at economies, whether it's in Europe or United States, like the startup culture here is real. You go to England, it's not seen the same way. You fell a startup, that's not good. They don't like that. The entrepreneurship mindset is not the same thing. They would say the same. Right. You know, if we had someone on here who's in London right now, they'd be like absolute. A hundred percent.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So making money is okay. It's just for the kids and the families. It's like, well, you had this kid and he's got talent, but he doesn't want to pay 2,000, 5,000, $10,000 a year to play. Right?

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. We so m. For example, youth for youth. A lot of our stuff is subsidized or showcases for a ton of our training fee. We do have some families that pay for what we do.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: But the way I look at it is that, you know, if you have enough, like sort of subsidy from that, or not subsidy, but I guess you can call that flow. Right. If you have enough flow from that, you can then become need blind. Where it's like, this player's good. It's okay that his family can't pay no matter what. Like, we have our protocol where if we want a player and the player cannot pay for whatever it might be, even if it's like an elevated service, can you cover half? No. Okay. Zero. You're not paying a dollar to be in this program. Right. And for me, that's not because, oh, I think that this kid is. Is going to make me a million dollars one day in some random contract that he's going to sign with Barca.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But it's because I see it as an obligation that I have and that we have in giving back to a system that we were developed in a flawed system. And how do we. How do we even, you know, uh, despite our age, how do we start taking that down and flipping the switch and providing those opportunities, no matter what the player has, no matter the background that they come from.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Ah, what do you. And I brought up game time before, and I heard you've talked about this as well, that there's not enough game time for a lot of players. Right. And I'd mentioned that college team before, 45 kids, or this is. This could be in college, but it could be in high school too. Like, I've seen some very large teams where kids are not seeing the field club, you know, whatever. If they're not on the field enough, they don't get that live training Right. Like that they need. Is that still a real issue today that you're seeing? Like, yeah.

Speaker B: So this is a sensitive topic.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: Uh, because so for the younger age groups, MLS next installed a rule where, like, they play quarters of the younger age groups. It's like every player has to play at least a quarter. Uh, when I was playing U.S. development Academy, which is federation associated, and I was playing in that, if there was a match when we were 12, 13 years old, that we were 1:1 with NYCFC and it was the, you know, whatever, we played 80 minutes, it was a 78th minute and half the bench hadn't played. It didn't matter.

Speaker A: Yeah, right.

Speaker B: It was about winning. So I think you have to balance the fact of, yes, every player has to get their run in an 11 to 11 or whatever it is for them at that age. But at the same time, you do have to create a culture where we're not giving handouts. Right. We're not giving you playtime because you exist.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Right.

Speaker B: Like, then you create this culture that we keep running into and over and over again where people, people make fun of the American system and say, oh, it's a participation trophy system, like, you should not be awarded for being there, but how do you create that competitive culture? And then for the players that don't get to play, like, I think adding more games, like having more second teams, having more opportunities like that, that's critical. Right. And that's from club to club. That's their responsibility. Players have to play 11, 11.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: With some, um, sort of incentive too, with some, like, something at stake. Because I think if you just play 11, 11, 11, and there's nothing, you know, there's nothing to play for. There's. It's not competitive, you don't feel the pressure, and then you go play in a real pressurized game and, like, you don't perform. So I think, like, the question is, how do you balance making sure every player plays, but also not making sure every player plays no matter what? Right, right. Which I think we've, in the past few years, maybe gone in that direction a little bit more than we should have.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Because it doesn't like where football is the most successful sport or it's the biggest sport and countries that are most successful at it, they're not handing out playtime.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: But the players are fighting for it. So I have a lot of parents coming to me. He's not playing. He's not playing. He's not playing. So what is the coach? Is this the coach? Is that. No, no, no. But forget the coach. What can we do it? What can he do? Yeah, what can she do as a player to get herself in that position having, like, an internal locus of control? I've been there. I've been there and I've done that. And that's where I try to provide the brotherhood that. That I was missing. I try to provide. We try to provide the sisterhood that we were missing. It's like, what did I do when I was there? I reacted poorly. How do you not react poorly? Get up and train. Sharpen your fundamentals, get your confidence up. Come into the game the most prepared. Take your 10 minutes that you're going to get on Sunday and show that it was the best 10 minutes of anybody on the field. And you show up the next time and you're playing and you're starting.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You've probably seen it. You had a kid who played Academy. You've definitely seen it. What club did he play for in Charlotte? Huh?

Speaker A: He was Independence.

Speaker B: Okay, cool.

Speaker A: Yeah. So the parents. You just brought it up. Are the parents listening to you? I mean, and you're not coaching, right? Like, you're more on the training side of it, so you have a. Probably a better relationship, but you see what goes on, Right? Like, you see how these parents are acting on the side. And when I say the parents, it's not like every parent's doing it. Right. There's plenty of parents who are great, so we won't throw them all under the bus, but it's in every sport. It's a real problem. Right. So.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And they also think, well, that my kid's going. He's going D1.

Speaker B: Mike is the one.

Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's, of course, right? Like, I saw this, the Kachuk family, right, with hockey, with the Olympics going on, and he's like, listen, your son's not going to be the next Sidney Crosby or, you know, Connor McDavid. It's not going to happen. But it doesn't mean you can't not play this.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Speaker B: So I tell the parents when I first talk to the parents, right. Here's what I say. I say, listen, we are here to guide the player, but we are also here because we get it. We understand the pressure. We understand the obsession. We understand that for you just as much as a player, this feels like the only thing that's important in the world, whether they're getting their playtime in their U13 MLS, um, next game. But I say we are also here because this should not be your responsibility. It shouldn't. It shouldn't be your responsibility to have to constantly go to the coach and say, he's feeling like this, he's feeling like that. To not know how to navigate the system when your kid needs a club switch, who to reach out to when they need a club switch. We help with all of that now, uh, some parents are more involved than others.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I think there's a right level of involvement where it's, hey, here's what's going on. Can you please help us? Can you give us advice? Here's what we think. Great. We think X, Y and Z. We disagree, but we do think X and Y. Thank you. That's how it's best operated. And I think that's what's also in the best interest of the kid. I always like to say, once a kid turns 13 or 14 years old, they need to be in charge of their journey and their destiny. Uh, you can't hold their hands because when they go play college, when they go get a professional contract. Yeah. The parent. Are you kidding me? Imagine you're a college coach, and the parent comes up to you and starts talking to you after the game.

Speaker A: That's crazy.

Speaker B: Get out of my face.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And you can't. You have to set that president early on where the kid is ready to represent themselves. So we also create that. We prepare them to do that, because that's what we had to do. We had to learn how to do. I was lucky. Well, I guess not lucky, but my. My parents weren't too worried about what was going on with me in soccer. And so when, um. When I had to have those conversations with coaches, even when I was 13 years old, you know, they said, hey, we're here to help you, but you should go have that conversation because we don't know what we're talking about.

Speaker A: Right, right.

Speaker B: And so I would do that, you know, had that conversation. And sometimes it requires a little external pressure, but the coach, uh, really appreciates that and really respects the player. Yep.

Speaker A: Ah. Yep.

Speaker B: Well.

Speaker A: And imagine that kid who does that when they're 14, 15, 16, what they're able to do when they're 18, 19, 20, and so on and so forth. Right. You have to start, you have to have agency. I mean, it's 100%.

Speaker B: They're able to handle almost a thousand players.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, like, I wouldn't have been able to do what I do now had I not lived my journey with that level of independence. Obviously, maybe I would have benefited from more help, but, like, I think now it's like I had to figure out all these questions by myself. And now I see all these. You know, I have hundreds of players coming to me with different problems every week. Oh, that was similar to what I experienced there.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Here's what I did, here's what I shouldn't have done, here's what I should have done, et cetera.

Speaker A: How do you all move this around? Like, you're in New York, like, when are you in Charlotte, when are you in la, Texas, whatever. Is that something that you're looking at doing?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So in early days, it was like, oh, we go New York, and then we go la, and then we go here. Now I see. I view it more as, like, mega sub regions, like geographic clusters. So we. New York, tri state. Right. So how do we build up a massive. We have a lot of players coming up from these places, but how do we build up the dominant presence? I would say for supplemental work, we are the dominant presence in New York City.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But how do we build up the dominant presence in Long island, in Westchester, in Jersey, in Connecticut, through Rhode island, through Massachusetts, down to Philly? That's a sub region. And then maybe if you want to push dmv, but I think that's probably. You start saying a different sub region, then it's identify the next one. Right. Which would be Carolina's is, uh. Like, that's actually a really great soccer area.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: What's going on? Uh, like, Charlotte has a. Like, great. Even if you go down to Georgia, like, Atlanta is great. I think, obviously there's SoCal. The thing with SoCal, extremely competitive, has a great infrastructure already. Right. So the question is, where does this not necessarily exist?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You also have. You have, like, Cascadia, you know, like Vancouver, Portland, Seattle. It's a great market there. So I think you go into your next cluster. Right. And you create a system where we also want to control the quality. For me, it's not just like, how do we just keep scaling, scaling, scaling, franchise, franchise, franchise. It's like we maintain Our ethos and what we provide to players and the impact that we have and, like, the quality of the services that we provide in every place. And so I think in order to do that, like, for me originally, like, my. My directors and myself, we need to be able to. You know, there's an issue in. In Connecticut, like, you know, get in the car, get in the Amtrak. An hour and a half, I'm there, I'm checking out what's going on. Yeah, right. Like, seeing this coach that maybe is not doing a good enough job.

Speaker A: Yeah. That, uh, smart way to think about it. Is the university helping you have a. I mean, maybe it's not the university as the big. But maybe it's a professor or someone that you're working with there.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So with the amount of time that I spend at school should not be graduating. Like, I truly always say, it's, like. It's kind of a blessing that I ended up at Brown because Brown is one of the most flexible, rigorous, academic schools that there is.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So I, uh, have to give a shout out to two professors in particular. Thano Chaltas and David Udrus. Thanos Chaltas is a technically an engineering professor, but he's more of, like an entrepreneurship professor. And I do, like, independent studies with these guys and with these professors, and they're super supportive. And we. We kind of pick like a, uh. We kind of. We look at a domain that I'm working on, and we say, okay, how do we put this in an academic context? Right? Like, okay, how do we do, like, a big marketing study and make it, like, relatively academic and do that? But it's oriented around youth for youth. And I think that is. Really helped me continue school because I had to take time off. And then I realized, okay, I think I can make this happen. And in my mind, I will graduate. I have one more year, but we'll make it happen. I think. I think it's like, being a dropout's cooler than it sounds. Having a college degree is a great. It's a great thing from a great school. And if I can make it happen, I owe all of my, like, all the flowers, all their gratitude to those two professors and to the institution as a whole for, like, having the infrastructure for someone like me to actually do school or at least pretend.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing how, uh. Like, we're hearing a lot about college right now. Right. There's a whole thing going on, like, don't go to college too much, dad, or go to college. And you know, one of the things I always say is like, take advantage of the resources, take advantage of the professors. Who lights a fire, right? Who, where can you go to get, uh, it could be anything. Like, how can you get help with writing, how can you get help with talking to professor, whatever that might be. And you know, you're over here building a business. You're being, having amazing connections with the university, with the professors. Like, that's a different take on it. It's, you know, and I don't know what the, the financial situation is, but obviously Brown is not a cheap university. Like, what are you telling kids if they're thinking about going to college and whether that's playing soccer or just in general. Because I'm sure you're advising a lot of kids in a lot of different ways.

Speaker B: 100. So look at my experience. So Thano, for example, he was before he was at Brown as a professor of the practice is what it's called. He was a big marketing exec, right? He was at Ocean Spray, he was at Craft. You don't get access to these kind of people when you're not really in school, when you're not in an institution where people want to help. Another thing that, that you leverage is the fact that you meet all of these people that are going to like, I have something at Brown called Brown Sports Network that I also started with three other guys. One of them was like the youngest employee at fifth. They're all doing things in sports that are unbelievably impressive. And together we're able to kind of utilize this Brown Network. And people are willing and ready to help you. So I think, listen, academically, if you, I tell the kids, like, it's less about what you want to study, it's more about who you want to meet, unless you want to become a doctor, a lawyer, et cetera. But the people that you meet and the professors that, uh, help you, the access that you get, that's what makes it worth it, right? And people are like, why are you still in school? You don't do class. Like, you're not taking advantage of this. I said, well, I'm still going there and I'm meeting with Thano. He actually emailed me this morning. He's like, listen, you haven't, you haven't met with me in a long time. I need a deliverable from you. So he's definitely keep, you know, accountable.

Speaker A: That's what you need.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. That's what you need. And you don't get that elsewhere. But I'm in support of players who say, listen, like I'm going to skip the whole college route and go all in. I just say listen, you understand the opportunity you're missing, the cost of that opportunity. And uh, you know, I always say just get a pencil and paper, write it all down and then make your decision. But make sure that you spend time making the decision. Yeah, it's not purely instinctual.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's a big one. You have a good way of like I could imagine like helping a player on the field, right. Helping them think through something in that conversation about going to college, not going to college.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Super competitive as any sport. Super competitive. A lot of stuff, a lot of words are being thrown around and right. Like my son being a goalkeeper, the center back's looking at him be like, are you doing, what are you doing?

Speaker B: Every goal's fault.

Speaker A: Yeah, every goal's his fault. And the only. That's why every team needs a goalkeeper coach, because they're the. And who's played, who understands what that looks like. And again, this stuff's happening across the left back and the right back are arguing with each other, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah, but I don't envy keepers, I really don't.

Speaker A: Yeah, and it's tough, gotta be the hardest position. But it's like, well, okay, we lose one. The, the striker's upset about something that the defense isn't doing right. But uh, anyway, that's a coach's job to maintain that balance, to understand that how are you helping these kids, like become good teammates to be out there. And like, because we go there, we go to the games and competitiveness is going to come out in many different ways, you know, like Zaha and Charlotte. Right. Like he's always. But he's also, he's the same guy out there saying like, because I believe in my teammates, right. So he's a terrific player. How are you helping them out, understanding all this? Because being a good teammate matters, especially at this young age. And mental health is a massive topic right now. And you'll, you'll watch the game and you'll see the kids shoulders go down, you'll see this, you'll see that, and then they'll go into a slump. And I've heard from players, I mean goalkeepers in particular, say, listen, I wasn't even close to the best player in my area, but they couldn't handle it mentally. And again, I'm not talking about goalkeepers,

Speaker B: but the answer is as simple as exposing them, giving them day to day experience with guys who embody not just good teammates, embodied captains, embodied leaders.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So if you think about our technical director partner in the company, Jackson Tenwood, where he is also. We grew up playing together. We played at Metal Oval. He ended up going to Red Bulls and then went to Columbia. He became the captain of Columbia as a sophomore. Right. Which is unheard of.

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: Right. Like there's two classes other than he became the only captain at that time. Then Carmine, who was a year older than us, uh, then he was a year above Jackson, became the captain with Jackson at Columbia. Carmine runs our mentorship program. Right. So he gets on calls with players when they're on off days and talks about what's going on, how to be a good teammate, how to be a leader. Right. How to step into that position. You also have players who've experienced that where they maybe were in positions where they had their head down. Keanu, who's our director of coaching, he was at nycfc, had a hard time there, was at Meddleva, had a hard time there, stopped playing for a while. Things weren't working out for him. He stopped playing for three years. He played high school soccer his senior year and he got recruited to play off high school soccer after not playing. Being an incredible player. He came from NYCC's middle. He took my starting spot. Talk about playtime.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And now he's one of my closest friends and also works with us day to day. Very important piece of our program. But he. That's different experience. Right. Where it's like he experienced the low end of that, maybe Jack's experienced the high end of that. But these players see, number one, what's the perfect embodiment of this? And number two, when it's not right. How does a player, like, tell the story of when they went through adversity, when they had that moment where maybe they weren't the best teammate or maybe their teammates weren't the best to them, their coach wasn't the best to them, and they picked up and fixed it. Right. And they picked their head up and took control of their own situation. I always say like, and I look at the same with entrepreneurship, with my experience building this thing. You need to control everything that you can control. And anything that's out of your control, leave it. Don't complain about it, just leave it. Right. But it's like there's a lot of things that you think that you're not in control of. Like playtime, where it's like I say to play, make it non negotiable, make it so clear that the coach would be ridiculous to not put you in the lineup. Not, um, I think I'm better than this guy. I'm faster, but he has a better weak foot. Distance. No, make it. You have to play over this kid because the team will lose if you don't. Right. And I look at the same way with Youth for Youth. It's like one person, our staff makes mistakes. Like, how do I always bring in that internal locus of control? Because that's the way that I want my players to run. So just giving the players exposure, that mindset non stop. In training, they go in a group of three. They don't like the other two, so it doesn't matter. Lead the group, pick them up. Right? And just constantly drilling that mindset between the staff, between the players, between myself. And I think over time, like, uh, it just. People embody it. I love it.

Speaker A: And parents must, like, they come in and they're like, how do we find this guy? This is amazing.

Speaker B: I think I'm crazy. You should see any coaching. Parents think I'm insane.

Speaker A: Yeah, but you're into it, right? Like, you're passionate.

Speaker B: Yeah, Like, I live and die for this. You know, it's like I. I'm coaching. And they're like, what does this guy think? He's Guardiola? They go, you know, the parents that are more removed, that are, you know, the ones that are less obsessive and. And are like, oh, you know, my kid is going to play soccer and he takes it seriously. So I will too. I'll send him to Youth for Youth. They come to the sessions. What is this guy on? Really bringing out the level, focusing on the details. And that's how I want all our staff to be. I like to couple my sessions with. If I'm running a session, I like whoever the assistant coach is like, or usually go like director, head coach, assistant coach. To be like, kind of the opposite coaching personality of me, right. To even things out. But not the parents definitely are like, all right, this guy Brandon, um, yeah, they see it, you know, I'm like, yeah, just tell the kids complaining about this. And I say, listen, like, I had the flu. We just got off the train four and a half hours from Providence, and I came straight to the session. We're gonna have a great session. You're not gonna complain. I'm not gonna complain. And we're gonna make this happen.

Speaker A: I was just talking to someone about it when complainers walk in. I got my business partner, and he's so good. It's something you Gotta be careful with it. And someone will come in and complain about something that happened. Right. And he'll have a double tripler on top of that. Like, oh, you think you had a bad weekend? Let me tell you about my. And then all of a sudden, it's gone. He's like, okay, so let's get back to work now. You know?

Speaker B: Exactly. He points it out. He's not trying to one up him necessarily, but he's saying, am I sitting here complaining? No. I showed up and I'm worried. I live a very privileged life. The fact that I can even take the train down and go to this wonderful school and had the opportunity to build this, and so many lucky things came together. And I think some of the players need to start understanding that, too. It's like there's nowhere, you know, of course, things don't always go your way, but you have to look at, like, you have to count the blessings and the things that do go your way. And obviously not perfect. I sit around, oh, uh, they did this, they did that all the time. But it's just about trying to catch yourself. Honestly, being a coach and being a mentor to these kids, along with just, like, leading the staff and leading the program has been, like, the best point of character development. Because it's like, I'm not gonna be someone that I wouldn't want these kids to be.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Right. And so I'm always, again, picking away at things that I'll say, things that I'll do that I think, hey, maybe I should fix that, because I don't want the kids to pick that up.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And they know me well. We spent a lot of time with these guys.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, they know us really well, especially over the fact, like, some of them who've been with us for three years.

Speaker A: Yeah. You're taking it serious. Like, you hear that the phrase get serious. Like, at some point, you got to get serious and start doing it. Like, we just talked about being a good teammate, being a good leader, being a good captain. Like those. That's what you're doing. Right? That's all you do. I mean, showing up on this podcast is this perfect example. Like, you obviously have the energy to do it. You have an excitement to do it. You guys are creating content.

Speaker B: Awesome. Uh, podcast. Yeah.

Speaker A: 58, 000 subscribers on Instagram. They look legit. Like, we get all these people reaching out. Like, they could have 58, 000 subscribers, but they bot or they're not legit or bots or whatever. But, like, you're out here showing up and bringing this energy to it because I think you want to have these conversations. I think you enjoy it. I think it also helps your business if someone hears it's like, what is this group? I need to figure this out. I need to learn about it. Whether some. My kid, whether making investment. I don't know what that looks like to uh. I'm just interested in the game of soccer and what that's going to mean for the future of soccer in the United States, in worldwide. Right. What's the impact going to have? And you're out here doing that and like you're in that generation of like, yeah, we want it long form content. Let's do it. Short form content. All good. Let's keep going. Let's just distribution, right. That whole thing. And, and uh, more and more people are going that direction. But you have like this unfair advantage because you're like, yeah, turn the camera on. I don't care. I'm ready. Let's go.

Speaker B: Yeah, let's try. Yeah, that's actually funny you say that. So our like top of funnel growth has probably slowed down where like we built our whole model about okay. We don't have the resources or the expertise to go around the country scouting players in our program. We don't to be at our showcases. We don't. I've always wanted to be a filmmaker, right. I knew how to use a camera, I knew how to make videos. I had to figure out the whole short form thing. We did 30 million views last year that funneled into 4,000 player applications. We flipped the switch from you have to go scout players, find you through virality. They apply the program, then you check them out. Then you've got a great pool together. Because he's like, oh, wow, this is cool what's going on here. Yeah, we built that up really well last year. It's definitely slowed down a little bit. We're trying to remodel our top of funnel, try to new content ideas, et cetera. But what like when, when I come on this podcast with you, Eric, for example, it's like, it's about more of that bottom funnel. It's more about these people who've seen youth for youth nonstop and are now at the point where it's like, let me really learn more about this. Let me see the people behind it and like what they're really about, you know, the, what they can offer the players and where we sit in this ecosystem as well.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's super important. What didn't I Ask you about youth for youth, if anything, or things that are top that are going on right now that you want to make sure that we talk about, hear about. It could be anything where your vision, whatever.

Speaker B: I think what we are doing right now with Nike Thoma is probably the most exciting thing that we've done in a while. So what Nike Thoma is, is this big global street soccer event. And I think Nike's doing a great job as a brand emphasizing that maybe the 1111 opportunity is not there. That doesn't mean that your experience with soccer as a game is over. Because there's this whole other world of soccer as both an entry point and an exit point, which is street soccer, which is small sided 4v4, you know, 7v7, that kind of thing. Even 3v3, 1v1, right? Where like I think if you look at basketball, uh, for example, the growth of basketball, like that's because we have basketball courts everywhere that people can go play by themselves. One on one, whatever. Twos, you don't even need two hoops. You have one hoop on one side, you're good. You have a half court, you're good. And so we are, you know, in this project with them, um, facilitating it, trying to build this culture where it's like, you saw that video. As much as we're emphasizing that 11v11 is the way to go, it's also like there's this street idea, is a great entry and a great exit point for players. So I think that's exciting. There's also so much more culture around it, right? Where it's like you can bring in music, you can bring in DJs, you can bring in food and food trucks and stuff like that. Things that wouldn't really be like if we were to have a showcase, I wouldn't bring these things to a showcase because the showcase is very, very serious. So I'm really excited about this. It's also lightening, you know, lightning me up as a coach as well when I'm at these events and I'm trying to tone down and not be a serious guy at the end of the day. Like I'm a pretty goofy guy. I just need to, you know, when I'm talking to 40 players, oftentimes I shut that down. So it's like trying to rejuvenate that side of myself when I'm on the pitch and stuff like that.

Speaker A: Uh, it's your artistic side, right? It's a little graffiti art, right? Things like that. I think that's huge.

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm directing a, uh, really cool, like, sort of three spots that we're doing this Friday. And that's, like, all I'm working on this week because I love filmmaking and this is the first time we're doing. I can't say the theme yet, but we are doing a themed event. Yeah, it's sick. I'll show you when it's. When it's out.

Speaker A: Yeah, please do. Let me get you some views here real quick. I want to ask you a few quick questions. I don't typically do this, but I think it's perfect for this episode. You already mentioned it before and I think I already know the answer, but who's the goat?

Speaker B: Yeah, it's gotta be messy. Yeah, it's gotta be messy. I like Ronaldo a lot.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B: He's relentless. I think Messi obviously also trains a lot, but Ronaldo is a great person to look up to. But Messi won m the World Cup.

Speaker A: Yeah. There's a lot of conversation about the Premier League, a lot of complaining. People don't like it as much. I just thought of it's on X. Or do you agree with that? Do you subscribe to that? What do you think's going on? What's changed?

Speaker B: I think people always complain about, like, the entrance of foreign money, American, uh, money, Middle Eastern money. But I think the truth is, if it grows the game, it grows the game. I'm a big Serie A fan, which people say is a dying league, but I'm Italian, I'm a Milan fan. Die hard Milanista. But I think. Listen to you watch the prem. It's electric. End to end football. You can't complain about that.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Like, you talk about everything that's happening behind the scenes, but it's end to end football. People say it's a farmer's league, City's always winning it. I like. Okay, yeah, sure. But there's other storylines. Tottenham might get relegated or West Ham. Those are both massive clubs. Massive stadiums in London. Yeah, right. That's a storyline. You have a storyline. And when you had lunatic town go up and they're playing in this crazy stadium with houses built into it. You don't get that in other sports. You really don't. And ah, you also kind of don't get that in other countries, other leagues. Like maybe the golden age of the Premier League was. Yeah, sure, like 12, 2012-2016 for my generation.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Whereas, like Leicester, winning the league was the most insane thing ever. The first time City won, it was pretty cool. That Aguero goal But no, I think. I think it gets more hate. People are always.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They want to complain about something.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And they start following the leader. Right. And once the things it's going and people think it. Who's the best player today in the world? Yeah.

Speaker B: Oh, Lisa, he's, uh. He plays for Bayern. French British guy. Him. Dembele won the Ballon d'. Or. Rightfully so. He's unbelievable. Can use both feet. I do have to say that the threshold for, like, when I was 10 years old, the best player in the world was always, like, scoring 65 goals a season. But now the town, um. There's just no, like, version of that. I mean, you think Holland and Mbappe are supposed to be there, but we'll see what happens.

Speaker A: Yeah, I get it. The FIFA Club World cup was last year. They're all over there, Charlotte. And he was here, Lisa. And just watching him, like, live. I mean, it's. It's crazy. I mean, the whole team. Right.

Speaker B: But even since a year ago, he's also far.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: He's putting up the most ridiculous numbers and he couldn't be performed the Champions League. Like.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: When he scored that last goal against Bayern, I was. I think in my mind, I was like, this guy might be the best player.

Speaker A: There you go.

Speaker B: But it's all about form nowadays, you know what I mean? He's best informed.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Is he the best purely talented player in the world? Like, maybe not. Maybe.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B: I think Lamina Mall will have a reign of terror and he'll be the best for a long time.

Speaker A: But you can see that from like a tactical. Like, you'll look beyond just the stats. Right. Oh, so, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: The media Mall number one. We're talking about lefties.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Right. Lefties are the best. Lefties are the special ones. Lamine Yamal, I look at him. Yeah. He's injured right now. Big deal. He has the craziest mechanics of anyone I've ever seen. He's not fancy, he's not Neymar. He just has W. And that's like what Messi had. Messi had crazy mechanics. Like the way he cuts, the way he turns. I've never seen anything like it. Right. Like, it's like completely optimized. His. His little he. His lines that he. When he cuts perfectly straight, defenders don't know what to do about it.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: It looks like they're not trying because he's just effortlessly weaving through them.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And he.

Speaker A: He just conserves it. He waits for his moment and just goes. He Gets it. That's amazing.

Speaker B: Yeah. Which is what the best players get to do.

Speaker A: Yeah. Two more. This will date it a little bit. Doesn't matter, though. First one World Cup. Who do you think is winning it?

Speaker B: I mean, for me, the World Cup's a tragedy because Italy will not be playing in it. I could spend an hour on a podcast talking about the problem with the Italian federation.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: I have to say, you know, I want to see a deep run from the US The US Will not be winning the World cup, but I love Brazil. I've got some ties there. My sister's, like, kind of involved in what they're doing in the federation, and I want Brazil to win. But who do I think is going to win the World Cup? I would think it's going to be France or Spain, but I think we're going to be in for some surprises this time around.

Speaker A: Does us make a run? That was my last question.

Speaker B: Let's hope so.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: The truth is, like, Pulisic is the guy. He needs to be informed, so we got to get him informed. That's my club's responsibility. That's Massimiliano Allegri's responsibility as the coach of Milan, to make sure this guy, in the three games that we have left, fixes, fixes up.

Speaker A: Where do they need to go? You think they need, like, they're going to make the knockout? I would have mad if they don't make that. I think that's a problem.

Speaker B: But I think a successful World cup is a quarterfinal. Yeah. I think that's because we played 2022. Netherlands knocked us out in the round of 16. Yeah, it was a good matchup. We played well.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I think a, uh, quarterfinals is a good performance. Uh, these are the top eight nations in the world.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's good.

Speaker B: And that includes France and England and Spain and Italy is not there in Brazil and Germany.

Speaker A: Italy. Yeah. Throw it in there. Yeah.

Speaker B: I think the dark horse, I mean, I think, again, Morocco is unreal. They'll do very well. Other than that. I really want to see some kind of run from one of these small nations that's benefited from the 48 expans like Haiti having a run would be ridiculous. They couldn't even be in Haiti during their qualifiers. I think that would be an amazing story. I think what you're getting from the 48 team expansion, they're going to be so many little storylines that will be inspirational for players to see and for people to see around the world that will just grow the game in general.

Speaker A: Yeah, we were just talking about it before we got on here. Right. Like a game. Like, someone could dominate and one goal goes the other way and they're going home.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker B: Uh, that's why. Yeah. Even. Even hockey is a sport like. Like, I like sports where the dominant team doesn't always win.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know?

Speaker A: Yeah. You don't want to watch, like, for what you already know. You want the randomness. That's why these things.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker A: I love it, Brando. It's amazing, man. How do we learn about youth for youth? How do we learn? How do we connect with you?

Speaker B: So best way to learn about it, I get an idea of what we're doing is our Instagram. That's why. Number four, yfc. Or just search up Youth for Youth Football Club with a four. And if you want to join the program, it's that same y4yf c.com and then straight to the join link, slash, join. That's how you apply to the program. And then check out your video, whatever you got, bring you to a tryout, and next thing you know, you're part of the community.

Speaker A: I love it. Community. That's what it's all about, man. Brando, this has been awesome. Thank you for your time.

Speaker B: Eric, uh, thank you so much. It was awesome.

Speaker A: Thanks for listening to Entrepreneur Perspectives. This show is produced by Quiet Loud Studios, where we create podcast writing and original media. Learn more at, uh, quietloudstudios. Com.