Patrik Arnesson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Forza Football, the Swedish football tech company behind the worlds' second biggest football app, Forza Football. On their main app they have over 5 million downloads and 3 million monthly active users, and cover over 420 leagues worldwide. They also have a newer app that serves as a tool for football clubs to monetize on their content, something which all clubs currently struggle with. Football Addicts’ mission is to democratize football and put foot...
Apr 27, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Born and raised in Milan, Italy, at age 15 Claudio Storelli moved to the US as an exchange student. By the age of 20 he graduated from Stanford University with honors and as an NCAA Soccer Division 1 runner-up. By 23, Claudio had graduated with honors from Columbia Law School, and joined McKinsey & Co. as a management consultant. In 2010, he joined Bloomberg LP, where he became the COO of a $1B Enterprise Technology division. To say that he is an ambitious overachiever is an understatement. ...
Apr 03, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 32
Jim Trecker is considered one of the most prominent communications and public relations professionals in US Soccer history. He has been involved as a journalist, administrator and communications maven at all levels of the game, working for the NY Cosmos during the Pelé era, the Washington Diplomats when Johan Cruyff played there, the US Soccer Federation in the 1990’s, the Japanese Federation, and the organizing committees of the 1994, 2002, 2010, and 2022 World Cups. Most recently he has been i...
Dec 19, 2018•55 min
Originally from Abilene, Texas, Bundrant is one of the most prominent football executives hailing from the US. After graduating from West Virginia University, VA, he initiated his career with DC United of the newly started MLS with an unpaid internship. That laid the foundation for an over 20 year career at the very top of global sports business. After stints at Sportfive, one of the most recognized sports rights agencies, GMR Marketing, a sports engagement and experiential agency with clients i...
Dec 22, 2017•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 30
As the Head of Media, Marketing, and CRM at Arsenal Football club, Micheal Leavey has the overall responsibility for the club’s commercial growth ambitions. He has been with the club for over 8 years and until recently was the General Manager of the club’s media business. Leavey was formerly CEO of 10Duke Software, an advanced social media application platform working with leading global brands and broadcasters. Prior to this he was Managing Director at Mondus, a $300 million European B2B softwa...
Nov 06, 2017•1 hr 12 min
Nacido y criado en Barcelona, Joan Laporta es uno de los ejecutivos y presidentes de club más influyentes y reconocidos de la historia del fútbol. Aficionado del Barça de toda la vida, Laporta empezó a estar vinculado profesionalmente al club cuando lideró “Elefant Blau”, un grupo del que también formaban parte Albert Vicens, Jordi Moix, Alfons Godall y Albert Perrín, todos ellos futuros directivos del club, que promovieron una moción de censura contra el entonces presidente de la entidad, Josep...
Oct 17, 2017•1 hr 24 min
Grant Wahl is a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated and a Correspondent on FOX Sports. He is by many considered the top American soccer journalist. He has interviewed and done numerous memorable and acclaimed pieces with some of the biggest names in world soccer, ranging from Jose Mourinho to David Beckham to Lionel Messi. Grant is also a New York Times best-selling author with The Beckham Experiment, a book launched in 2009 which chronicled David Beckham’s first few years as an MLS & LA Gal...
Oct 04, 2017•1 hr 13 min
Martin Jacobson, known to many as “Coach Jake”, is the Coach of the Martin Luther King Jr., High School in Manhattan, the most successful team in New York City history and one of the top ranked programs in the country. The team consists of highly talented kids from underprivileged inner-city areas and immigrants mostly from West Africa, Caribbean, and South America. Coach Jake took charge of MLK, or “Horror High” as some tabloids called it at the time, in 1994 and started to discover talent amon...
Sep 28, 2017•44 min
Martin Jacobson, known to many as “Coach Jake”, is the Coach of the Martin Luther King Jr., High School in Manhattan, the most successful team in New York City history and one of the top ranked programs in the country. The team consists of highly talented kids from underprivileged inner-city areas and immigrants mostly from West Africa, Caribbean, and South America. Coach Jake took charge of MLK, or “Horror High” as some tabloids called it at the time, in 1994 and started to discover talent amon...
Sep 21, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Known as the The Rocky Balboa of Criminal Defense Law, The Devil’s Advocate, and The War Machine, Joseph “Joe” Tacopina is a New York City based criminal defense lawyer and the Owner & President of Venezia Football Club in Italy. Representing some of the most high-profile cases and clients including the NYPD, Alex Rodriguez, Jay-Z, Victoria Gotti, and Lillo Brancato, among many others, Tacopina has earned himself the reputation as one of the toughest, most fearless, and prominent attorneys i...
Sep 13, 2017•44 min
Known as the The Rocky Balboa of Criminal Defense Law, The Devil’s Advocate, and The War Machine, Joseph “Joe” Tacopina is a New York City based criminal defense lawyer and the Owner & President of Venezia Football Club in Italy. Representing some of the most high-profile cases and clients including the NYPD, Alex Rodriguez, Jay-Z, Victoria Gotti, and Lillo Brancato, among many others, Tacopina has earned himself the reputation as one of the toughest, most fearless, and prominent attorneys i...
Sep 05, 2017•58 min
As the Managing Director of the Americas, which includes South, Central, and North America, Arno Trabesinger has the overall responsibility for the club’s growth ambitions across commercial partnerships, sponsorships, marketing, the foundation, and the academies in the region. The ultimate goal is to make Barça the most recognizable brand and most global sports team in the world. Originally from a small town in Austria, Arno started his career with Weirather-Wenzel & Partner S.L, WWP, one of...
Aug 31, 2017•56 min
Christian Fuchs is a former Austrian National Team Captain who plays as a left back for Leicester City in the English Premier League. He started his professional career with SV Mattersburg in the Austrian Bundesliga, after playing the 2008 Euro Tournament with Austria, he joined the German club VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, from there he moved onto Mainz 05 for a season, and Schalke 04 for five seasons, before landing at Leicester City in 2015. Join us as we discuss his journey and go in-depth o...
Aug 22, 2017•27 min
Christian Fuchs is a former Austrian National Team Captain who plays as a left back for Leicester City in the English Premier League. He started his professional career with SV Mattersburg in the Austrian Bundesliga, after playing the 2008 Euro Tournament with Austria, he joined the German club VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, from there he moved onto Mainz 05 for a season, and Schalke 04 for five seasons, before landing at Leicester City in 2015. Join us as we discuss his journey and go in-depth o...
Aug 15, 2017•43 min
Pia Sundhage is a world-renowned coach and former professional player. Most recently she was the National Team coach for Sweden from 2012 to July 2017 who she lead to an Olympic silver medal in 2016. Prior to that she was the US National Team coach from 2007 to 2012, winning consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012, and as a result, earning the FIFA World Coach of the Year Award in 2013. In this second half of our conversation, we delve further into her personal perspectives, discussing ...
Aug 08, 2017•40 min
Pia Sundhage is a world-renowned coach and former professional player. Most recently she was the National Team coach for Sweden from 2012 to July 2017 who she lead to an Olympic silver medal in 2016. Prior to that she was the US National Team coach from 2007 to 2012, winning consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012, and as a result, earning the FIFA World Coach of the Year Award in 2013. Join us as we discuss her journey and go in-depth on her life and career, from a small-town beginning...
Aug 03, 2017•51 min
Kyle Martino is a retired professional player with a career that was cut short at 28 years old due to multiple serious injuries. He represented the Columbus Crew and LA Galaxy in the MLS, as well as the US National Team. After being forced into early retirement, and realizing he wasn’t going to achieve his dream of playing in the World Cup, he decided to get as far away from soccer as possible, which led him to an unexpected position at a Wall Street firm, right in the lead up to the 2008 financ...
Mar 02, 2017•1 hr 14 min
Dennis Crowley is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Foursquare, a location based tech company that is used by more than 50 million people monthly across 100 countries. Previously, he founded Dodgeball, one of the first location-based mobile social services (acquired by Google in 2005). In 2015 he founded Kingston Stockade Football Club, a soccer team out of Hudson Valley, NY, that plays in the 4th tier of US Soccer. Joins us as we discuss his journey from a small-town beginning in Medway,...
Feb 10, 2017•1 hr 13 min
David Downs is one of the most prominent executives in US Soccer history with a career spanning over three decades. Today his involvement with the game is mainly spent coaching youth teams just north of NYC in Westchester County. Most recently he served as the Commissioner of the NASL (North American Soccer League) through its first and second seasons in 2011 and 2012. Prior to the NASL he spent more than 30 years in the broadcast industry as an executive with both ABC Sports and Univision Commu...
Jan 17, 2017•1 hr 32 min
Ibrahim Ba is a retired professional player with a career spanning over 17 years. Teams included Le Havre, Bordeaux, AC Milan, Perugia, Olympique Marseille, Bolton Wanderers, Cayku Rizespor in Turkey, and Djurgården in Sweden. Currently he is working on completing the final stages of the elite level coaching license. We discuss his upbringing in Senegal and the poor suburbs of Paris, becoming a professional at Le Havre, the legendary AC Milan team coached by Fabio Capello, receiving recruitment ...
Dec 29, 2016•1 hr 27 min
Jimmy Conrad is a retired professional player with a career spanning over 13 years. Teams included San Jose Earthquakes, Kansas City Wizards, Chivas USA and a brief, albeit fascinating spell, at Lech Poznań in the Polish top Ekstraklasa league. After retiring in 2011 due to multiple concussions, he became a leading soccer media personality and helped grow KICK TV, the largest independent YouTube soccer channel, where he was the main host to over 1M followers. Apart from recently launching his ow...
Nov 30, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Alejandro Guido is an American professional player who plays for Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles (Xolos) in Liga MX, the top league in Mexico. He has represented the U.S. National Team at the U17, U18, U20, and U23 levels.Born in San Diego, CA, in 1994, Alejandro grew up on both sides of the border. He currently lives in San Diego which means that he commutes and crosses the border every day to get to practice and games. Club Tijuana is a team with a unique story that was founded less than 10 years...
Sep 23, 2016•1 hr 25 min
Originally from Paris, France, Jérôme is one of the most prominent football minds in the U.S. After graduating from Amherst College, MA, he started his career on Wall Street, which laid the foundation for a long and successful career in finance. His passion for the game has kept him involved in multiple different roles, as a player, coach, referee, executive and director. In 2002, Jérôme was named to the board of directors of AS Monaco FC, and in 2008, he became the president of the club, the fi...
Sep 08, 2016•1 hr 11 min
Declan Hill is an investigative journalist and academic. He specializes in the study of organized crime, match-fixing, and international issues. He was the first journalist to break the story of Asian match-fixing gangs linked to the multi-billion dollar gambling markets destroying international football in his book ‘The Fix: Soccer & Organized Crime’. It has now become a best-seller in 21 languages. In 2013, he published the academic version ‘The Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing’. They're bo...
Aug 30, 2016•1 hr 10 min
Heath Pearce is a recently retired player with a professional career spanning over 10 yearsToday he is a media profile, working as a presenter, creator and host on KICK, one of the largest independent football channels on YouTube with over 1.4 million subscribers and over 200 million views.Heath takes us through his incredible life and career journey, starting from humble beginnings in Modesto, CA, to the US National Team Residency Program at IMG in Florida and then to the pivotal moment when he...
Aug 16, 2016•1 hr 56 min
Bakary “Baky” Soumare is a former professional player with a career spanning almost ten years, he represented MLS teams Chicago Fire, Philadelphia Union, Montreal Impact and FC Dallas, US Boulogne in Ligue 1 & 2 (France), and Karlsruher SC in Germany. Currently he is the Chairman of PITCH Concepts, a company he founded during his playing career that develops high-end outdoors living spaces in major cities around the world. We discuss being an illegal immigrant in NYC, mental health, deliveri...
Jul 28, 2016•1 hr 50 min
Bruce Grobbelaar is a former Zimbabwe international footballer who is most known for his time at Liverpool FC between 1981 and 1994. Born in South Africa, Grobbelaar grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), before moving to Canada and the Vancouver Whitecaps of the NASL in 1979. He gained Liverpool's attention during a loan spell at Crewe Alexandra during the 1979–80 season, and signed for the club in 1981. Making 628 appearances for Liverpool over the next 13 years, including 440 in the League, he w...
Jul 20, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Anton is a Swedish media personality and football player who in 2011 gained global attention when he came out as gay. He was the first high-profile Swedish footballer to make the announcement and the second active professional player in the world to come out, after English footballer Justin Fashanu in 1990. Anton was born in Liverpool in 1990, where his father Glenn Hysén, was playing for Liverpool FC, winning the league title that same year. We discuss homophobia in the game, the big announceme...
Jul 12, 2016•58 min
Erik Stover is the Chief Operating Officer of the New York Cosmos. Originally from Williamsport, PA, Erik is one of the most prominent sports executives in the country with a career spanning over 20-years. He has been in senior management positions with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (Giants Stadium and Izod Center) and Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, he was also the President/Managing Director of the New York Red Bulls for three and half years. While working for Red Bulls, Erik o...
Jul 06, 2016•1 hr 25 min
Angus is the VP of Content at Perform Group, the parent company of Opta, the world’s leading sports data provider. A native of Scotland, Angus has been with Opta since late 2010 and has vast experience working with leagues, governing bodies & federations, broadcasters, sponsors, digital media and other associated rights holders. He leads Opta’s soccer business in North America across all media (broadcast, print, digital). Angus is a sought-after speaker, who headlines panels at Sloan Sports ...
Jun 28, 2016•1 hr 2 min
