Against All Odds

In this episode, Matt gets to sit down with Tulsa Roughnecks teammate, Rodrigo Bandeira Da Costa and listen to his story of how Rodrigo went from quitting competitive soccer at age 14 to then signing a professional contract at age 25. It's an amazing story that again just showcases how you can achieve your goal despite what anyone tells you. 

In addition, Matt and Rodrigo talk about the differences of youth soccer between the USA and Brazil, how Rodrigo went from playing at an amateur level in Brazil to playing college soccer in Florida, as well as Rodrigo's expectations about entering into a professional team. 

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think about this one! 

In this episode, Matt gets to sit down with Portuguese teammate, Janu Silva. Janu grew up and spent most of his life playing soccer in the local parks in Portugal as well as with some top youth teams in the area. At one time, he was even scouted by the same person who also scouted Cristiano Ronaldo. I really recommend all of you guys to sit down and listen to Janu's story and how he went on to have an illustrious professional career!

In this episode I sit down with Akeil Barrett to hear about his journey from growing up playing soccer in local parks in his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica to being recruited by Akron, the number #1 ranked U.S. College at the time, and being drafted by Orlando City SC. Since then, he has played for a number of different professional teams around the US and even one over in Sweden. 

We go in-depth about the struggles he's faced with injuries and rejections as well as the absolute highs he's felt while being drafted by an MLS team. Really enjoyed this talk and I hope you guys take something away from Akeil's story! 

Jeff Addai from Ottawa, Canada. 

Really excited for you guys to hear Jeff's story of how he overcame two ACL surgeries and two Sports Hernia surgeries to go on to play professional soccer. The persistence Jeff had to have in order to ride out the incredible low times of his injuries is something that I will always respect him for. 

Jeff also talks about his experience abroad over in Albania, Germany, France, Belgium, and Portugal and what he learned from those experiences as well as how him and his brother started a successful sports management company, Ottawa Pro Sports Management. 

Overall his story was amazing to sit down and listen to firsthand and I know you guys will gain a ton of value from it. 

In this podcast, I got the chance to sit down and talk to one of the younger guys on the team, Colton Haskin. Even though this is his first year playing professional soccer, Colton has had a very successful and inspiring career so far. One of the highlights that stuck out to me was when he tried out at a top D1 soccer program only to be told by the coaches that he'd make a good D3 level soccer player. Colton printed that out, taped it up on his bedroom door, then used it as motivation every single day to push on to the D1 level and eventually the professional level. 

In this episode, I got the chance to sit down and listen to Brayan Reyes' story of how he went from playing pick up soccer with his cousins to scoring the game winning goal of a Cup Final in Honduras in front of tens of thousands of people. Other highlights of Brayan's career include playing Junior College soccer in the United States of America to dropping out and flying out to Hungary to play professionally. 

I'm really excited for you guys to sit down and listen to the highs and lows of a great player and his story of how he became a professional soccer player now playing for the Tulsa Roughnecks.

This is the longest podcast to date, but is also one of the most inspirational stories I've ever heard. Cyprian Hedrick went from playing barefoot in the streets of Cameroon to moving to America at age 9 to eventually being drafted as the 30th overall pick to Sporting Kansas City. 

The 29 year old center back then went on to a successful professional career with multiple USL clubs and now is the captain of the Tulsa Roughnecks. Cyprian's story is full of ups and downs, but is incredibly inspiring the entire time. I can not wait for all of you to sit down, relax, and listen to Cyp's story.  

Roach infested apartments in Egypt, 15 hour bus rides to Romania, going 2 years without seeing his Mom or Dad... Moses Makinde has an incredible story of perseverance and determination as he played professional soccer around the globe. This is one of the craziest journeys that I've ever heard.

Makinde was born in England, but later moved to America and had an ideal youth career, and was consistently on one of the best youth teams in the country. He went on to play D1 soccer at NC State for four years and then went on to play and trial in dozens of countries including England, Ireland, Germany, Serbia, Cyprus, Romania, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Estonia, Slovenia, Egypt, Sweden, and the USA.

So pumped for you guys to sit down and listen to this one! It's sure to inspire every player out there especially if you've ever been cut from a team or faced rejection. Absolutely amazing journey. 

In this episode Matt sits down with Tulsa Roughnecks FC's latest signing, Anthony Legendre, to talk about his journey to signing his first professional contract. Anthony has an inspiring story from facing rejection from his youth club to going on trials with teams in 5 different countries. Any player can benefit from sitting down and listening to the story, advice, and lessons of Anthony Legendre.