The Golden Ball

The World Cup is over. The golden ball has been lifted. And now comes the question: What do you do when the thing you loved so much simply ends?

In this episode

The final match has been played. Spain won. Beauty won. And three depth psychologists sit together one last time to process something that every soccer fan, every creative person, and every human being who has ever given themselves fully to something knows.

The morning after.

Not the loss. The ending. The particular emptiness that arrives when something wonderful is over and the spirit that animated it has moved on to find a new home.

What you will hear:

• The after-flow and the depression that follows. Machiel opens with something that surprised even the others. After a creative endeavor ends (a World Cup, a book, a project, even the birth of a project), the spirit that visited finds its form and moves on. And the human host is left behind. What follows is often a mild depression. Not pathological. Natural. The price of having been truly inspired.
• Beauty winning. All three psychologists were rooting for Spain as a style. A way of playing. They wanted beauty to win. And it did. That feeling of something larger than a result being at stake, that is the World Cup at its most mythological.
• Soccer as art. The conversation returns to a theme that has run through the whole series. Soccer is like art. You can prefer Van Gogh or Rembrandt. You can prefer Spain or Argentina. And in those preferences something true about you is revealed.
• The post-World Cup rituals. John describes the World Cup poster on his son's wall. The moment of slowly taking it down. Folding it. Maybe leaving it on the table for a week before it goes in the trash. That small act becomes a ritual of honoring what has passed. Of not moving on too quickly. Of letting the transition be real.
• The pre-creative depression. Akke-Jeanne introduces a concept that reframes the emptiness after something ends. Before creativity flourishes again there is always a period of dullness, emptiness, and boredom. A winter. The temptation is to fill it up. The practice is to trust it. Something new is already forming beneath the surface.
• The in-between space has its own value. In a culture obsessed with performance and achievement, the non-performance state is treated as a problem to be solved. This conversation says otherwise. The in-between is not a gap between what mattered. It is part of what matters.
• The gift of more time. With the World Cup over, there is an afternoon to fill with something different. That can feel like loss. But it can also feel like a quiet relief. A freeing up. A small return to a life that had been temporarily organized around something external.
• What the series taught all three of them. A warm and genuine closing conversation between three people who have spent eight weeks thinking together, disagreeing, discovering, and playing. Not just about soccer. About life.

Practical takeaways:

• Do not rush through the ending. Whether it is the World Cup, a project, a relationship, or a season of life, the transition deserves to be honored. A small ritual helps. Taking down the poster slowly. Writing something. Going for a longer walk.
• Trust the winter. The emptiness after something meaningful ends is not a problem. It is a pre-creative depression. Something new is already forming. Give it time to arrive.
• Notice what the tournament revealed about you. What did you root for and why? What moments moved you and what did that tell you about your own values, your own gold?
• Let the in-between be. Not everything needs to be filled. The non-performance state has its own quality and its own value.

The question we leave you with:

Think of something that ended — a project, a season, a chapter of your life. What did you do with the space it left behind, and what would it mean to honor that ending rather than rush past it?

Share your answer with us at [email protected]. We read every one.

A note from the hosts

This is the final episode of The Golden Ball FM World Cup 2026 series. Thank you for listening, for sharing your answers, and for playing with us.

For the love of the game.

About the hosts

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist in New York City, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, depth psychology teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

The Golden Ball, where depth psychology and the beautiful game help us play life better.

When Winning Matters: Playing to Win vs Playing Not to Lose

There are moments in life when everything is on the line. What happens in your body, your mind, and your soul in that moment? And how do you find lightness when the weight of it all presses down?

In this episode

The World Cup has reached its final stages. Semi-finals. Finals. Moments that will be written into history books. Moments that will define careers, countries, and dreams.

And yet the players who perform best in these moments are often the ones who find a way to make it feel like just another game.

Three depth psychologists explore what it really means to show up when winning matters. Not just as a performance challenge, but as a psychological and even spiritual one.

What you will hear:

The language of matter, density, and pressure. John opens with a linguistic observation that anchors the whole conversation. When winning matters, matter accumulates. The body gets heavy. The legs slow down. The mind closes in on simple solutions. Creativity disappears. And the path back to lightness is both physical and psychological.

Mbappé before the penalty. Akke-Jeanne describes watching his body get tighter and tighter as the referee delayed the moment. The relationship between relaxation and success is not just psychological. It is visible in real time if you know what to look for.

What you can see in the body before a penalty is taken. Shoulders dropping. A surrender to the moment. The difference between someone talking themselves into something and someone who has simply arrived. One scores more often than the other.

Play to win versus play not to lose. Machiel brings one of the most important distinctions in the episode. Playing not to lose creates rigidity. It puts a knife to the throat of performance. Playing to win requires accepting the possibility of losing. That paradox is at the heart of peak performance.

The threshold moment. These are not just pressure moments. They are initiation moments. Whatever team wins the World Cup final will carry that moment into history. Whatever person walks into a job interview and performs at their best will cross a threshold into a new version of themselves. The stakes are real. And that reality is part of what makes them so difficult.

The monsters on the path. Machiel introduces one of the most evocative images of the series. When winning matters, monsters show up. Fears. Inner voices. The weight of expectation. The narrative of what this result will mean for your career, your identity, your future. The technique is not to fight the monsters. It is to keep walking toward the temple.

The role of joy. Ronaldinho versus Messi. Maradona versus the more serious expressions of greatness. Does joy make you perform better? And what does it mean that some of the greatest players of all time seem to carry the game as a burden rather than a gift?

The open heart as medicine. Machiel's phrase that closes the episode beautifully. When matter accumulates and the monsters crowd in, the antidote is not willpower or technique alone. It is an open heart. The capacity to remain connected to why this matters in the first place.

Practical takeaways:

• Develop a pre-performance routine in low pressure moments so it is available in high pressure ones. The body needs to have practiced relaxation before it can find it when everything is at stake.
• Notice the difference between talking yourself into something and arriving. One is effortful. The other is a release. The second one scores more often.
• Include the possibility of losing. Paradoxically, accepting that you might lose is often what makes it possible to play freely enough to win.
• When the monsters show up, keep walking. Do not engage. Do not argue. Do not try to prove the inner critic wrong. Just stay on the path toward the temple.
• Ask yourself as you watch the remaining games: is this player playing to win or playing not to lose? You will see it in their body before you see it in the result.

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, Jungian psychology teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com

The Golden Ball, where depth psychology and the beautiful game help us play life better.

When the dream ends

The World Cup is in the knockout phase. Some dreams have ended. Some players have gone home. And somewhere in a hotel room, someone is replaying the moment over and over, trying to change an outcome that cannot be changed.

This episode is about what happens after the loss. Not the analysis. Not the blame. The inner journey that begins when something you cared about deeply does not go the way you needed it to.

What you will hear:

• The difference between small losses and big losses. Guardiola's five second rule works perfectly for a misplaced pass. It does not work for a broken dream. Bigger losses require a different kind of tending entirely.
• The underworld journey. In Greek mythology, Hades is not punishment. It is a necessary passage. When something significant is lost, we find ourselves there whether we want to or not. The question is not how to avoid it. It is how to navigate it.
• Why moving on too quickly is counterproductive. The instinct to think your way out of grief, to will yourself through it, to stay strong, is a survival mechanism. Not a healing one. What gets bypassed in that strategy eventually surfaces in other ways, including in performance.
• Dissociation and the cost of not feeling. When emotions are not processed, they do not disappear. They begin operating beneath the surface as defense mechanisms. The player who has not genuinely grieved a loss may find themselves unable to fully commit the next time something is at stake.
• Blaming as a survival strategy. Pointing the finger gives a temporary sense of control when we are actually powerless. It is understandable. But it leaves part of us still in the underworld while the rest pretends to have moved on.
• The role of witnesses. When someone simply acknowledges what happened, when they say I see you and I know that was hard, something shifts. Grief is not meant to be carried alone. In one African tribe, when someone suffers a great loss, the community stops its work and sits in a circle around the grieving person. No advice. No analysis. Just presence.
• The tension between depth psychology and sports psychology. Sports psychology is built for speed and performance. Depth psychology moves slower and goes deeper. Both are necessary. They are not mutually exclusive. They must walk hand in hand for genuine flourishing.
• Johan Cruyff's insight: every disadvantage has an advantage. Not as a way of bypassing pain, but as a perspective that becomes available once the feelings have been genuinely honored.
• The gold on the other side. People who have navigated loss well carry something that cannot be taught any other way. A depth of empathy. A quality of presence. A capacity to sit with others in their own darkness without needing to fix it.
• Pocket time. You do not need to live in the underworld for weeks. Five minutes at a time, with genuine presence, is medicinal. Set a timer. Be there. Then return to the day.

One thought that stays:

You are no longer a person who plays at the World Cup. You are a person sitting on the couch watching the World Cup.

That sentence from the opening of this episode captures something essential. Big losses do not just hurt. They change who we are. And navigating that change, rather than pretending it did not happen, is where psychological work begins.

Practical takeaways:

• Distinguish between the loss and what to do with it. Feeling comes first. Reflection comes second. Trying to learn from a loss before you have genuinely felt it skips the most important step.
• Give yourself pocket time. Set a timer for five minutes. Be present to the grief without trying to fix it or understand it. Then return to the day. Small and real is more powerful than large and avoided.
• Notice the impulse to blame. It is a signal that you are in the underworld and looking for a way out. That is human. But if you follow the blame too far, part of you stays behind.
• Pay attention to your dreams and your body. The psyche has its own suggestions for the journey. They are often quieter and wiser than the mind's first instinct.
• Ask the Jungian question when the time feels right: what am I being invited to become through this experience?

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a Jungian coach, teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. Her book on heartbreak, De Psychologie van een Gebroken Hart, is available in Dutch. akkejeanneklerk.com

The Golden Ball - where depth psychology and the beautiful game help us play life better.

 Dealing with criticism

How do you deal with criticism when the world is watching?

In this episode

Imagine sitting in a beautiful theater, dressed up, surrounded by colleagues and peers. A moment you had been looking forward to. 

And then, in front of everyone, someone whose opinion matters is asked what they think of you. 

Their answer: I don't really see it. 

That moment opens a conversation about one of the most universal human experiences. Being evaluated. Being found wanting. And what we do with that. 

What you will hear:

• Why criticism is everywhere in soccer and unavoidable in life. It comes from coaches, teammates, analysts, fans, the media, and social media. The question is never how to avoid it. It is always how to relate to it.
• The difference between outer criticism and inner criticism. The outer critic informs the inner critic. And the inner critic is the one that does the most damage.
• The Jungian inner critic as a figure. In depth psychology, the psyche is not one voice but many. There is a figure in all of us that criticizes, evaluates, and finds us wanting. It has a particular style, a particular rhythm, a particular set of complaints. When we learn to recognize it as a figure rather than as the truth, something shifts.
• How to work with the inner critic in three steps. Visualize it. Give it a shape and an image. Write down what it says. Notice the patterns. Then learn, slowly, not to engage with it on its own terms. Arguing with the inner critic is always a losing battle. The shift is from proving the critic wrong to moving into a different conversation entirely.
• The origin of the word criticism. From the Greek word meaning to discern. Good criticism is not an attack. It is information. The capacity to receive it without being destroyed by it, and to sift what is true from what is not, is one of the most important skills a person can develop.
• Ronaldo and the criticism he cannot escape. When criticism is about something unworkable like age, it cannot be used for growth. The more useful question is always: what can I actually do with this?
• Cultural differences in giving and receiving criticism. The Dutch are notoriously direct. Other cultures wrap feedback carefully. Neither approach is wrong. But knowing which culture you are operating in changes everything about how criticism lands.
• How self-belief changes your relationship with criticism. When you have a strong inner authority, criticism becomes information rather than identity. When you depend heavily on external approval, every piece of criticism feels like an attack on who you are.
• Gratitude as a foundation. Building a stronger inner foundation through practices like gratitude makes the psyche less permeable to criticism that does not serve you. You become better able to discern what to take in and what to let go.

One story that stays:

A few days after the documentary premiere, a teammate came to the player in the locker room and simply acknowledged what had happened. That small act of witnessing broke the isolation. It brought the player back into the team. It reminded him that what had happened was real, that he was not alone in it, and that he still belonged.

Sometimes the most powerful response to criticism is not the right answer. It is the right witness.

Practical takeaways:

• Ask first: is this person informed? You do not have to take criticism from someone who does not understand the game you are playing.
• Separate the information from the identity. A criticism of what you did is not a verdict on who you are.
• Get to know your inner critic as a figure. Give it a name. Draw it if you can. Hear what it says without becoming it.
• Notice how long it takes you to recover from criticism. Recovery time is a measure of growth. As it shortens, something is changing.
• Build your inner authority before the criticism arrives. Know what you care about, what you value, and why you are doing what you are doing. That foundation is what makes criticism workable rather than crushing.

The question we leave you with:

Think of a piece of criticism you received that stayed with you. What did the outer critic actually say, and what did your inner critic make of it?

Share your answer with us at [email protected]. We read every one.

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply.  johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com 

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, Jungian psychology teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com 

The Golden Ball -  where depth psychology and the beautiful game help you play the game of life better.

Episode Creativity

John O'Brien shares a moment of the World Cup. In the second half, something happened on the pitch that stopped the crowd mid-breath. A moment of  creativity. A pass nobody saw coming. A decision made in a fraction of a second that could not have been planned.

That moment opens a conversation that goes somewhere deeper than tactics or technique. Into what creativity actually is, where it comes from, and how we can invite more of it into our lives.

What you will hear:

• The difference between practicing a skill and being creative with it. You cannot be creative without preparation. But preparation alone is never enough. Creativity lives in the space between the two.
• The Greek tradition of the muse, the daimon, and the genius. The ancient idea that creativity does not come from us but through us. That everyone has a genius. That the role of the artist, the athlete, and the human being is to become a vessel.
• Why talent in Latin simply means inclination. The impulse you feel in your body toward something. Not a measure of how good you will be, but a signal of where the creative spirit is trying to move through you.
• Pre-game rituals and what they are really doing. John's weekly rhythm before matches. What players are unconsciously practicing when they put on their left shoe before their right. How superstition, when brought to conscious awareness, becomes a genuine act of invitation.
• The Sangoma in South Africa who sometimes says: the spirit is not here today, come back later. And why that ancient wisdom, so impossible in our modern culture, points to something true about creativity and timing.
• What kills creativity. Thinking about the outcome instead of the process. The inner judge that evaluates before the impulse has fully arrived. Self one and self two from Timothy Gallwey's Inner Game of Tennis. And how trauma responses and survival mechanisms can quietly block genuine creative expression.
• Picasso at the glass wall. Making something extraordinary, shaking his head, wiping it clean, starting again. Allowing the creative spirit to flow and then recognizing the moment it arrives.
• Mbappe after his career. Asked what he will do when he stops playing, he pauses and says: I will give myself the freedom to decide in the moment. A creative lifestyle, lived from impulse rather than plan.
• The importance of exit rituals. Welcoming the creative spirit in is only half the practice. Knowing how to let it go, coming back to being a person again after the high, is equally essential.

One thought that stays:

Rick Rubin defines creativity as an attitude toward life. Not a single moment of inspiration. A way of relating to everything, with fluidity, curiosity, and a willingness to experiment without knowing the outcome. That is available to all of us. Not just artists and athletes. Anyone willing to follow an impulse before they know where it leads.

Practical takeaways:

• As a viewer watching the World Cup, follow your natural attention. If one player keeps drawing your eye, follow that impulse. Something in you is recognizing something worth paying attention to.
• Build rituals. Not superstitions you perform unconsciously, but small acts of intentional transition that signal to the creative spirit: I am here, I am ready, I cannot do this alone.
• Notice when your body tightens. Creativity often lives just on the other side of that tightening. See if you can loosen just enough to let something unexpected enter.
• Trust the timeline. A seed does not grow faster because you keep checking on it. Creativity has its own rhythm. The practice is learning to serve rather than pull.

The question we leave you with:

Where in your life are you so focused on the outcome that you have forgotten to enjoy the process, and what would change if you followed the impulse instead?

Share your answer with us at [email protected] 

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, Jungian teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com

 The Golden Ball, where depth psychology and soccer help us play life better. 

Identity: Who are you when the shirt comes off?

Who are you, really? And what happens when the story you tell about yourself stops working?

In this episode

Identity is one of the most powerful forces in sport and in life. It shapes how we perform, how we belong, and how we respond when things do not go according to plan. But identity can also become a trap. A rigid story that keeps us safe while quietly cutting us off from the very things that would make us come alive.

In this episode, three depth psychologists explore identity from every angle. Personal identity, athletic identity, collective identity, and the shadow. The parts of ourselves we leave out of the story we tell the world.

The conversation moves between the therapy room and the pitch. Between Ronaldo's relentless claim to greatness and the Dutch fan who puts on an orange shirt and suddenly belongs to something larger than themselves.

What you will hear:

• What identity actually is, and why it is far more fluid than most of us believe. Identity is not who you are. It is the story you tell about who you are. And stories can be rewritten.
• How identity predicts behavior. If you believe you are a fighter, you will fight till the last minute. If you believe you are a harmonious person, you will avoid conflict, even when conflict is exactly what is needed.
• The persona in Jungian psychology. The mask we present to the world is not our whole self. It is the tip of the iceberg. If we mistake the mask for the person beneath it, we lose touch with everything the mask was hiding.
• Athletic identity and the danger of myopia. When a player identifies entirely with their position, their performance, or their status, they become fragile. What happens to the striker who stops scoring? What happens to the champion who is no longer the best?
• Ronaldo at 41. A live case study in what happens when identity and reality stop matching, and what it would take to hold that identity more lightly.
• The collective identity of the Dutch team. Orange shirts, total football, Johan Cruyff, and the question of what happens when a national identity outlives the players who made it possible.
• Belonging as performance fuel. When you feel you belong to a team or a culture, creativity flows more freely. When you do not, the body tightens and expression shrinks. Coaches are actively building belonging and it matters more than most people realize.
• The shadow in sport. Every culture, every team, every individual has a shadow. The parts that are not privileged, not celebrated, not allowed. Those parts do not disappear. They simply go underground and show up in other ways.

A thought that stays:

Identity is like a shirt. The French wear blue. The Dutch wear orange. But never mistake the shirt for the person wearing it. That confusion is where identity politics begins, where hooliganism is born, where violence enters. The shirt is a way of belonging. It is not who you are.

Practical takeaways:

• Pay attention to what you gain from your identity and what you are avoiding. Every rigid identity protects something and hides something else.
• Notice what your body can tolerate. Shadow work is not a technical exercise. It is simply asking: can I tolerate this feeling, this impulse, this part of me, without immediately acting on it or pushing it away?
• Look at your dreams tonight. Notice which characters appear. Ask yourself honestly: is this part of me?
• Hold your identity lightly. The more fluid your sense of self, the more adaptable, creative, and fully alive you can be. On the pitch and off it.

The question we leave you with:

What identity have you outgrown, and what might be waiting on the other side of letting it go?

Share your answer with us at [email protected] We read every one.

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com 

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com 

The Golden Ball, where depth psychology and the beautiful game help us play life better.

What does it really mean to believe in yourself? And when does that belief become the very thing that gets in your way?

In this episode

Self-belief is one of the most talked about qualities in sport and in life. But what actually is it? And why does telling someone to "just believe in yourself" so often miss the mark entirely?

In this episode, three depth psychologists, one of them a former World Cup soccer player, sit down to explore one of the most nuanced psychological balancing acts a person can face. Not just how to build self-belief, but how to hold it lightly enough that it stays alive, honest, and genuinely useful.

The conversation moves between the soccer field and the inner life, between mythology and the nervous system, between Messi sensing destiny in the 2022 World Cup final and a young drummer who discovered that loving something and being talented at it are not always the same thing.

What you will hear:

• The difference between self-belief, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and self-concept. Why they are related but not the same, and why the distinction matters.
• Why telling someone to believe in themselves is often not only unhelpful but can make things worse. And what actually works instead.
• The role of the mentor. How a single person seeing something in you can unlock a freedom that no amount of internal pep talk can reach. John shares how Jan Wouters at Ajax changed the trajectory of his career simply by believing in him first.
• How self-belief connects to inner authority. The ability to make choices that are in alignment with your own nature rather than living by the rules of an outer authority.
• Why the shadow matters here. The parts of yourself you prefer to keep hidden have a way of undermining self-belief from beneath. You cannot fully believe in yourself while hiding from yourself.
• The myth of Icarus. What happens when belief tips into grandiosity, when the cheering of the stadium, the praise of the agent, and the worship of the crowd convinces a player they no longer need to do the defensive work.
• The placebo effect as a reality-creating principle. Why what you believe about the future actually shapes what becomes possible.
• Messi and the sense of destiny. The difference between trying to believe and simply knowing. And whether that kind of knowing can be cultivated or only received.
• The practical wisdom of chunking. You do not need to believe you will win the whole tournament. You only need to believe you can beat the next team. You do not need to believe you will write a great book. You only need to believe you can write the first chapter.

One insight that stays:

Self-belief is not a destination. It is not something you achieve once and then check off. It is an art. And like all art, it needs practice, joy, and a willingness to keep showing up without a guarantee of how it will turn out.

The question we leave you with:

Think of something that truly matters to you. What would you do differently if you genuinely believed you could? 

We would love to hear your answer. Share it with us at [email protected] 

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com 

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com 

The Golden Ball — where depth psychology and soccer help us play life better.

What are you really chasing? The literal gold the world can see, or, the gold only you can feel? 

In this episode

With the World Cup on the horizon, three depth psychologists and one of them a former World Cup player sit down to explore one of the most universal human questions: what does it mean to strive for gold? On the pitch, and also in your career, your relationships, and your daily life.

John O'Brien, who played in two World Cups, opens by saying that striving for gold requires, paradoxically, a kind of non-striving. A letting go. A trust in yourself that no amount of external pressure can replace.

From there the conversation moves into territory that goes far beyond sport.

What you will hear:

The difference between external gold and internal gold. And why confusing the two can quietly undermine everything you are working toward.

The myth of King Midas: what happens when the hunger for status and recognition becomes the thing that poisons the very life you were trying to build.

The story of a high-potential athlete turned finance professional who kept getting promoted, until one day the promotion arrived and the fulfilment did not.

Why fear is not the enemy of peak performance. It is the entrance ticket. And what a healthy relationship with fear actually looks like on the pitch and off it.

The three strategies we all use to avoid the vulnerability that gold requires: avoidance, control, and compliance. How to spot them in players, coaches, journalists, and yourself.

How to watch the World Cup differently and learn about your own psychology. 

And finally, where each of the three hosts finds their own gold. In creativity, in presence, in the moments when time disappears.

The image that stays:

A princess plays with her golden ball at the edge of a well. It slips. It falls into the water. A frog appears and offers to retrieve it, for a price. The gold was never lost. It was always there. The question is only what you are willing to do to get back in touch with it.

A key insight from this episode:

The gold is already present. It is not something you have to create or earn or prove. The talent, the spontaneous inclination to express yourself, is already in you. The inner work is not about becoming someone different. It is about trusting what is already there enough to let it show.

The question we leave you with: Do you show up for what truly matters to you?

We answered it in this episode. We would love to hear yours. Share your answer with us: [email protected] 

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with symbol, sand, and imagination to help athletes understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, teacher, and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com

The Golden Ball — where depth psychology and the beautiful game help us play life better.

When we watch soccer, something happens that has nothing to do with the game and everything to do with it. 

In this introduction, three depth psychologists and one of them a former world cup soccer player, explain why this podcast exists, and answer the question that will run through every episode to come: when did you fall in love with the game? And what were you really falling in love with?

What this podcast is about

The Golden Ball works on three levels. First, the game itself: what psychological attitudes make you a better player? How do you handle pressure, lead, lose, and recover? Then the same questions turn toward daily life. Everything that happens on the pitch also happens at home, at work, and in the quiet moments in between. And then through a depth psychological lens, the big questions emerge. What is winning really about? What are the values that secretly drive the way we play the game of life? And what does it mean to step onto any field, in sport or in life, with full courage and full presence?

This podcast is an invitation to look at the game differently. Not just as a sport, but as a metaphor for life.

In this episode

Three personal stories about falling in love with the game. Each one different, each one pointing at the same thing underneath.

Akke-Jeanne remembers standing outside the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam in 1994, AJAX about to face AC Milan, the reigning European champions. The atmosphere was electric before a ball had even been kicked. What she took away that night had nothing to do with the result. It had everything to do with a question she still carries: when I face something that feels much larger than me, do I step in with courage? or do I shrink?

John describes the feeling that starts before the game even begins. Looking out at a big open green field, white lines, colorful uniforms, and feeling his skin begin to tingle. For him, soccer has always been a language, one that travels across cultures, backgrounds, and borders. A language of the feet.

Machiel traces his love back to the streets of the Netherlands, to his father's stories about heroic players, to the dreams in which Johan Cruyff still appears. Two great loves, depth psychology and soccer, that have always, for him, been the same thing in different clothes.

Why they said yes to creating this podcast

Sometimes an idea arrives that feels less like a decision and more like an invitation. All three said yes to play, to explore, to sit together with two things they love and see what they have to teach each other and anyone willing to listen.

The question we leave you with: When did you fall in love with the game? And what were you really falling in love with? We answered it. We would love to hear yours. Share your answer with us at [email protected] 

About the hosts

John O'Brien is a former World Cup soccer player and sports psychologist who combines performance tools with symbol, sand, and imagination to help athletes understand themselves more deeply. johnobriensportpsych.com

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. machielklerk.com 

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, psychology teacher and co-founder of Jung Platform. akkejeanneklerk.com 

The Golden Ball is a podcast sponsored by Jung Platform; the largest global platform for depth psychology. Jung Platform offers courses and certificate programs. Website: jungplatform.com

The Golden Ball, where depth psychology and the beautiful game help us play life better.