PODCAST · sports
SoccerPod
by Eric Wilson
The soccerPod hosts long-form, heart to heart interviews with past legends of the game of soccer. There is a massive market for soccer in the United States today, but it wasn’t always this way. We go back in time and talk to legends from the prior era, whose stories are not well known in the United States. We talk about playing with no shin guards, the apparent impossibility of a straight red card and smoking cigarettes at halftime. We talk about the legendary games they were a part of, the goals they scored and the trophies that they won. But we also explore the time and culture in which our guests grew up – whether it was, as a kid - seeing the Berlin Wall go up in their backyard, or going to sleep to the sounds of IRA bombs in 1980’s Belfast. From childhood through their professional careers, on to where they are today – our guests’ have all had interesting rides – and we explore them here. For those who love it, the beautiful game connects us all. So relax, kick
Episodes
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Salvatore Schillaci - Versione Italiana
Toto Schillaci è morto l'anno scorso dopo una lunga lotta contro il cancro. Quando gli ho chiesto che tipo di cancro stesse combattendo, ha riso e con un sorriso nel suo inglese stentato ha risposto ad alta voce: "Yerrikay! (la sua pronuncia di Eric) Non ho più il retto - questo lo so!". Il...
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Salvatore Schillaci - English Version
Toto Schillaci died last year after a long fight with cancer. When I asked him what kind of cancer he was battling, he laughed and with a smile in his broken English loudly replied – ‘Yerrikay! (his pronunciation of Eric) I no longer have a rectum - I know that much!’ The translator did his thing...
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Steve Sampson
As I talked to Steve Sampson, I was very much reminded of the coaches of my youth in the 80s and 90s. I smirked nostalgically as I heard words like: accountability, preparation, and culture. If you Google Steve Sampson, of the first 10 articles you see, 9 will be about one event he experienced…
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Cobi Jones
Freeman Jones was a black, PhD-educated scientist in Jim Crow America, who was the lead of his team. However, when his company opened up the facility for tours for investors or the public, he was kindly asked by ownership to exit the facility and go wait in the yard with the other black…
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Gary Mabbutt
Gary Mabbutt is a real legend of that historic club – Tottenham Hotspur of North London – but Gary was quite lucky to get that far as he nearly died as a boy while at his youth club. He did not die of course, but was diagnosed with what was then a pretty unknown condition - that of type 1…
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Dean Windass
2025 Season, here we go! A bit late, but hey - I'm a child of divorce. Dean Windass was never really an elite player at the top flight of English football. He is a legend of Hull City – that Yorkshire club with great history - but Hull rarely find themselves in the top flight of English football....
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Tab Ramos
I always smile big when I get to speak to an old US National Team guy – of all the players and characters from around the world that I’ve sat with - they are my favorite lot, because they did it here and they did it first. No player from any other country can honestly say: 'When I was a kid there...
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John Fashanu
In 1984, John Fashanu, a black Englishman of Nigerian descent, signed with the British club: Millwall FC; an openly racist club at that time. The semi-official chant the supporters sing from the crowd is: ‘We are Millwall, No One Likes Us, No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care, We are Millwall, From the...
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Bruno Conti
He was known as ‘the mayor of Rome’ – and he was such a great player that later in his career the great Pele would go on to say that he was the best player in the 1982 World Cup. But Bruno Conti had a very humble start – his home village of Nettuno was actually known as the baseball capital of...
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Wes Morgan
If you love sports and you love sports stories, then it is hard to do much better than Wes Morgan, and the absurd story of the 2015 Leicester City Silver Foxes. They were 5000-1 odds against winning the title. But it may as well have been 5 million. It was not going to happen, no way, an...
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Gabby Agbonlahor
Gabriel Agbonlahor is the all time leading scorer for Aston Villa Football Club – he is a true legend there and we dive into his time there - but when I think of Gabby I think of this - It’s an interesting time for a player when it comes time to retire. They are still young – usually in their…
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John Harkes
He was the best American soccer player when America could care less about soccer. Today, the most talented 21 year old American player – we know that guy. He is probably quite famous, rich and playing at a massive club. This was not the case in 1989 for John Harkes. But his ability could not be...
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Andreas Brehme
This is a really sad one for me – Andreas Brehme tragically passed away this week – at the age of 63 in his home town of Munich. If you do not know of Andi, he is a true legend of German football - having scored one of the biggest goals in that nation’s history to win the World Cup in 1990 in...
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Ray Parlour
Ray played 15 years for Arsenal. And he was there for the arrival of the great Arsene Wegner – and he would go on to bring some of the greatest players to ever grace the Premier League - Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera to name a few. In the 97-98 campaign, Ray was playing...
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Jay DeMerit
There are currently some 13000 players in the youth system of English premier league clubs. Of these 13000 players – the best youth players in the country - less than 1% - way less - will ever see the field for a premier league side. Now if you adjust those odds for a 23 year old American – who...
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Ossie Ardiles
If you are an American soccer fan of roughly my age – mid 40’s - you may remember a movie called: Victory, with Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine - directed by the great John Huston. The film is set in WW2 where a group of war prisoners – captured from around the world – are forced to play a...
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Paul Merson
Paul Merson is one of the most popular soccer pundits in the UK. And his voice and childlike enthusiasm serves as nice commentary to go with some of the biggest moments of recent English football. He is a legend at mighty Arsenal as his runs down the right and crosses in were a mainstay of that...
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Bruce Murray
If you have children that play youth soccer, I hope you will give a listen to Bruce Murray. He has a brain condition called CTE. In his 30’s he began forgetting things, he developed a sensitivity to light and began to develop a problem with impulse control. It really scared him - he went through...
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Tisha Venturini
The women’s game has come a long way in the US. The female stars of today make millions of dollars and play in front of sold out American stadiums. But it was not always so. The generation prior to them – of which Tisha Venturini was one of the best – did not have a league to play in. They would…
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Colin Hendry
What do you call a Scotsman in the 2nd round of the World Cup? - A referee. Paul Gascoigne told me that joke in loving gest of his friend, Colin Hendry – whom he has a bit of history on the pitch with. Colin Hendry’s first job was delivering mail in the Nortwest Rolling Hills of Scotland. One…
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Pierre Littbarski
When Pierre Littbarski was an infant - age one, the Berlin Wall was put up right behind his family home. He remembers as a boy going through ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ and smuggling food to friends and family who found themselves on the wrong side of that structure. Further, he talked about how he and...
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Gaizka Mendieta
The great Gaizka Mendieta on the podcast this week - we talk the curious refereeing at the 2002 World Cup, back to back Champions League finals, the superiority of Spanish cuisine over British, 1980's American heavy metal music and more... Thank you for listening! If you’d like to support the...
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Mickey Thomas
Mickey Thomas is my kind of character. He comes from a poor village in Wales where football was everything. As a boy, he dreamt of following in the footsteps of his hero – George Best – and he was talented enough to accomplish this – playing in front of 80,000 screaming fans in the ‘Theatre of...
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Jens Lehmann
Jens Lehmann joined us for a sit in Munich right after his return from Doha and the World Cup. We rapped about one of the greatest derbys in the world in Dortmund - which he saw from both sides - his heroics at the World Cup, to the ‘Invincibles’ – he is one of the greatest goalkeepers in German...
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Kristine Lilly
Kristine Lilly won 4 NCAA championships, she won 2 Olympic Gold medals, 2 World Cups and is in the Guinness Book of World Record for most caps played for country with 354. Her first World Cup was in 1991 and was hardly covered by any American sports media – even her home paper did not write about...
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Norman Whiteside
In June of 1982, Norman Whiteside broke the Guinness record for the youngest person to ever play in a World Cup - at 17 years and 40 days. The record had stood for 24 years when a young Brazilian named Pele’ went to Sweden and won the World Cup for his country. When Norman returned home after the...
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Freddy Adu
On the premier episode of soccerPod, Eric sits down with the great Freddy Adu. SoccerPod hosts conversations with soccer legends from around the world, and Freddy has a truly remarkable tale to tell. At 7 years old, he was playing barefoot in the streets of his Ghana fishing village – but a short…
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Welcome to SoccerPod!
Greetings! Welcome to our little project we call soccerPod. On our show we host long form, heart to heart interviews with interesting characters from around the world who share one thing in common: the beautiful game. Give us a listen and I hope you enjoy our show! Thank you for listening! If…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The soccerPod hosts long-form, heart to heart interviews with past legends of the game of soccer. There is a massive market for soccer in the United States today, but it wasn’t always this way. We go back in time and talk to legends from the prior era, whose stories are not well known in the United States. We talk about playing with no shin guards, the apparent impossibility of a straight red card and smoking cigarettes at halftime. We talk about the legendary games they were a part of, the goals they scored and the trophies that they won. But we also explore the time and culture in which our guests grew up – whether it was, as a kid - seeing the Berlin Wall go up in their backyard, or going to sleep to the sounds of IRA bombs in 1980’s Belfast. From childhood through their professional careers, on to where they are today – our guests’ have all had interesting rides – and we explore them here.
For those who love it, the beautiful game connects us all. So relax, kick
HOSTED BY
Eric Wilson
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does SoccerPod have?
SoccerPod currently has 28 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is SoccerPod about?
The soccerPod hosts long-form, heart to heart interviews with past legends of the game of soccer. There is a massive market for soccer in the United States today, but it wasn’t always this way. We go back in time and talk to legends from the prior era, whose stories are not well known in the United...
How often does SoccerPod release new episodes?
SoccerPod has 28 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to SoccerPod?
You can listen to SoccerPod on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts SoccerPod?
SoccerPod is created and hosted by Eric Wilson.
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