Chris Richards

I mean, I think when you think of American sports culture, you think of basketball, football, baseball, and I think a lot of kids kind of model themselves after the role models, which are the guys you can see on TV.

Um,

And so, you know, for me, that's, you know, that's what I was looking at.

I didn't really have a role model when I came to soccer.

And when you see everybody in Europe, you know, they're playing on the streets with their friends.

They're joining a academy at a young age, playing at some of the best players in the country or the region, whatever you want to call it.

And so my first move to Europe, I kind of felt like I was a step behind just because I didn't have those foundations that a lot of these kids had.

My dad is a pretty big guy.

I think figuratively and also physically, he's a pretty big guy.

So I remember I took a trip to Argentina to play soccer.

I came back from that trip and I remember telling my dad, this is all I'm going to do for the rest of my life.

I'm going to play soccer.

I want to go to college.

I want to hopefully go to MLS.

He's looking at me.

He's like, man, if that's your dream, so be it.

I think you should stick with basketball.

I was very firm on it.

My parents were very supportive of my dream, but I think

I think they'd also admit that they also questioned it a little bit, um, because again, we didn't have people to look up to in the soccer world, especially from, from Birmingham.