Chris Richards

You know, it's not something that many kids had ever done, uh, or dreamed up.

So I was kind of a quote unquote, like, I guess a pioneer you could say, but, um,

Yeah, completely, completely.

I mean, I even...

So I left my family at 16.

Right after I turned 16, I moved to Houston to live with the host family.

And I remember when I was leaving, a director of a soccer club in Birmingham told me like, oh, this would be the worst decision of your life.

Like, you won't make it.

I mean, I had, you know, like teachers laughing at me.

I told them I want to do this for a living.

I had everything, you know.

But I just kept my head down and decided that I wanted to prove them wrong.

And I think I've done pretty well at that.

You certainly have.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I remember going to a women's national team game.

They actually had a, I believe it was a friendly in Birmingham.

And I must have been 10, 11, or 12 around that age.

And again, like that was around the time when I even started hearing about the men's national team.

So when the women's national team came to town, I remember going to the game and it was just an amazing atmosphere, you know, understanding that you can play for more than your club, you can play for more than your region or your school, whatever the case is, you can play for your country.