BFFR with Sydney Leroux & Ali Riley
Facing It, Childhood Idols, and Soccer Mount Rushmore
Mon, 28 Apr 2025
It’s finally here – the BFFR podcast! On the very first EVER episode of BFFR with Sydney Leroux and Ali Riley, our hosts are holding nothing back. They talk about how BFFR came to be, Sydney’s recent break from soccer, and how stoked she and Ali are to be back on the field together again. Ali and Sydney dive into their childhood heroes, how the women’s game has changed over their lifetimes, and what the future holds for professional women’s soccer in the United States. PLUS they share their W’s and L’s of the week and answer YOUR burning questions on the BFFR hotline. New episodes of BFFR with Sydney and Ali drop every Monday. Subscribe to the show on YouTube and follow on all your favorite podcast platforms. For bonus content and to send your mailbag questions in to the show, follow on all social media platforms @BFFRShow. (https://www.bffrshow.com/).
Chapter 1: What is the BFFR podcast about?
Welcome to the first ever episode of BFFR. I can't believe this. No, me neither. How did we get here? I don't know. I don't know, but I'm so happy. I don't know. We're here. We're here.
And before we get into it, because we're going to get into it. Oh, we're going to get into it. May we remind you to follow us on social media at BFFR Show, subscribe to the show on YouTube, and follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts. Yeah.
Honestly, we don't really care how you're listening or where you're listening from as long as you're listening to us.
Period. And if you rate and review the show. We only accept five stars. It helps others find us. And we definitely want to be found. You can even call us at 1-833-TXT-BFFR. That's 1-833-898-2337. We love hearing from you.
Your question or comment might end up on the show. It's got to be good, though. All right, Sid, kick us off with an affirmation. All right, besties and testies. We don't discriminate. We don't fake it. We face it. Puss, puss. You know, let's start out with a bang. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. Tell us, Sid. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: Why did Sydney take a mental break from soccer?
If anyone watching this show doesn't know that I took mental leave from soccer, that's what I did. I think this is, you know, why we kind of started the show is just to be like very honest and real and open about everything. Relationships, life, friendships, teammates, teams, all the things that
Um, and yeah, I was, I was really struggling and I just had a lot of things kind of on my plate all at once. And, um, it was really hard and I definitely didn't take the time that I needed, um, in the moment. That's just not who I am. Um, but then, you know, my best friend and, and my friends who are also my teammates, um,
came to me and you basically said you need help and we're worried about you. And my family was as well. And I think that that was really important for me to be able to like not only see what I was putting myself through, but to see what I was putting everyone else through. I think that was really hard.
And of course, like, I appreciate you so much for guiding me through this and still continuing to do that. And I'm just so thankful. You know, I think that there's always going to be room to improve with some of the things that I'm going through. But I have taken major steps into getting better and getting healthier.
And I'm just excited to be back on the field and honestly, back with my bestie over here.
I'm so proud of you. And when you're going through something, I feel it with you because you are like a sister to me. And yeah, we had some some hard conversations. But I think when you love someone, it's important.
And
Again, it's why we wanted to have this show. And I'm really proud that you are sharing your story and what you're going through. And I feel really lucky. And I have wanted us both to be smiling on a soccer field for a very long time. So it means the world to me.
I think that we have gone through so many things together. It's actually crazy. Yeah. Um, but I'm really happy to be doing it with you and be doing this show with you. Like crazy, to be honest. I know. Well, wow. That was, um, yeah, it was a little much, um, a little awkward, but that's, you know, we said we're going to start out with a bang. So here we are. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: How did Sydney and Ali's friendship develop?
Yeah. But crazy story. In like March of 2023, I got a tweet sent to me that was basically like, you should start a podcast called BFFR. And I was like, that's a really good idea. But you know me. You know me. It goes to the back. It goes to the back. It's forgotten about. And then Allie really brought it to life. And that's how we kind of came to be. We started with Allie's iPhone 11, the storage.
It ran out. It ran out. And we got ourselves a podcast because the storage was tough.
Yeah. Yeah. So kind of kind of forced the issue. But when we tried to describe what this was, when we first started posting videos on social media, one of our first episodes, we tried to explain to Alyssa Thompson. Yeah.
She didn't get it. No, she was judging us. The comments. Nobody got it. What is this? It is what it is.
And we said it was a walking podcast and like a living podcast. And I'm actually relieved now that we have a sitting podcast because we're too old for that. Too old for that shit.
Too tired. Not saying that we won't be walking around.
Oh, no. No. It'll happen. That content will still be there, but it is nice to be seated right now.
Yeah. I absolutely agree with that. But yeah, that's what BFFR is. It's being for real all the time, which is kind of what we've always been doing.
I know.
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Chapter 4: What were the challenges faced by women in soccer?
I have to say, of course, we've come a long way, but we still have quite a ways to go. Yes, we do. And we will be pushing for that because just in March, FIFA came out with a report that showed that the average annual salary for a female professional soccer player globally is around $10,900. That's tough. That's tough. That's really tough.
And that number is actually on the high end because it's skewed by the few clubs and leagues that actually pay more like the NWSL. So the NWSL is the top paying league. But last year, the minimum salary was still only $37,800. Imagine making $40,000 and living in Los Angeles. Yeah, I... It's tough. Yeah.
It's tough.
Every season, because of this number, we talk about ways we could actually supplement our soccer income and help pay the bills. Make the big bucks. I feel like these ideas escalate very, very quickly. We had one teammate had a great idea...
maybe a beer angel tears yes something with the angels and connect with the brewery we wanted to make t-shirts and then we're like okay maybe we do feet pics maybe a nude calendar like we need the money and then i just thought we needed to up the ante and go for the big bucks and i told ally like we should sell our game worn spandex because
Like, first of all, it's worth even more if you score and it's a win. Bicycle kick spandex. Your goal as a defender, September 22nd, people would pay big money for that out.
All right. On that note, it's time for a quick break, but we'll be back with more BFFR. So don't go anywhere.
I do want to say, though, people are buying farts in a jar and people's dirty bathwater. And I don't think that the game worn spandex are that big of a deal. So how did you get into sports? I mean, there's only one answer for that. I think you know it. It's Hurricane Sandy, which is my mother. Yeah. I come from a baseball family, actually.
No one had any idea what soccer even was until I came out and I was a little nuts. And my mom put me in absolutely everything because I was crazy. She was also crazy. Like, I think we've talked about this before. Like, When I would do cross country, I never lost one race. OK, my mom would be at the like roundabout, the curve running with me screaming. She's catching you. She's catching you.
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Chapter 5: Who are the childhood idols of Sydney and Ali?
And speaking of, the fourth one for me is Christine Sinclair getting drafted to FC Gold Pride and her being one of the stars of that team. Marta was on the team later in the offseason because LA folded. But Sink was the star of the team. And I didn't realize I had played against her with Canada and New Zealand. Mm-hmm.
I had no idea that someone who was that prolific and that famous could be that humble. And she worked so hard and she led the team and I really got to know her. But I love that she is the greatest goal scorer of all time. And everyone thinks it's Cristiano. Everyone thinks it's a man. It's Christine Sinclair. She holds the record. And I love that for us.
Yeah, I do. I love that for us, too.
We talked about how things have changed so much. We didn't really have women athletes on TV very often when we were growing up. Who did you look up to?
I looked up to my mom. Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy. I mean, everything that I have and And like gold medals, whatever, anything and everything, especially when it comes to soccer, is because of her. You know, she sent me on my way and I had said, I want to play on the best team in the world. And like, I want to win a World Cup and I want to want to win an Olympics. And I was 14 years old.
And that's what we set off to do. And it was really hard. I really wanted to quit so many times just because it's hard being on your own at that age. Like, I feel like I've been I have been on my own for basically most of my life. But she was like, I promise, I promise you have to trust me. One day it will all be worth it. And then I got into college and I was like, yeah, she's arrived.
Did you know from a young age, like you could recognize that your mom was sacrificing so much for you? And yeah, that's really special.
Yes. I mean, it's always just been me and her. Yeah. And so we have a very I mean, you know, my relationship with my mother is very, very different. Um, and she is still the person who screams behind the goal for me to score. It's just in different ways. Yeah. Um, yeah. So I look up to her. I still do. You know, she's, she's amazing. And she's why I'm here, why I'm here today. What about you?
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What does the future hold for women's soccer in the U.S.?
Yeah.
Yeah. And now I really understand. And she was the disciplinarian. out of my mom and dad you know good times drawn so um she just wanted me to have the best and I appreciate her so much now but growing up no she was not the person or the woman that I would have been like yes this is my role model this is someone who inspires me and but now she is She is now.
And when I think back to, you know, we have Women's History Month every year. And what I remember from inspirational women was in school talking about Amelia Earhart and Harriet Tubman. And I was like, wow, women are great. But I didn't feel like I identified with them. Harriet Tubman or Amelia Earhart. And I didn't feel like there was really anyone that looked like me. I felt the same way.
Or like, yeah, that I could really see myself pursuing the thing that they were doing because I love sport and I didn't really see that. Lori and Ronnie Fair played for the national team and they were half Asian. And that definitely like I saw something in that and Michelle Kwan. But again, we weren't seeing these women.
Right.
There was no social media and we weren't seeing them on TV. What makes me so happy is that things have changed so much. And you have a very special story about how someone saw themselves in you.
Wow.
Like we've just come so far from being like this tough beast of, you know, a player. And I'm just like so happy and proud that that I get to witness that now being away from from that. But yes, I have this crazy story. I was at Target shopping, as one does. Oh, you were? Yeah, as one does. Weird. You never do that. I love a Target.
And this woman came up to me and she was like, are you Sidney LaRue? And I'm like, yeah, I am. And she was like, my daughter loves you. She's like your biggest fan. And she was like, she's going actually to like the Youth World Cup. And I'm like, wow, that's so amazing. And she's like, can you do a video for her? And I was like, yeah, of course. And I'm like, well, what's her name?
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