Richie Graham

And it's a great segue so we can finish off the international break and put it to the back of our minds now.

And nice comment there from Richie Graham about the fact that four lads has managed to, to, to kind of help a lot of people get through this three-week nightmare of international football.

I wish I could say I played a part in that, but I buggered off on holiday for two weeks, so I was nowhere near it for the international break.

[laughs] So you could say that was smart timing on my part.

But look, this is a player that's coming in at the prime of his career, 27 years old, and, uh, this is one of those deals where I think we have to give credit to John Sher first and foremost for, for getting this deal done.

I, I think Jay Sugarman, Richie Graham, uh, Richard Leiverich, the rest of the ownership group, I think they deserve a lot of credit too, going out there, being ambitious, getting in a player that just represented the US at the World Cup this past World Cup in the US.

This is a player that's had multiple appearances with the national team.

This is a player that's played in Champions League, Conference League, Europa League, has been in multiple different, uh, countries now in Europe, in Belgium, and now France with Toulouse.

And it was people that were involved in like the start of the Academy and stuff like that.

Richie Graham, it was his facility and he kind of was one who put this whole thing into motion and he gave me the opportunity to start working there.

And so I had like five, six years where in the off seasons I was, I was doing the coaching thing with kids and I loved it.

And Ian Monroe was the director of the entire program at that time.

So I'm not sure what is, what exactly the things that Jim stole from him were.

Maybe you already answered this because you talked about Ian Munro, but who do you consider your coaching mentor to be?

I have a couple, um, you know, Ian Monroe, Tommy Wilson, they were my, you know, my first ones on the field, but Richie Graham, Steve Graham, who are part of unit ownership have been, um, amazing to me and given me such great advice over the years and, you know, help open doors for me and give me opportunities here.

Um, and I hope they always feel like I worked hard for them.

And the people that I worked with were amazing.

The people that gave me that first opportunity with Richie Graham, Ian Monroe, Charlie Dodds, Phil Karn, Kevin Coleman.

They introduced me to the coaching thing.

And it was fun to be a part of it.

What was that like for you to see them succeed? And how can you see Philadelphia Union's influence start to span throughout the world?

It's really special, and I think the vision that Richie Graham and Jay Sugarman had years ago of wanting to start this, which really didn't exist in the United States, of a European model of a school and a residency and really leaning into youth development, I think What a special time to have the World Cup in your own country and then see some academy alumni and first team alumni part of that.

It's every player's dream.

When I was a young soccer player, you just you're in the basement kicking the ball, thinking about you at the World Cup.