From Seattle to Miami FC | Inside The Mind Of: Angelo Calfo

I speak to quite a few Americans or people who live over in the States and they all give me quite differing opinions on whether soccer out there is actually as big as what some people might make out.

So for you, I suppose it probably varies state by state, but for you, when you were growing up, was soccer a big thing around?

Soccer growing up was nowhere near the level of attention that the NFL or the NBA or even in a lot of states, hockey.

But in Seattle, where I grew up, the Sounders are a big team and have one of the biggest fan atmospheres in the MLS.

And so when I was in middle school, so probably the ages of like 9 or 10, they went into that MLS, made the jump from the USL.

And when that happened, you could tell that there was definitely a shift, that a lot more people in the Seattle area were starting to get a lot more into soccer, football.

I think that having experienced the two cultures, though, there's not as much of an intensity.

I think people love the Sounders and they're enjoyable to go to the games, but you don't feel it in the city when the Sounders lose.

You don't see people talking about it in coffee shops or in restaurants.

So it's a much different feeling and emotion behind the culture with the game.

I think Seattle Sounders is a really cool football club.

I don't know why.

Maybe the green just gets me all the time.

I don't know.

But when you grew up, did you support a team?

Yeah, so it kind of goes back to Kevin Walsh, who I mentioned earlier.

Kevin's from Ireland, but he supports Everton.

And so he actually lived in the basement of one of my closest friends.

So when I was younger, I'd always go over to his house, go down to the basement, and Kevin would have Everton posters up on the wall.

Same with Donnie as well.

The two of them both supported Everton.

And then from then on, I was an Everton fan.

And those two are the reason why.

So, you know, I supported Everton all the way through.

To be honest, I've dropped off a bit in how much football I watched in the Premier League the past couple of years.