Tunnel Vision: Dejan Damjanović

It's very busy indeed.

Yeah, I figured why not launch another podcast in the middle of everything else? Uh, it is during the World Cup, and it is a podcast, uh, ostensibly surrounding the World Cup.

Uh-

Mm-hmm

...

so the basic premise is that a player is standing in the tunnel and getting ready to take the pitch for a World Cup final, and, uh, their life in football kind of flashes before their eyes and, and we have a conversation about that life and, and, and what it's like to be a footballer.

Right now it's been mainly guys in Asia, but, you know, might branch out eventually.

But from the first match they remember playing in, to their, to a stadium that just kinda haunts them to this day, to, uh, a moment that made them laugh.

Just, just trying to get a little bit more of a, of a look of what it's actually like to be a player over on this side of the world, basically.

Indeed.

It's a, it's a fantastic premise, really interesting.

I've listened to the first episode.

Uh, I've got nothing but plaudits to say.

I've heard, seen the second one has come out.

I'm looking forward to listening to that when I get a chance, uh, as you said, with everything going on at the moment World Cup-wise.

But Ryan, I mean, first of all, how did you come about the premise before we introduced the guest who was on this episode?

Uh, well, full disclosure, I'm a big fan of Brett Goldstein's "Films To Be Buried With"-

Mm-hmm

... and it's a very similar premise.

The premise of that show is that someone has died and they go to heaven, and people in heaven wanna talk to them about their life through film, and, like, the films that meant the most to them.

So, uh, that conversation led me to thinking, "Well, wouldn't this be fun to do with footballers?" But obviously I don't wanna tell footballers they've died, and I don't wanna have [chuckles] that conversation.

Uh, so it kind of led into a little bit of a brainstorming of, like, how to, how to anchor these conversations and how to have a little bit of, I don't wanna say schtick, but something to, to, yeah, again, to anchor and, and center around and, and have that conversation with.

And then that led into some very different questions of, of...

I mean, one of the ones that I ask that I really like is, if your, if your career were a football match, what minute would you be in right now? And that's, that's a fun one to get some answers from, from folks.

Um, and, and yeah, just have a conversation about life with football as the anchor, inspired very much by Brett Goldstein, who people might know as Roy Kent from, uh, "Ted Lasso."