Podcast Alert: TOCA Soccer – Eddie Lewis

Transcript

+^

Eddie Lewis: [00:00:00] Kids classes and programming in the morning. We have adult leagues that are very much recreational in the evening. We do have competitive leagues, but, a lot of co-ed leagues and others that, do round out, the soccer player profile. There’s tons of people who don’t even play soccer or have never played soccer and come in and have an absolutely great time.

Jeff Nelson: Welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast, where we uncover insights from the most prominent leaders in our industry. Today, I am happy to be joined by Eddie Lewis, the founder and president of Toca Football and Toca Social, and a former soccer player with a very illustrious career. Have played for the San Jose Clash in MLS in the late ’90s, the LA Galaxy in the late 2000s, and between then four English clubs, Fulham, Preston North End, Leeds United, and Derby County.[00:01:00]

But most notably, given when we’re talking right now, across that entire career played for the US Men’s National Team, played in two World Cups, including our most successful run in 2002. Eddie and I are recording this, just so the audience knows, on the eve of the World Cup, even though I think this is gonna run after the US has played two of its three group stage matches.

Eddie, as this runs, how many points do you think we have after two matches?

Eddie Lewis: Definitely four and hopefully six, but-

Jeff Nelson: Okay. I like it …

Eddie Lewis: yes- I hope so … thank you for the very nice intro.

Jeff Nelson: But yeah it, w- we’ll talk World Cup here in a moment, but let’s start with Toca Give us the elevator pitch, and I guess now that Toca Social launched, there’s the Toca football, there’s the Toca, or Toca [00:02:00] Soccer I guess is what I should be saying probably for our audience.

Toca Soccer and Toca Social. For those who are not yet familiar, what is this?

Eddie Lewis: Sure. I think certainly the company is, has had, an evolution since my retirement, but I think today, we’re really the world’s first, pure soccer experiences company. As you noted, we…

I started on the performance side, developing a technology specific to training. It was based on, some techniques that I had used as a player, and that experience then became so enjoyable that it morphed into what would eventually become Toca Social, which I’m happy to talk about.

But I think together what we’d really realized over those years is that, soccer from a participation standpoint, still had a lot of limitations. Certainly every kid plays soccer growing up. A few carry on, continuing to try and play, [00:03:00] but their ability to engage with the sport once they hit a certain age really just didn’t exist.

And we had created this experience that allowed you to capture a lot of the most enjoyable moments in a soccer match without necessarily needing to, run around for 90 minutes or be fit or anything else. And I think that really became the impetus of taking, this soccer center business and performance technology into, what is now Toca Social as well, and something we’re certainly, excited about, not just domestically but globally as well.

Jeff Nelson: Was there a eureka moment or an epiphany where you were thinking like, “This isn’t just how I train. There’s a business here,” given the kind of gap that you just outlined in the market for engaging with the sport? Yeah. And-

Eddie Lewis: Was there a moment or was it slowly over time? And there’s… No.

There w- there, there really was probably two, and the second one I kinda needed a, a knock on the head to, to make me really realize it. But it started [00:04:00] on the training side. I quickly found out, and I had this little setup inside the Galaxy Soccer Center which Chris Klein, who was the pr- president at the time and he was a former teammate of mine, he had given me the space in the center to test this concept.

I was taking a bunch of prototypes out to the team anyway to test against. And- it was in that space that these trainers that we’d hire that would train the kids, they’d all as soon as work kinda ended at 8 or 9 o’clock, they’d all hang out in the studios and have these volley competitions.

And sometimes I’d let them bring beers in, and guys were just hanging out and ripping volleys. And that was the first time I thought, “Oh, wow, th- this is not just training. Everyone, they’re just having fun with this. This is- … we need to think about competitions or things like that.”

And kind of the second moment was I had it was a guy, Eric Anderson, who was a former chairman at Topgolf, and he had a c- two kids who were really into soccer. He was more of a basketball guy, but were gonna be future collegiate, players, which they did [00:05:00] go on to do. And he bought the technology and was mimicking what I was doing in LA, and then, quickly realized, “Wait a second.”

And he was really the first to tell me, “Listen, Ed, I know your heart’s in this training thing, but you got something else here. This is really engaging.” And I did the same thing with Topgolf. So you know, we made a deal. I said, “All right if you invest in the company and, join the board let’s go after it.”

Jeff Nelson: Is it fair to characterize Toca Soccer as something for a more serious soccer player, somebody who didn’t just start playing when they were little, y- you referenced this audience earlier, but kept going, but then wants a home for training and some competition and some fun. Whereas Toca Social would be more for someone like me who quit soccer when I was very young.

But I love Topgolf. Topgolf’s been a longtime client of ours, actually and I’m not good at golf, but I can go have fun [00:06:00] at Topgolf.

Eddie Lewis: Yeah.

Jeff Nelson: Toca Social’s for me. I can go have fun there, even though I’m not good at soccer.

Eddie Lewis: Ab- abso- absolutely. I think, Toca Soccer, Toca Training is very much for an aspirational young soccer player, and, that, that ranges from players that– we have players who are, eight or nine years old, and, didn’t start playing soccer but suddenly realized all their friends are, and they love it, and, they’re a couple years behind and wanting to catch up to, teenagers that are, like, on the track to getting a D1 scholarship and doing everything they can to kind of– to get there, right?

And, for us, it’s, it’s– that’s very much the case on the Toca Training side, but we also have, kids classes and programming in the morning. We have adult leagues that, are very much recreational in the evening. We do have competitive leagues, but, a lot of co-ed leagues and others that, do round out, the soccer player profile.

[00:07:00] As you said, from a- … Toca Social perspective there’s tons of people who don’t even play soccer or have never played soccer and come in and have an absolutely great time in the boxes, much like you would at Topgolf or another, experiential venue. And I think that’s really the beauty of Social, that, we really can capture anyone who wants to engage in the sport and, that’s been a lot of fun certainly here in America.

Jeff Nelson: For the first of those two, so back to the Toca Soccer, Toca Football The youth sports space is so crowded, and it’s getting more and more expensive. And so there’s a lot of talk always about affordability, access, where it can fit, especially, there’s also the struggle of everybody says it’s better for kids to play multiple sports, but it feels like there’s more and more pressure to pick just one.

And now you have something that’s a really engaging, premium, tech-enabled [00:08:00] business. How do you fit that into the youth soccer space without it feeling even more overwhelming to parents and kids, and even more expensive in terms of “Oh, now we have to pay even more to keep up kinda with the aspirations we might have for our kids”?

Eddie Lewis: Yeah. It’s… Listen, it’s a great question, and, I have very kinda strong feelings about a lot of those things. You touched on, kids playing multiple sports. I grew up playing a ton of sports and enjoyed being good at all of them, which, I love, and very much for my kids pushed the same thing.

And that’s a, that’s its own, kinda conversation. And although I can’t do a lot to, to change kinda some of the youth soccer club structure and, what I think is probably not the best long-term for those kids, what I can tell you is specifically in our soccer centers and even within [00:09:00] Toca Training, one of the beauties of Toca Training is, the volume of touches and repetitions that you’ll get in an hour is sometimes- for some of these things, balls out of the air, things that you don’t see commonly in a soccer practice, you might get six months worth of practice on a certain type of delivery in one session, right? And so for me- … the efficiency and the ability to help players maintain a technical kind of level in a very short period of time, that will allow them to still play baseball in the spring or, if they wanna play football or run track or, you know- Yeah

be on the golf team. I’m a big fan of that, and I think it’s really important, for their overall health beyond just their, athletic ability and, we can talk about injuries and all of those things. So for me, it’s really about, okay, how do we optimize the training time for soccer players?

Because even if you went out to any soccer practice today, and, they’re really not very efficient [00:10:00] in terms of that player’s- … individual, development if you will. And don’t get me wrong the purpose of a team training is really for the team and the team shape. But, when we see kids who are like going to speed and quickness one day and doing this another day and doing these other things.

I really think from a soccer perspective, what we offer is far more valuable in the sense that you’re getting, very specific soccer-related touches. The technical barrier is probably the most important thing, in soccer. So between, your technical ability and decision-making, which is, for me the, the most important elements of a soccer player- Yeah

Those are happening 300 to 400 times every single, time you’re in there. If you kinda extrapolate that out, I think, the efficiency gains from a Toca training session far outweigh, a lot of these other, extra work or extra things that, might be consuming players or, time and parents’ [00:11:00] pocketbooks.

Jeff Nelson: How many locations do you have right now of the, of Toca Soccer?

Eddie Lewis: We have just 39 today. Just. Not every center has- Okay … Toca training in it. Yeah, we’re the largest operator of indoor soccer centers in North America. Yeah. And I think, we’re actively gunning to begin expanding again here in the back half of ’26 and, through ’28.

So I think, we’re really excited about that in, in North America. We’ll be bringing more Toca Socials in to those, same markets as well and creating this flywheel, if you will from a customer and brand perspective. But yeah that’s the goal.

Jeff Nelson: So you have 39, and you started in 2014, is that right? First one opened? 20-

Eddie Lewis: 20… Yeah, ’16 was really when we got serious about, you know-

Jeff Nelson: Okay …

Eddie Lewis: kinda doing it. But yeah, 2014 was the first- Okay … location in Costa Mesa.

Jeff Nelson: And so are you starting… W- when you think about the [00:12:00] infrastructure of American soccer, ’cause there’s been heartburn and hand-wringing for I feel like as long as I’ve been alive over how we build that to compete with the rest of the world at something like the World Cup, and how we kinda cultivate talent, how we find more of our best talent and then we cultivate it.

Is the aspiration that TOCA is what all of our future top talent is going through, and that it is the un- an organizational structure and hopefully a catalyst for us to have, more both bigger reach in terms of finding great young players, but then turning them into world-class international players

Eddie Lewis: I do.

I firmly believe that. It’s clear that there’s never been, a great soccer player that also wasn’t arguably the best player [00:13:00] technically on the team. And, so I don’t think that’s uncommon. Athletic ability is certainly, a nice to have, and it’s great when you have both.

But I think you’ll see that, you can frankly win a World Cup, or Spain did it, and they can do it without the best athletes. So your ability to almost catch and pass the ball, with your feet is actually the hardest part. And I think we, we address that, fundamental issue better than kind of anyone.

And, I’m also a big believer, if you wanna develop great soccer players in this country, it’s not by necessarily copying the European model. I think we have so many wonderful assets that we can leverage. One of them is playing multiple sports. And believe me I spent 10 years in England, and I saw what these guys looked like, athletically- and their bodies, and their pronations, and their ankles and, all the things that come along with only playing soccer your entire life. And, for me, I think that’s a really important asset. I believe college is still a great path for, [00:14:00] lots of soccer players and doesn’t need to be seen as, a developmental miss.

Certainly, there’ll be players who are ready and should go into the pros, as teenagers. But I think the college system, beyond just soccer player development, your ability to really grow as a human, as a person, actually does have an impact on, if you wanna be a professional.

I’ve seen countless young, really talented kids that have no idea what they’re doing and end up getting off track because they, they hadn’t really grown from, 14 on. And, I think there’s just, there’s a lot of things that we can offer, young athletes, and not just in soccer, that actually lend themselves, better to a longer professional experience.

But at the minute, there’s just, not really a good kind of unified structure in terms of how we agree on value. And, this, the- these sort of business models in some ways kinda get in the way. And unfortunately- … there’s not enough experience in this company or in this country for [00:15:00] parents to, to say no.

This, we’re not doing this, right?

Jeff Nelson: The partnership that you now have with MLS, you’re the official soccer training partner. How crucial was that to these bigger, broader goals that, that you have?

Eddie Lewis: Yeah, the partnership with the MLS is obviously was im- an important milestone for us in, and number one, gaining the credibility of, the professional league here in the States.

But beyond that, it, in many ways, as much as it’s nice for us to say we’re partners with the MLS, the MLS has, the same challenge in that they’re desperately trying to grow fandom in the US, particularly around, MLS teams. And if you went out to any, elementary school today, you’re gonna see more kids wearing soccer jerseys than any other sport, which is great.

But a lot of them aren’t, they’re not MLS [00:16:00] jerseys. They’re gonna be, Barcelona or Man United. Messi’s changed that a little bit. Every city now has Miami jerseys on, which is a little awkward, but that helps. But I think, continuing to, whether it’s centers like ours or through Toca Social, continue to introduce, fandom to a young seven or eight or nine-year-old, which, as and probably in your own experience is if you can lock a young person in at a certain age, they’re fans for life, right?

And I think the MLS is in that phase and going through that, and we become a really valuable outlet for them to, to do that, as well as us obviously leveraging the fact that they’re the highest level in this country and that we’re, firmly partnered from a player development standpoint.

Jeff Nelson: Does the business right now still prioritize continuing to grow in the US, or are these really parallel paths of more and more in the US but at the same time find the right global markets and expand?

Eddie Lewis: Yeah, I think the soccer side of the business [00:17:00] is, for the moment, still firmly focused on growing in North America because there’s- Okay

such a big opportunity. Social, we’re also gonna actively expand here in North America, but, we… It’s a much easier kind of global franchise opportunity, if you will. From, from- Yeah … the first day we opened Toca Social in the UK, everyone realized all we have to do is change the language on the menus, and this thing can live in a, 100 different countries tomorrow.

Maybe the menu, and, and-

Jeff Nelson: Yeah …

Eddie Lewis: and that’s about it. So I think that business lends itself extremely well to a global, kind of expansion opportunity, and we’re already seeing that. This year I think there’s four centers in four different countries opening which is probably, us biting off a little more than we could chew, but we’re gonna pull it off.

Jeff Nelson: You don’t find any skepticism in places like the UK that… they roll their eyes at Americans when it comes to soccer and football and I keep u- I keep [00:18:00] having to say both those worl- words to feel like I’m trying- Yeah … to cover all bases myself here. And we experience… there…

The business side of global football, it’s really interesting because When we have done work with big six clubs in Europe, I think there’s the belief there that on the business side of football the US, the business side of sports, the US has been ahead of most of the world. But as soon as you start to leak into fandom, and as soon as you start to leak into skills and participation and all that, I feel like very quickly sometimes you get your eyes rolled at as an American over there.

Have you found that at all with Toca Social? Is there any skepticism that this is an American company coming in and trying to take a sport that, that they’re inferior at or don’t know what they’re doing?

Eddie Lewis: Sure. I’m glad you asked because it is, it’s a [00:19:00] very… and it’s an important question because, yes.

The, the reason I named it Toca Football instead of Toca Soccer originally was for that exact reason, right? I wanted this to be, a global company and- Yeah … I, I wanted to be very careful about, that, that was very much a one-way street, right? The US took everything from somewhere else, but as soon as the US started telling everybody how to get better at soccer, that was gonna be, that was gonna be a bit of an issue.

What I found actually, as we were… I was going around doing all these demos in Europe and other places early on, is that the one area that there was no hesitation on the Americans do this better than anyone, so I’m gonna listen, was around technology.

Jeff Nelson: This is a little random, but the last question I wanted to ask you before some more fun kinda rapid fires here at the end.

I’m a big believer that leaders in sports business can learn a lot from [00:20:00] leaders on the field, on the court. I’m curious if there are any kind of lessons, principles, things that you take from your playing career, either when you were in a leadership position or from a leader you might have had either on your team or a coach.

Anything in now your business career that you think was an invaluable lesson you learned as a player?

Eddie Lewis: Yes. I think what, and probably my greatest lesson in starting and building Toca was, I very much took this mindset of I had this great soccer career, but I don’t know anything about business, and I’m now in my late 30s, certainly have some experience.

But, obviously I hadn’t had any corporate experience. I’d gone from in-inventor to now entrepreneur trying to start this business, and [00:21:00] I’d really discounted my ability to lead that part of it- … for a long time until I realized not a long time, but at least a few years, that as, I started to be around this culture and this group I realized actually I’m more qualified than anyone.

Like, all this business is just teams, and whether, there’s the departments, these little teams, and they’re all just, like teams and team structure and dynamics and, like getting the right people and doing the right things and how to lead them and how to motivate them. And I was like, “That’s all I’ve been doing for the last 20 years.”

And in fact it’s in this really really strict environment of literally every single day any person is replaceable and upgradable. And you have to, be able to bring it every day or else someone else is gonna take it. And this, all of these different managers and leaders and team dynamics, I actually found I was always, I always [00:22:00] had the answer of what was happening or what we should do or where we should go, and it felt really good because I started in this place of I don’t have any real corporate experience.

And what I found out was by being on teams and team leadership and team dynamics, I actually was… This is all these corporate things are, and they’re actually an e- an even more accelerated, version of it. So that was– that’s probably been my greatest learning and, as a result then gives you a lot of confidence and belief that, you’re much better suited to, to manage a lot of these new things than, maybe one would give them credit for if they were just retiring as a professional athlete.

Jeff Nelson: Did you have a leader in your playing career that you learned a lot from, either a teammate or a coach?

Eddie Lewis: Yeah, I think there, the you take bits from all of them. I think in the US, Bruce Arena’s a great example of, [00:23:00] he’s probably to this day the best man manager I’ve ever known, and people would say, “Oh, and he came from lacrosse,” and, he was by no means, claims to be, this tactical, genius in any respect. But I’ve never seen someone, And it’s proven his success everywhere. I’ve never seen someone somehow manage to and at the professional level, a lot of times the team will pick themselves, but his ability to get everyone happy in their role.

And, any time you look at a pro team, you should look at the bench, right? And if the bench is happy and not, really trying to disrupt things or can be problematic in training or anything else that says a lot about what you’re building. And, I’ve often said he could go into the NBA, next year and probably get a team in the playoffs just because- Yeah

of his man management, ability, if he brought good staff around him, and when I was in Europe, I also, one of the great, I think, learnings and experiences I [00:24:00] had was I got to Fulham under one coach. He got sacked. They brought in a new coach, and immediately told me, “Yeah, you’re not gonna play, Eddie, because you’re an American, and, you don’t know how to play soccer,” which I found really hard to believe and thought, listen, just this is how it works.

We’ll go out to training and, whoever does the best in training you’re gonna, you’re gonna make the field. And I quickly realized number one, I actually over time began to understand what he was trying to say. He wasn’t, completely wrong. But at the same time, just this idea that there’s things that are gonna be completely out of your control, right?

And your ability, I can either say, “Okay, no problem,” put my tail between my legs and go back to the MLS or I’m gonna figure this out and find a way to, determine this on my terms. And, I- those aren’t always positive [00:25:00] lessons, but I think they become tremendous opportunities to find out, who you are as a person.

Jeff Nelson: Yeah. That’s fascinating. That’s really fascinating. I’m gonna have to look up that. Who was the manager at Fulham in the early 2000s?

Eddie Lewis: Yeah, Jean, it’s Jean Tigana. He was this French guy. He’s an amazing player. And, Okay … it was great. And it wasn’t just me. There was, like, five of us. There was a South African- Wow

An Australian guy, this Russian guy, and I was “What are you talking about?” “What do you mean? You can’t… You, we haven’t even been here a week.” This isn’t what… And that doesn’t seem like a good way to motivate it, but, it’s a very different business there and, if you didn’t buy those players, they’re not your players- Yeah

and anyway.

Jeff Nelson: Interesting.

Eddie Lewis: We had a great assistant that, that was actually I learned a ton from in the process, so I would say my time was really valuable there, but some really good lessons, for sure.

Jeff Nelson: All right. This is a good segue to some rapid fires to close us out.

What is the favorite [00:26:00] stadium you’ve ever played in?

Eddie Lewis: Anfield, for sure. As a player, Elland Road was, like, the best ’cause I loved my time at Leeds, but I’d never experienced a crowd like at Anfield. They’re just different than every other Premier League club. There’s big stadiums- Yeah … and, even loud stadiums, but they’re a different level.

Jeff Nelson: Yeah. I went, I’ve been to Anfield, I think twice now, and when they do You Never Walk Alone, You’ll Never Walk Alone, it’s goosebumps, even if you’re not a Liverpool fan. It’s unbelievable. Okay, best soccer city in the world. Or football city, I should say.

Eddie Lewis: Best soccer city in the world? That’s tough. There’s so many great, there’s so many great pure soccer cities.

I’ve never been to Rio, which… And São Paulo, which I’ve heard both are like- Insane. Yeah … insane. Buenos Aires is another one, like- Yeah … the Boca River thing. But I [00:27:00] think, God that’s really, that’s a tough question. There’s great… you mean just the overall culture-

Jeff Nelson: However

Eddie Lewis: you wanted to interpret it

and everything related to it? But I think you’re

Jeff Nelson: even getting to, yeah, that South American, any of the

cities you just named, like the I- it’s not just passion. That doesn’t even- So- … begin to describe it in those cities, and those derbies are-

Eddie Lewis: Yeah. It’d have to be in, in Brazil because it’s like the football’s one thing, and in England, you could say, oh, and Manchester, and the passion, and it’s really true.

Yeah. That’s a very special place. London’s a little more cosmopolitan. You kinda gotta get more north, and like in any country, like the same here in America, like the most hardcore fans are, in the little tougher, kind of blue-collar-type areas. And Manchester is very special in, in that regard.

I took my son once to a Champions League game, and they were playing Galatasaray, Man United, or maybe it was U- Europa Cup or whatever ’cause they didn’t qualify. But just going to a game at night [00:28:00] with all these Mancs and tons of Turks just bombing in at night, and it was dark, and it was scary, and guys and people smoking.

And I’ll never forget, my kid was, like, freaking out. He didn’t know where we were. It was like, this is out of a movie, and that was… those are, like super special moments.

Jeff Nelson: My 10-year-old son asks me this, a- and I try to weigh in as best I can, but greatest player of all time?

Eddie Lewis: It’s… for me and my generation, and I grew up with a bunch of Argentinian friends- Maradona … I still think Maradona is had this… the way he got the Argentina behind him, is just something. As great as Messi will always be he wasn’t… Plus, Messi left to, to Spain when he was 12, so it’s like Maradona was just hardcore Argentinian to the end, and even Argentinians will say it.

But I do f- feel really lucky that we had this kind of Messi-Ronaldo time in which both these guys pushed each other [00:29:00] so hard and to heights that, we probably won’t see for a long time. I actually kinda swayed towards as much as Messi had this natural gift I loved that Ronaldo was just such a hard trainer.

He was He had this kinda Jordan way about him where it was like he trained harder than anyone. He worked harder than anyone, and I just always have a soft spot for that because I just know, how much that means and the amount of dedication and commitment that requires.

It’s my heart still is always with Maradona, but if you said Messi or Ronaldo, I’m kinda one of those Ronaldo guys just in the sense of what he’s, what- Yeah … he’s made of himself. Maybe not what he’s naturally gifted with, but it’s incredible the heights at which they’d stayed at for so long.

So

Jeff Nelson: P- Is Pelé four then?

Eddie Lewis: Yeah. It’s just before my time. I never really got to experience it, enjoy it. And again i- if, I was from that time, I’d probably say, “Oh my God, what are you talking about?” He was far better than anyone.

Jeff Nelson: [00:30:00] Yeah.

Eddie Lewis: But I just didn’t get to, a lot of it is the connectedness.

Yeah. Real breakthrough star.

Jeff Nelson: But also the skills and also the decision-making. And Toca is built to help on the latter two of those especially. The determination has to come with, from within, but if Toca has the impact you want it to, I think we all want it to, we are in the year 2026, what year does the US Men’s National Team win a World Cup?

Eddie Lewis: It’s gonna be in my lifetime, no matter what. And the good news is that could be a while or, maybe they have less time than they think. I don’t know. But I do believe that if we can just get out of this mode of trying to copy what Europe or someone else is doing and really just clean the table and say let’s really look at what the end goal is,” and start to figure out the best ways to get there.

I think [00:31:00] there’s… From the number of people playing, and even when you talk about pay to play, th- there’s plenty of arguments against it, but the reality is, compared to the rest of the world, we have more people playing competitive youth soccer than anyone, per capita by a mile, because it’s of the pay to play structure.

So it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but it just, we need to make sure that we’re doing it for the right reasons and in the right ways. And I don’t think it’s long before, both on the men’s and women’s side, we’re now the most valuable kind of exported player on the planet. And whether those players are playing in the MLS or, abroad, I don’t think that’s a, an unreasonable claim to make.

And if you just get the processes right, they don’t become just one-offs that come through, right? It becomes, almost a factory line. Now you have a process in place, and there’s 10, 12 players every year that are, like, going to big clubs [00:32:00] because of the way you’re developing these players and the athletic players and, institutions and, educational environments and coachability aspects that, Americans have that are very unique in America.

Even, just the middle class that exists presents such a better environment to try and, develop players to go on and not be hung up by reasons that are, outside of the actual sport they’re participating in. So I don’t think we’re far away, but I do think it’s an overhaul is needed and Toca wants to be part of that overhaul.

Jeff Nelson: You had to pick between… I am diehard Spurs. You are connected to Harry Kane. Can you get him to come back to Tottenham, please?

Eddie Lewis: I don’t know if that’s possible. We might see him in America before we see him- And- … back at Tottenham. But-

Jeff Nelson: Let’s

Eddie Lewis: As a Spurs fan you, you do have some challenges ahead of you.

I think Harry is the least- I’m aware, Eddie … of your problems at the moment. Although he would be a great lift, and he’s [00:33:00] been incredible. It’s actually been really fun to watch his continued success. I’m actually hoping, if he has a great World Cup, he’s, there’s a, there’s a- Oh, for sure

a FIFA Player of the Year, opportunity just waiting for him. There’s gonna

Jeff Nelson: be.

Eddie Lewis: So we’ll see. That would be great. That was not

Jeff Nelson: the answer I was hoping

Eddie Lewis: for.

But yeah, the Spurs, no, you guys gave me a bit of a scare this year. Gave you a bit of a scare. So we’ll see. Oh, it was torture.

That just wouldn’t have been good for anybody. It

Jeff Nelson: was absolute torture. I know. But all I guess that I’ll let that dream die. I really appreciate- The MLS … all right, that’ll be exciting He’s

Eddie Lewis: coming to the MLS. You’ll get to see him in person probably.

Jeff Nelson: I, I- Yep … appreciate your time. Really interesting conversation.

And I think what you’re doing now in the business side of sports is interesting and exciting and has so much incredible potential. And to be now building the sports business career you’re building on the back of the [00:34:00] athletic career you built you’re you- you’ve got the resume that so many of us dreamt of once upon a time and failed on the former and are just trying to do as best we can on the latter end of it.

But yeah, congrats on all the success f- so far. It’s really cool to see.

Eddie Lewis: Thank you. Thank you. For both of us, we’re only as good as our kinda last, training session. So let’s we’ll both keep it going- I like it … and hopefully have some fun along the way.

Jeff Nelson: All right.

To our listeners thank you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out. My email is Jeff@NVGT.com. You can also, as always, connect with us on LinkedIn or on Navigate’s Navigate’s page there. Again, this has been Jeff Nelson with Navigate, joined by Eddie Lewis. Thank you for joining us on Navigating Sports [00:35:00] Business.