How did you start playing soccer?
I think I actually started playing through my neighbours who were big into soccer. My family was never a hockey family or any other sport so that was the only team sport that I got into at a young age and I seemed to really enjoy it. It was cheap and easy for my parents and as far as I know I just loved to run around so that was the only sport where you can really do that I guess.
Where did you play youth soccer?
I played all of my youth soccer in Lethbridge and then when I was 16 I played for the men’s team in Lethbridge. And when I was 17 I moved up to Calgary to play for the Calgary Storm, which would have been the A-League [second division]. So I was up in Calgary for a year and a half before I went over to Germany.
You went over to Germany at a young age and started playing professional soccer. How did that opportunity come about for you?
It was actually through the coach in Calgary. He came from Germany Thomas Niendorf and had his academy and team in Calgary but he still had all of his contacts in Germany. And he was actually the one who organized the trials and the trips over to Germany for all the players that he thought had the potential to make it as a professional soccer player overseas. So at the time I traveled with another player from Edmonton and we went over and had all of our trials kind of set up for use, lined up for us when we went over there.
What were some of the challenges you faced going abroad in your professional career?
I think it’s just being away from the family and friends. Just getting into the new culture. You need to learn a new language right away. Yeah, I think it’s just that whole different culture. You’re not used to the way of soccer life over in Europe, living in almost like a sports school, or sports dorm and where soccer’s the number one priority. But I think as soon as I got the language down it was a lot easier. You can communicate with your teammates and you had more of a social life outside of soccer. Just getting along with your coaches and teammates it seems to help.
You’ve been over in Europe for your whole professional career. What is it that you enjoy about playing over there?
Just the whole culture that is soccer in Europe. The stadiums are always full. The professionalism that they put into their soccer is, you know you can’t compare it to anything in North America with their youth teams their facilities just everything that goes into it. It’s the number one priority over there. They don’t really have anything else. They have no other sports to compete with. Whereas here in North America you have six or seven other sports that are all contending to be number one sports. Over there, it’s just soccer. That’s all they have.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about the game throughout your career?
Probably that it’s a business at the end of the day. You don’t get treated the way you think you should be a lot of the times because at the end of the day you know, it is a business. Coaches want to win, managers want coaches that want to win and do well, so there’s a side to it that not many people see. A lot of soccer players have to deal with different things especially being a Canadian over in Europe where you don’t get the respect as players from different countries like Germany or England. You know, even leaving with the national team is hard at times just because it’s not a respected country over there. You’re missing club games; you have that club verses country issue. So there’s just a lot of little things that I don’t think the normal fan or the normal people over here see. And sometimes that’s hard to deal with because you still need to stay professional. You know you can’t say anything wrong because you still want to play. So I’ve learned to deal with a lot of that being over there and just keeping your head down and working hard.
What’s been your best memory about playing for the Canadian National Team?
I think just going through all the youth teams and building friendships with some of these guys that I’ve played with for over ten years now. And every camp that I come into there’s still such a strong friendship with so many of these guys that have been built over the last ten fifteen years that I’ve played with some of them. Other than that, like the big games that I can remember, the one down in Argentina was a really good memory just because of the crowd and the players that we did play against. And the run that we had with the under 20 team at the World Cup in Dubai. Those are some of the strong memories that still stick out.
What do you think would strengthen the game the most in Canada?
Definitely having our own league in Canada. I think that’s the only step forward for Canadian soccer. They need to start promoting their own players and be willing to promote their own players especially with having three MLS teams in Canada. I think the goal needs to be promoting youth players and professional players if we want to become a stronger country. You need to have a good domestic league and be able to promote players at any age level.