Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / Muslims in the Premier League ⚽ (Ft Ali Al-Hamadi & Ali Jenabi)

Transcript

Muslims in the Premier League ⚽ (Ft Ali Al-Hamadi & Ali Jenabi) · After Maghrib 🌙

• 0:00
  And so obviously my dad knows a lot of lot of the like community
• 0:03
  in Liverpool, but I never got along with them bro.
• 0:06
  Like in in that in that period of my life I was doing my, I was
• 0:11
  doing a madness bro. So like I would never be friends
• 0:13
  with the, with the like the Iraqi Muslim guys.
• 0:16
  I was always like people in their minds.
• 0:18
  Like, and so even like all all that stuff, I'd never really
• 0:23
  knew about it until I moved away from home.
• 0:24
  I, like, had my own journey. Had my own like I went away, but
• 0:29
  to be honest about From Religion for a bit and then kind of came
• 0:32
  back to it because I wanted to know why I was, why I was doing
• 0:36
  it, you know what I'm saying? Why?
• 0:37
  We bring this, Yeah, yeah, bro. Literally.
• 0:40
  I wanted to be honest conversation because I don't
• 0:42
  want it. I feel like a lot more people go
• 0:43
  through this thing than we know about.
• 0:46
  And to be honest, I was gonna ask you guys a question because
• 0:48
  yeah, yeah, obviously like that's.
• 0:54
  That's an interesting point because when I were younger,
• 0:55
  yeah, there wasn't, there wasn't a lot of footballers that are
• 0:58
  Muslim in the Premier League. But we think like celebration of
• 1:00
  the drinking and. Champagne.
• 1:01
  Jumping in the You know who. Changed that.
• 1:05
  No before that. So now Molly, coming up
• 1:08
  tomorrow, Welcome back to the aftermath of the podcast.
• 1:10
  Wherever you're listening from around the world or watching,
• 1:13
  it's great to have you here. If you are on YouTube, head over
• 1:16
  to Spotify or Apple. And if you're listening online,
• 1:18
  head over to YouTube as well. You can see our beautiful.
• 1:21
  Want to filled faces, brother sisters.
• 1:23
  Today we have a really exciting discussion and it's a topic
• 1:27
  which is surrounding football and faith and I just want to
• 1:31
  kind of pause here and maybe make a disclaimer.
• 1:33
  So if you're not a football fan, that's absolutely fine, don't
• 1:36
  turn off, don't you. Now this is a conversation which
• 1:39
  will be just as well and for you and your day-to-day life And if
• 1:43
  you are a football fan, even better And shall I love.
• 1:45
  But before we introduce our two special guests, As always said,
• 1:49
  I live it all the way. That's not why they can say it.
• 2:00
  Play from Sarah Ahmed. How you doing bro?
• 2:02
  I'm the LA. I'm well.
• 2:03
  You're well, I'm good. I'm good, I'm good.
• 2:05
  I'm the LA. We've got a good discussion
• 2:07
  today. How you feeling?
• 2:08
  I'm feeling. Why?
• 2:10
  Exposed. I I I feel that I've placed with
• 2:12
  this conversation, that's what's how it goes.
• 2:15
  Let's see. Let's see.
• 2:16
  Guys my my man thinks that Roberto Carlos is still think
• 2:19
  well anyway so to to kick off firstly I want to introduce.
• 2:26
  Brother Ali Janabi who of course is good friend of the podcast
• 2:29
  and has helped us in the past. For those who don't know, Ali
• 2:33
  has been a founding member of Shabab Satane which is one of
• 2:36
  the largest youth bodies in in the UK and also is a committee
• 2:40
  member for Alain Social Care Foundation.
• 2:42
  He also is involved in a lot of community run football
• 2:45
  tournaments, Iraq FC which is one of the most prominent young
• 2:49
  Iraqi football teams in the UK as well and thanks for being
• 2:52
  here. So while they come and yeah.
• 2:55
  Also helping with translation as well.
• 2:58
  And A Gunman Iraq National Team #10AFC Wimbledon.
• 3:03
  One of the most exciting young footballers in the country.
• 3:07
  And I'm not just saying that he's he makes us proud and we're
• 3:11
  really honored to be joined by Brother Ali and Hammadi
• 3:13
  Sanwalekar. Good to be here.
• 3:15
  Likewise, bro, thank you for coming.
• 3:18
  How you feeling? Almost so nervous.
• 3:21
  Yeah, yeah, no. I've been watching you guys for
• 3:24
  for months now and obviously I rang you a few few weeks back
• 3:28
  and told you how much you guys have impacted my my life.
• 3:32
  So yeah, I'm just happy to be in and hopefully give people great
• 3:36
  insight into into being a footballer and also being, like
• 3:41
  we just said, like a representation of being a shit
• 3:43
  footballer as well. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:44
  No, Bo, you've been martial law. You've been doing amazing
• 3:48
  things, making strides. A few weeks ago you scored your
• 3:50
  first goal for the Iraqi national team.
• 3:51
  So congratulations. Last, I'm sorry, this January
• 3:56
  joined Wimbledon. And within six months named
• 3:59
  player of the year for your club, which is practically
• 4:02
  unheard of when you join a new club scoring bags of goals.
• 4:06
  And Marshall, you're having a great season so far as well.
• 4:08
  Can I ask kind of just to kick off?
• 4:10
  Yeah. Why are you a footballer?
• 4:13
  Like obviously you're great at football.
• 4:14
  What is it about being a footballer which is drives you?
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  Well I say first and foremost for me it's it's the passion,
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  definitely handle love and blessed with with the talent and
• 4:27
  and you know the physical attributes for it.
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  But it's just started off with the love of football to be
• 4:33
  honest from the younger age, playing the power, playing in
• 4:36
  Liverpool and yeah it's all I've ever known growing up to be
• 4:41
  honest and we know it's quite hard in our communities to
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  convince your parents to go down a different path in their
• 4:47
  medicine and but not handle. My parents will understand them
• 4:53
  so and gave me the opportunity to to just follow my passion.
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  That's where it all started. Someone else was a football
• 5:00
  passion, by the way, and that's Ali Genevi.
• 5:03
  And before we start this podcast, I think Ahmed was
• 5:05
  asking, you know, our main man, I did how are the football
• 5:10
  questions? And you know, people jumping
• 5:11
  straight away. What was what's your passion for
• 5:13
  football? Well, to be honest with you, I
• 5:15
  would say since I was very young age, my father encouraged me to
• 5:19
  play football and to watch football and that was actually
• 5:22
  when I was in Iraq when I was a kid.
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  I came to the UK when I was nine years old and of course football
• 5:28
  is massive here in the UK, but people sometimes forget how
• 5:31
  massive football is in Iraq. Yeah, of course, people may go
• 5:34
  to Zara or visit Iraq regularly, may not see this side of
• 5:37
  football in Iraq. But actually on a daytoday
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  basis, football is part of every element in Iraq.
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  So I say as a kid growing up there, almost everyone there has
• 5:46
  some sort of connection to football.
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  So I would say that's where it started for me.
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  And I'm seeing a lot of stadiums being built in Iraq.
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  So recently, even in the whole city of Karbala, there's a
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  there's a new Yeah, yeah. So yeah, there's definitely a
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  big push towards enhancing football in Iraq in terms of
• 6:01
  hosting tournaments and allowing FIFA to actually allow Iraq to
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  play football. There has been actually about 30
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  years since Iraq played their match there, which is considered
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  the official match and that is due to, of course, the the wars
• 6:16
  and what Iraq has enjoyed. But hopefully with time because
• 6:19
  the level of football and from the fans and from the people
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  will bring out our football. Charlotte.
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  With players like Ali, that dream will come true.
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  I think about the hardest job today because I'm seeing next to
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  three allies. So every time I want to ask a
• 6:33
  question, I'm like, how do I say this?
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  So Ali Hammadi, I was going to say like, so.
• 6:38
  Look, a lot of people who are watching, whether they are or
• 6:41
  they're not interested in football, will probably have the
• 6:43
  same question in mind, which is. Is it hard to balance your life
• 6:48
  as being a footballer and being a Muslim, specifically being a
• 6:51
  Shia? Yeah, I'd say the balance is
• 6:58
  definitely, you know, very difficult.
• 7:00
  I feel like at 21 years old I'm, I'm blessed again with with a
• 7:06
  mature head. And so you know I've I've had a
• 7:10
  crazy journey to be honest to to get to where I am in terms of
• 7:13
  like my my faith and my religion.
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  And it's definitely I I feel like sometimes as Muslims we're
• 7:19
  not honest about about that. And I feel like the only way
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  really to improve your relationship with our lost
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  planet Allah or just and and anything is to be honest about
• 7:29
  your shortcomings and and to and to accept the vulnerabilities
• 7:33
  and and the challenge you face. And I think I feel like in
• 7:35
  football especially you know I'm surrounded by anything.
• 7:38
  Everything you can imagine. You know, the girls, the the
• 7:41
  drink and the parties that the things that everyone associates
• 7:44
  with football and the actual environment of football itself
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  and the culture is heavily based towards that.
• 7:52
  You know, it's all people speak about on a day-to-day basis.
• 7:56
  And so it's it's kind of hard sometimes to find people who who
• 8:00
  are similar to me or who push me to be better in my faith.
• 8:05
  And so I I feel like a lot of the times, you know I feel a bit
• 8:09
  isolated and not noise and I'm like in the in the in the
• 8:12
  depressing kind of way. Yeah.
• 8:14
  Yeah. But I just keep to myself like
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  and and I'm doing my own thing which which I which I don't mind
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  doing. And yeah, obviously like we just
• 8:22
  had off off camera. I went away from from maybe
• 8:27
  practice and religion for like a year or two and when I first
• 8:30
  moved away from home at 16 because I feel like I just
• 8:34
  needed to discover why I was Muslim while Shia rather than
• 8:40
  kind of just doing it because my parents had had raised me to do
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  that. So yeah, it is difficult,
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  especially with again, the challenges surrounding football
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  and you know, as you get more fame or more popular that that
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  definitely increases. But it's just about having that
• 8:59
  point of view of like it's so hard as a footballer sometimes
• 9:02
  because you want more success, you want you want to do better,
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  you want more accolades, you want more recognition or to be
• 9:09
  aware of what the actual point. Yes, and stay here after.
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  So that's probably the hardest struggle sometimes is being so
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  driven to want to achieve more and be more successful but not
• 9:21
  to get caught up in the fruit of this done.
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  Yeah, if that makes sense. I love that.
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  Can I ask? Actually, you know, you
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  mentioned the point where around 16 years old, you decided to not
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  decided. Well, let's say you drifted
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  away. Yeah, yeah.
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  By the way, when I say that, I don't mean like completely just
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  this. I say I just maybe like I used
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  to miss a lot. Quite a lot.
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  I think that was a lot of us, bro.
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  Yeah, but I took it probably to a different level, like maybe
• 9:45
  weeks. What drove you back?
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  Well, I brought. It was like again it was, it
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  was. I reached the point of where I
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  think that's when I knew deep down I was on the right path.
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  And like, as in I know, I'm sure, I know, I know Muslim.
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  I know I my faith is true and unreal because it was kind of
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  like just deep inside me. It was always like this feeling
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  of just death in the back of your head that's in your heart
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  that you can't get away from it. Do you know what I mean?
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  It's like or like at some point you're going to have to return
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  to Allah, like Allah's waiting for you to return to him.
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  And also I think a hard thing with with being Muslims
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  sometimes is the way we're raised sometimes as Muslims
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  especially like the older generation, I'd say is it's a
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  lot of fear based, you know, motivation to to pray to be
• 10:35
  well, because it's like, right, if you don't do this, you're
• 10:38
  going to, you're going to, God's going to hate you.
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  And I think especially recently I'd say more so I felt a lot
• 10:45
  lighter when I read something about that.
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  Someone sent me a page of of a it was like a religion, not
• 10:51
  religion. It was it was talking about
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  about something I thought exactly.
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  But it was just like a line along along the lines of God.
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  Like a large love is always there for you and it's, it's
• 11:02
  there. So nothing changes in in the
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  relation between you and Allah. It's only you that changes.
• 11:07
  Yeah. We're the ones who change.
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  So when I read that you know you know when you get this moment of
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  like wow this. That's correct.
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  I've never knew that because in my in my understanding growing
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  up it was no, like a lot changes with you depending on how you
• 11:24
  how you are. That makes sense.
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  So yeah, when I read that, it was like, wow, that's crazy.
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  So, like, hello, love me no matter what and he'll welcome me
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  back with old moms no matter what.
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  So obviously I didn't know that when I was 17 or 18, but I feel
• 11:39
  like it was kind of deep inside me for them to to go back to to
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  get another prayer mat. And I I remember actually just
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  one day I was just like just best out crying and just just
• 11:49
  poured my heart out to, you know, in prayer.
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  And I just thought, yeah, like, I'm ready to to learn, mom.
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  Ready to really devote myself to this And yeah, handle I like
• 12:01
  it's been a good few years now where I've just getting kind of
• 12:04
  more and more knowledge and also just getting a better because I
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  feel like it's more about feeling now rather than just
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  words. And that's another thing that I
• 12:16
  feel like we're kind of guilty of as Muslims.
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  I'd it's a lot of like scriptures and texts and this
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  person, this and this person that was like to me.
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  It's not about the feeling I get and the connection with my last
• 12:27
  one, Tyler and. I say it's been easy to actually
• 12:30
  balance that alongside your football career and training
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  every day. No, no, definitely not traveling
• 12:35
  a lot. But but what I'm.
• 12:37
  I think what I'm learning now is to that it's help.
• 12:40
  It helps me in football, so it helps me stay focused.
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  That helps me. Like, bro, there's been times
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  that when I step on the pitch, Yeah, when I'm just like, but
• 12:49
  I'm not a last manatizer with me.
• 12:50
  There's no way he's got one on this pitch of stuff today.
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  Do you want me like, I feel that's because usually I have
• 12:56
  like a routine. So when I when I, we usually
• 12:59
  kick off at 3:00 PM and obviously, like the whole is
• 13:02
  around at 1:30 usually or at the time it was.
• 13:06
  So my routine is always like, I get to the stadium, we have the
• 13:08
  meeting and then obviously I go pray and then come back in the
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  change and get changed and go out and stuff.
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  So especially last year and there was a time that you
• 13:16
  brought it was mother, I was praying coming back and say
• 13:18
  train room and I was just like bro, no, like I feel
• 13:21
  unstoppable. Like what?
• 13:22
  Was the reaction of the footballers.
• 13:24
  Amazing. They asked like, no.
• 13:27
  So it's it's a weird thing sometimes because sometimes I
• 13:29
  don't like praying and not like I don't like.
• 13:33
  People, but I feel like there's a time.
• 13:35
  For yourself sometimes, you know what I mean?
• 13:36
  Like I know these guys who just will drop their in the middle of
• 13:40
  the train and stop praying and stuff where it's like no, I I
• 13:43
  respect my surrounds because you know if somebody for example say
• 13:47
  we're in Iraq for example and and I don't know Hindu guy just
• 13:52
  gets a statue up and puts in the middle of the street and stuff
• 13:55
  you're gonna you're gonna look everything come up like what's
• 13:57
  Yeah I know it's it's it's so, so I just I also feel like at my
• 14:02
  age maybe I'm still kind of bit scared to do.
• 14:04
  That no. But bro, you've been much a lot
• 14:06
  like to to to be so young and to have such a mature mindset at
• 14:10
  this age. Now, God bless you.
• 14:12
  Continue to. Even more like bro, you're 21,
• 14:15
  which makes me feel crazy. I'll play you one.
• 14:20
  Honestly bro, but like for you to be doing what you're doing.
• 14:23
  And I can't begin to imagine you're a professional
• 14:25
  footballer. You're an international baller
• 14:27
  as well. You're one of the most highly
• 14:29
  talented players in your league. You've only played at leagues
• 14:32
  higher than what you're in. You've played with some of the
• 14:34
  best football talents in the country right now.
• 14:37
  And even on the international stage, we're filming this.
• 14:40
  Last week or two weeks ago you played against Chelsea.
• 14:42
  You swap shirts with Thiago Silverlight.
• 14:44
  For those who are listening, you're a baller bro and people
• 14:46
  need to know that. But for you to, for example,
• 14:49
  after a team meal, go and pray or Sala come back, You know, you
• 14:52
  might miss A-Team talk or you might miss a manager talk Johnny
• 14:55
  shout out or or you might miss for example like something
• 14:58
  critical in the team but you're still focusing on the last one
• 15:01
  to Allah. And what what you said about a
• 15:03
  lot being a lot being there ever present.
• 15:07
  Ever, ever existent. And it's us who will go with the
• 15:10
  tide. Those are true words man,
• 15:12
  because the last ones I love will Hadith would see.
• 15:15
  Allah says you take one step towards me, I'll take 10 towards
• 15:17
  you. The relationship we have with
• 15:19
  God sometimes we make it relative and we make it based on
• 15:25
  how we feel day-to-day if we have a moment of reflection and
• 15:28
  we know of course that hadith and our reflections.
• 15:30
  But in 70 years of Abaddon worship, the whole point is, is
• 15:33
  that thought and feeling like you said?
• 15:36
  Will always take you back to God.
• 15:38
  Because logically speaking, how's Allah going to punish
• 15:41
  people pre Islam? It's it's because pre Islam you
• 15:46
  could just still use logic to find your creator.
• 15:48
  So the thought process and the the reflection will always take
• 15:52
  you back to God no matter what your career is, no matter what
• 15:55
  your age is, your demographic, your society, your culture is
• 15:57
  surrounding. But like the fact that you for
• 16:00
  example are in a very unique profession I find fascinating.
• 16:03
  So one thing I've always wanted to know Okay.
• 16:06
  So you've you've obviously come up through the ranks, you're now
• 16:08
  League 2, footballer, League Two.
• 16:10
  Yeah, yeah you're martial art. You're going to be earning well
• 16:15
  and shell and years to come you're going to be getting
• 16:17
  promotions, pay rises, new contracts, maybe going to to to
• 16:21
  bigger clubs. When it comes to money, how do
• 16:25
  you treat your perception of money?
• 16:27
  So for example you might be earning a lot of money.
• 16:30
  I don't want to go into details people, people can look up
• 16:32
  footballer stats, but. No, that's that's a good point.
• 16:37
  Like, how do you treat money when it comes to things?
• 16:40
  Yeah, There's also a way. There's a question I want to ask
• 16:44
  you about about meditation and like consciousness.
• 16:47
  Yeah, after this it's just remind me, please.
• 16:49
  OK. In terms of money, again I moved
• 16:53
  away from home very young, so I've always had to learn to
• 16:57
  manage my own money. And I'd say definitely at the
• 16:59
  beginning when I was at Swansea, I just in manage my money or
• 17:03
  that's spent it or in save much money or I say the past,
• 17:08
  definitely the past two years now I've become a lot better at
• 17:12
  that. And I think with money, man,
• 17:16
  it's just about having a plan in place.
• 17:17
  Like you know, it sounds so simple but for me and I was like
• 17:20
  this is how much I get a month, this is what I need for my
• 17:23
  expenses, this is how much I'm going to save.
• 17:25
  This is for me to spend. Like that's literally it's just
• 17:27
  starting off for me and obviously like I'll handle I'm
• 17:31
  blessed with with an agency that you know like I can just kind of
• 17:33
  say to people hey go this, this is kind of why like can you
• 17:37
  manage it for me or tell me what to do with it.
• 17:39
  So you know I'm blessed in that sense where a lot of these
• 17:43
  decisions sometimes maybe they're made for me and and
• 17:46
  sorted out for me so and I save my relationship with money.
• 17:50
  Again, like you said, it's it's just not becoming too caught up
• 17:54
  in in the fruits of this life and always just keeping that
• 17:57
  perspective because it is easy sometimes to be like, you know,
• 18:02
  I do, I do like clothes. I do like, you know, that sort
• 18:07
  of stuff. So I have had periods where I'm
• 18:10
  like spending too much money on those things.
• 18:14
  But no, I'd say I'm blessed right now in a position where I
• 18:16
  just, I've got like a plan in place and things.
• 18:20
  I just, I kind of know what money comes in what money comes
• 18:22
  out to same things every month. So yeah I feel like so very
• 18:26
  funny. It's it's.
• 18:28
  I feel like people who just work normal jobs, like have to do
• 18:31
  with the same, just the same problems, but like just more
• 18:35
  quantity. Really.
• 18:36
  It's not like any different. So like the person just working
• 18:41
  in a shop, for example. Sainsbury's, like he still has
• 18:43
  to know what's coming in, what his expenses are and what what's
• 18:47
  left for him to spend. Obviously it's relevant to him,
• 18:51
  so yeah. Interesting.
• 18:52
  Interesting. I want to kind of move into
• 18:56
  like, oh, so you your decision to become a footballer was
• 18:59
  probably interesting because you were born in Iraq, you came here
• 19:04
  at three. I'm not mistaken, no.
• 19:06
  I came here when I was. Well, I was one actually.
• 19:09
  So basically there's so many different things online.
• 19:11
  Yeah. So like, culturally, you're very
• 19:14
  similar to all of us. I'd say in the sense that a lot
• 19:17
  of us would be pretty much, if not born here, pretty much
• 19:20
  raised here and like our culture is.
• 19:24
  I'd say British first mainly, or at least for me is British in
• 19:28
  terms of my, like my first spoken language, my school, my
• 19:32
  slang, my all of that. Yeah, my taste in whatever is.
• 19:37
  But obviously we will have like a like an.
• 19:41
  I'm trying to understand our cultural heritage and sometimes,
• 19:43
  like you mentioned earlier, our cultural heritage plays a role
• 19:46
  in our life decisions. So for me, for example, being a
• 19:49
  South Asian, the expectation on me was to to do well, to either
• 19:54
  go into finance or like for me, I had that expectation of
• 19:57
  myself. I remember when I was like 1314,
• 19:59
  I would get asked by uncles at Majalis what do you want to be.
• 20:02
  And I had a statement, yeah, I want to be an investment banker
• 20:05
  like that was my go to yes, investment banker that was.
• 20:09
  And I had to. I did like internship in the
• 20:11
  investment bank and all of that Also I could tick the box and I
• 20:14
  realized I was growing up like why am I doing this?
• 20:16
  But for an Iraqi, for an Arab, I think it's harder because with
• 20:20
  the greatest respect for for you guys, the three of you are are
• 20:23
  Iraqis. Of course, your community moved
• 20:25
  here at a later age or a later period than than my community
• 20:28
  did. So a lot of your community came
• 20:29
  here in the late night, early or late 90s or early 2000s.
• 20:33
  Yeah, and but a lot of your parents were founders of
• 20:37
  communities, whereas for my, for my communities, grandparents and
• 20:40
  great grandparents, Do you know what I mean?
• 20:42
  So for you to become a footballer would have been
• 20:44
  harder in some ways than someone who's not an Arab to do that.
• 20:48
  Now This is why I want to bring in Ali Janabi, because obviously
• 20:50
  you you are heavily involved in community sports and working
• 20:55
  with Shabab. Obviously we used to play when
• 20:57
  we were young, like with the with the same community and
• 21:00
  that. But firstly, why do you do that
• 21:04
  and what impact do you think sports can have on on youth?
• 21:08
  I would say firstly is a good point you mentioned regarding
• 21:11
  communities and the period in time in which they moved to the
• 21:15
  UK and settled because a big element of our parents when it
• 21:19
  comes to when we are growing up and what things we want to do
• 21:22
  when we when we are growing up. They focus around stability more
• 21:25
  than anything else. So they realize for example if
• 21:29
  we go into university and going to your degrees such as
• 21:31
  medicine, pharmacy or. Engineering or law, this will
• 21:35
  bring us stability and bring us a way of being able to provide
• 21:40
  for our family and a lot of them, a lot of our parents, of
• 21:44
  course, when they when they came here, this was the only thing
• 21:47
  they could, you know, provide us because for them, they've come
• 21:50
  from a very difficult they. Came with our stability.
• 21:53
  They've come from a difficult environment.
• 21:54
  They've come with the risk of potentially returning back home
• 21:58
  if things, you know, go wrong or they had the ambition of maybe
• 22:00
  going back home. So there was never really.
• 22:03
  Kind of say a long term ambition.
• 22:05
  There couldn't, there wasn't even time for that perhaps.
• 22:08
  So elements like going into the media or going into sports or
• 22:11
  arts was pretty much out of the window, mainly due to this
• 22:14
  factor. And also back home in Iraq, I
• 22:16
  would say it's the same thing where people were more
• 22:20
  encouraged to go into professions as opposed to things
• 22:23
  like sports or art. So I would say that's the
• 22:27
  biggest. When you speak about, you know,
• 22:29
  I have this argument with my parents all the time.
• 22:31
  Yeah. And it's like I I think as as
• 22:36
  Muslims and as things sometimes especially we get like culture
• 22:39
  mixed up with religion, So 100%. I used to think it was like like
• 22:44
  Haram to go to be a footballer at one point.
• 22:47
  Like, because, which is not fault of my, which is not fault
• 22:51
  of my parents, by the way, because that's just the way they
• 22:53
  were raised. And I feel like, especially my
• 22:56
  generation now, a lot of guys are kind of without being too
• 23:00
  disrespectful to our parents because obviously we owe them a
• 23:03
  lot more respect for the sacrifice.
• 23:05
  And everything they've done was always kind of challenging the
• 23:08
  the old them old beliefs, because I've got a little sister
• 23:11
  now and a little brother and I had to kind of go through hell
• 23:15
  with my parents. In the most respectful way to be
• 23:18
  like look, no, you. You need to let them choose what
• 23:20
  they want to choose. They need to enjoy and your
• 23:22
  brother's in sports as well. Yeah, he he's just basketball.
• 23:25
  He's, yeah, he's just moved to the States now.
• 23:28
  So very. Very sporting family.
• 23:31
  Yeah, yeah, well we well, my mom and dad probably didn't expect
• 23:33
  it to be that what we are now. So yeah, so even that one that
• 23:36
  happened, you know he he got amazing A levels Marshall, like
• 23:39
  he got A's and everything like maths.
• 23:42
  I think it was chemistry and biology.
• 23:43
  Shout. Out char Hamza.
• 23:45
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 23:46
  So I think we we we get these like cultural norms and and
• 23:51
  religion mixed up and it's like even my sister she's like mom's
• 23:54
  like no you're going to be a doctor she's like 7-8 and I'm
• 23:57
  like just let her be just just let her choose her own path.
• 24:03
  But yeah, like you said, it's it's All in all right because
• 24:05
  they came from, from a situation where like you said, didn't have
• 24:09
  stability and. I think especially in in, again,
• 24:14
  I think it's a culture thing. That's why I was actually wanted
• 24:16
  to ask you about the meditation and consciousness stuff because
• 24:20
  I feel like as all cultures are very like possessive, we like
• 24:24
  like it's all about like interconnecting and control,
• 24:27
  especially like the family dynamic.
• 24:31
  And that's where I think sometimes, especially when it
• 24:34
  comes to religion and your relationship with religion, is
• 24:36
  is like is. It's not shaky, but you have a
• 24:42
  like a warped kind of reality of what religion should be.
• 24:48
  Because it's a lot of like possessiveness, a lot of like
• 24:50
  control. Like this is what you should be
• 24:51
  doing, like rules by your experience.
• 24:54
  By experiences like give the cultural stuff.
• 24:58
  So for example, like when I like now in football, I'll give you
• 25:02
  an example for me in football, for me to perform my best, I
• 25:05
  need to be. You know we we're in sports they
• 25:08
  call it like in the zone like inflow state.
• 25:10
  So you know you completely like focus, no external thoughts like
• 25:14
  you completely focus the the task on hand.
• 25:18
  So what I've learned in like the past few years of doing like
• 25:20
  meditation is like consciousness and being present is like the
• 25:24
  key to everything and like everything like even like
• 25:27
  religion because how can you be, how can you pray to Allah or
• 25:31
  like pray or do any sort of of acts if you're not present.
• 25:34
  So if you're not distracted. And so now when I've started
• 25:38
  learning like these things like kind of all linked together and
• 25:40
  like kind of everything is connected to, I mean like the
• 25:44
  way the way I play my football match is kind of the same way I
• 25:48
  approach like my Salah. And the way I push my Salah is
• 25:53
  the same way I approach everything, like the way I
• 25:56
  approach my conversations with people.
• 25:57
  Like being present here, like speaking to you guys, like
• 25:59
  being. Just completely focused on this
• 26:02
  and not thinking about my journey back in 45 minutes or
• 26:07
  like training tomorrow morning or what I've done today.
• 26:11
  So I've learned a lot from from like and I think, I think as
• 26:13
  well we don't do that enough as Muslims like learn from other
• 26:17
  like other cultures of traditions of like.
• 26:23
  Let me, I'm going to. I was going to mention something
• 26:25
  in relation to what you were just talking about.
• 26:28
  You mentioned community of course, and.
• 26:30
  Aspects, maybe some of our pioneers starts done in the
• 26:33
  community. When I mentioned one of the
• 26:35
  brothers called, most of us so far, I'm not sure if you've
• 26:38
  heard it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:39
  He's actually a football coach. He started off in Scotland, in
• 26:41
  Dundee, and now he's moved on to Southeast Asia where he's
• 26:46
  training I think youth teams at the moment.
• 26:48
  But when he started, something incredible that he actually
• 26:51
  started off is a charity alongside his coaching work
• 26:55
  called the Moral Goal Foundation, in which he
• 26:57
  connected football to morals. Where he taught young
• 27:01
  footballers who may be at the age of, you know, starting
• 27:04
  starting the Academy or between the age of 7 and 12, I would say
• 27:09
  how to connect their football. Important things in football
• 27:13
  such as, for example, respecting your elders, respecting your
• 27:15
  coach, maybe respecting your teammates and your opponent and
• 27:21
  teamwork, things like, for example, how to be disciplined,
• 27:26
  all these elements which are essential to football.
• 27:29
  We kind of encourage them to also look at in a moral
• 27:31
  perspective where they can learn to improve their morals and
• 27:34
  Daytoday lives when their families in their school and
• 27:38
  link things together. And this moral Law foundation
• 27:41
  was really inspired, inspiring to the extent that I believe
• 27:44
  some of our communities actually encourage most of us to come and
• 27:47
  do workshops. And I remember we had the MVP My
• 27:51
  Voice project, which was a which was a youth club and we bought
• 27:55
  most of us to do some workshops. And the children that were, they
• 27:58
  were really inspired by the way he connected something that is
• 28:01
  very relatable, which is football or sports to morals,
• 28:04
  which we can, you know, learn to develop ourselves.
• 28:07
  So now that you mentioned this, really, you know this is
• 28:09
  interesting because what I found here say do you probably have a
• 28:12
  similar experiences especially in London Iraqi youth are so
• 28:17
  good at football. Yeah, it's crazy.
• 28:19
  We used to get torn up by you guys when we were young, and a
• 28:23
  lot of the Iraqi youth will play in our youth groups or our youth
• 28:26
  clubs. See why I see this?
• 28:28
  Yeah. See why I see they Stam or Stam
• 28:30
  or shout out to Bashar Walji. I know we we wanted to mention.
• 28:32
  These players, yeah, these, yeah.
• 28:34
  And. And they used to do a lot of.
• 28:35
  There's a lot of effort for the young bullies like we Alan
• 28:37
  Shearer came to visit us at the mosque.
• 28:39
  Imagine like we had a lot of effort.
• 28:41
  It's proper random. We've all got pictures like
• 28:43
  waving with. Alex.
• 28:46
  Yeah, straight bro. We were getting torn up big
• 28:49
  time. I'll speak about that a little
• 28:50
  bit for you, but I wanted This is why I wanted to ask you, OK.
• 28:52
  So obviously you're like, you do a lot of work with youth like
• 28:55
  Shabaab and sports Okay. Why do you do that?
• 28:59
  And tell me about Iraq FC and the Community Clubs. 100% I'm
• 29:03
  going to speak about Iraq FC and the work we've done with that,
• 29:06
  but I'm going to go back to think it's very important that
• 29:08
  we talk about The Pioneers of our community when it comes to
• 29:10
  football. Yeah, I would say the focus on
• 29:13
  football in terms of something being provided from our
• 29:17
  community has actually reduced. A lot in the past 20 years.
• 29:22
  So I came to this country in the early 2000s, and of course I
• 29:25
  knew Ally from that time and the first day you saw.
• 29:33
  But, but my point is when we were younger, we had so many
• 29:35
  different opportunities to play football, even if they were
• 29:38
  extremely limited and basic. Like for example every Sunday in
• 29:41
  the park where one of the elders will come and coach us.
• 29:44
  I remember I think brother Emir Tucker was our coach Once Upon a
• 29:47
  time with CYC. Was in Abu Kalamy, who is one of
• 29:51
  the heads of the Adaka Welfare Association.
• 29:53
  He had his own football every Sunday and he even said Amar
• 29:57
  Alshon was a coach Once Upon the time.
• 29:58
  The elders will remember that. So at that time football was
• 30:02
  emphasized on at least one day a week.
• 30:04
  And the Hodge community also had you mentioned brother Mohammed
• 30:08
  Bashar Alji, It was incredible because what he did is actually
• 30:12
  combined different communities both together through football
• 30:15
  and through Stammo FC. And there was a time where
• 30:17
  Stammo FC. We even played in the Harrow
• 30:19
  League, which was, you know, quite a high level.
• 30:22
  So come back in 2023, twenty years later, almost none of
• 30:26
  these things exist. Yes, there are small initiatives
• 30:30
  here and there, for example, Young Kings, which is for the
• 30:32
  younger children, training them to to train for football, which
• 30:37
  is really good. But I would say it's very
• 30:39
  limited compared to what we had 20 years ago.
• 30:41
  No one really built on that. And you know, I don't put the
• 30:44
  blame on one person or another, but I believe it's a more.
• 30:47
  Of a community perspective, football is the most popular
• 30:50
  thing in the UKI would say. It's watched by millions of
• 30:53
  religion around the world, and it's religion.
• 30:56
  If you go to any of the local football clubs, the football
• 31:00
  pitches, for example goals and Albertan on on any site given
• 31:04
  Saturday or Sunday, you'll see maybe half the pitchers are our
• 31:08
  community or Shias from our community and you're you're
• 31:12
  thinking like why is there no? Kind of unified way to bring
• 31:16
  those people all together and that's when I will talk about
• 31:20
  the Iraq FC at our football club.
• 31:23
  Iraq Football Club is an initiative where the idea of
• 31:27
  bringing different young Iraq players who are playing in 11
• 31:31
  side football, perhaps Sunday league or or semi professional
• 31:35
  football, bring them together in order to have one team unified
• 31:38
  team for the London, Iraq, UK based community, basically Iraq
• 31:43
  and the UK as a whole. Sorry London and the UK as a
• 31:46
  whole. And the amazing thing about it
• 31:48
  is that it was started off by Shabaab, who have the ambition
• 31:52
  of having a club which is kind of be able to be sustainable and
• 31:58
  play at a high level. There is an annual tournament.
• 32:01
  This is where the inspiration came in.
• 32:02
  There's annual tournament called the Inner City World Cup and
• 32:07
  this tournament happens in London and also happens in
• 32:09
  Manchester. It's run by a charity called The
• 32:11
  Football. And the idea of Love Football is
• 32:13
  it brings different cultures and communities together,
• 32:16
  representing different communities within London or the
• 32:19
  UK as a whole. And we were invited by Love
• 32:23
  Football to actually bring the Iraq team.
• 32:25
  And this was in 2019 I believe, and we bought a team at the
• 32:29
  time. And by bringing different place
• 32:32
  together and the main people that were involved, of course
• 32:34
  it's important that I mentioned them.
• 32:36
  Brother Jakob Dayul, who's a football coach, brother Mohammed
• 32:39
  Ansari. So I'm sure you know he's a,
• 32:43
  he's a kind of like a footballer plays a Sunday League football
• 32:46
  and also a captain. He's very inspirational to the
• 32:48
  youngest and he, he's done a very wonderful work and
• 32:52
  alongside him we also had fitness coaches and and coaches
• 32:55
  who actually trained footballers.
• 32:58
  As an example, brother Yusef Compordi, he's accident and very
• 33:02
  he does very good work. I think I was familiar with him
• 33:03
  as well, as well as brother Hashem Ali, who's actually.
• 33:08
  Fitness coach and the head of medicine in his football club,
• 33:12
  which is Colchester United in in Essex.
• 33:14
  One of the clubs I believe in League 2 or League One.
• 33:17
  They're new league, yeah. So I was actually close to sign
• 33:19
  for them. Really.
• 33:21
  So it's interesting to have players or people who are
• 33:23
  involved in football in different ways and trying to do
• 33:26
  something for the community. I believe it was a long way to
• 33:28
  go. If you don't mind I'm gonna stop
• 33:31
  here. So surely that's a good sign.
• 33:33
  It shows that there's you're you're nighting under a banner
• 33:36
  of yeah, it's a national banner. Generally speaking majority of
• 33:39
  players are Muslim if not Shia, correct.
• 33:41
  If there's someone who a club likes, that needs, it's Ali
• 33:45
  Hammadi. Because they that you've got a
• 33:48
  professional footballer here who wants to do work for the
• 33:50
  community, who understands what we've born and brought up
• 33:53
  amongst. Yeah, who can give people, the
• 33:56
  tenants to become successful professionally and personally,
• 33:59
  spiritually, developmentally, on different levels.
• 34:01
  Like I I know when I've spoken to you in the past, you've said
• 34:04
  that you want to do more for the community and you want to do
• 34:07
  more, especially for Shabab, because there's a lot of youth,
• 34:09
  doesn't have to be Iraqi. I'm talking about Khoja youth,
• 34:12
  Pakistani youth, anyone who are on the streets or selling drugs
• 34:16
  or distracted by girls or just have the talent to go into
• 34:20
  professional sport but will get distracted or will pursue
• 34:24
  another career because they don't have belief in themselves.
• 34:28
  Like basically speaking like is, is there something, if you can
• 34:32
  give a message to young footballers out there, people
• 34:35
  who, let's say 1516, who know they've Got Talent and they're
• 34:39
  the best in the team or they're up and coming but don't have
• 34:42
  maybe believe in themselves, What would you say?
• 34:46
  Well it's it's a tough, tough industry man, like you have to
• 34:51
  be very, very thick skinned to be a footballer, like you know
• 34:58
  everything. I've had so many rejections
• 35:00
  coming up, like rejected from left when I was younger,
• 35:04
  rejected from Everton. After I left Swansea after
• 35:08
  rejected and you contracted, I got rejected by bomb.
• 35:11
  I've got rejected. So many rejections and so many,
• 35:15
  so many tough times on so many, so many downs.
• 35:19
  So you, you do really need to be very disciplined.
• 35:23
  You've got to be able to deal with failure, failure, you've
• 35:26
  got to be able to deal with setbacks and I think that's
• 35:29
  where having you know your faith helps you a lot because that's
• 35:33
  helped me through some very, very tough times.
• 35:36
  But I'd say on the flip side of that then the the highs are
• 35:41
  unbelievable. Football like it's like like a
• 35:44
  drug like that's the best way I can describe it.
• 35:46
  Yeah. You know there's no feeling like
• 35:49
  scoring of all offensive fans. There's no feeling like winning
• 35:52
  a trophy for your country which I don't have a week which is
• 35:55
  just I can't you can't describe that feeling to anyone and
• 35:59
  that's the feeling that you constantly chasing and.
• 36:02
  You know, scored my first goal for the other day, like just a
• 36:05
  feeling. I wish I had bought a little and
• 36:06
  just experienced it, like over and over again.
• 36:08
  That made me happy, by the way. Yeah, like a Iraq being our home
• 36:11
  and not seeing an Iraqi scoring for Iraq.
• 36:14
  That was even best. I mean, it's not going to be a
• 36:19
  Pakistani score for. It's talking about.
• 36:21
  Iraqi pride, I know what you mean, especially because he's
• 36:25
  born and he's one of us. But we feel like an ownership
• 36:28
  of, even though I'm not Iraqi, basically he.
• 36:32
  Had enough? Yeah.
• 36:33
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean your your children are so
• 36:36
  yeah, yeah. My dad's born and bred there, so
• 36:39
  I I I can get in. Which one?
• 36:40
  It works. Culturally.
• 36:41
  You need to. Explain that to me one day.
• 36:43
  It still doesn't work. Different.
• 36:44
  Different. The advice and I was just like
• 36:49
  kind of more of an insight into that is like the advice is
• 36:52
  genuinely it's so cliche but it's it's just don't don't give
• 36:57
  up and and also it's you have to make a commitment that you know
• 37:00
  if you want to be a footballer. That takes commitment.
• 37:03
  You know what I mean? Like you, you got to get rid of
• 37:04
  all of this stuff. You can't be going out with your
• 37:07
  friends. Yeah, man, it's a past that.
• 37:10
  Like, you know, I've had to call our friends out about to.
• 37:14
  I've said no thousands of times the things you know, you want to
• 37:17
  go out food now, do you want to do this now?
• 37:19
  I've got trains much. You want to do this now.
• 37:21
  So what do you say that, for example, having something from
• 37:23
  within the community to encourage these people who want
• 37:27
  to get into football would help? Yeah, you know what I feel like?
• 37:32
  With with what you just said, I don't think as many Iraqis doing
• 37:35
  high level, you know elite things at the moment.
• 37:38
  Not that I'm aware of. Like obviously you've got
• 37:40
  footballers you know, I'm trying to think I can't think of like
• 37:44
  tennis players I can't think of like basketball players, I can't
• 37:46
  think of yeah and I don't know why why that is because it's not
• 37:51
  as if like we haven't got the talent.
• 37:53
  However, I think it's it's generally A mentality thing
• 37:56
  then. And you know, I think first is
• 37:59
  the family stuff, definitely. That's the first and foremost is
• 38:01
  being able to have that conversation with your parents
• 38:04
  to be like look. And I think the the thing with
• 38:07
  me that convinced my parents was they seen how driven and
• 38:11
  dedicated I was. You know, probably like there
• 38:12
  was days I was doing my GCSE for example.
• 38:15
  I was like finishing school, getting a bus to the train, like
• 38:20
  40 minutes, getting a train an hour from.
• 38:24
  Basically over the water from Liverpool to the world to go
• 38:27
  training. I get back at like 9:30 PM or
• 38:29
  something stupid like 10. I'd have like piles of work to
• 38:33
  do for GCS E's but like in my head I was like I have to prove
• 38:37
  to my mum and dad that you know, I'm going to do it, you can
• 38:39
  handle it. Yeah, I.
• 38:40
  Can handle it because that's what I want to do.
• 38:41
  So it's a lot of sacrifice. It's a lot of, it's a lot of
• 38:46
  hardware. It's just hardware you got.
• 38:48
  At the same time, I don't mind it because I enjoy doing it.
• 38:51
  You know if you got passion for something and you just.
• 38:54
  You love doing it. You don't, you don't mind in the
• 38:56
  way. So yeah, it's to to to play, to
• 39:01
  be at least anything that just requires so much work, So, so
• 39:04
  much, so much work, yeah. But I was going to mention that,
• 39:07
  you know, being involved in football, it doesn't have to be
• 39:09
  just being a footballer and the individuals that I mentioned,
• 39:12
  such as Harshem Ali, for example, coming into the Iraq FC
• 39:16
  really helped us because we had a lot of talented players, but
• 39:20
  maybe our fitness levels weren't as great as other teams.
• 39:23
  And his presence and being a football coach and a football
• 39:28
  fitness coach in particular, really pushed us to the highest
• 39:31
  level. And that's what kind of
• 39:33
  encouraged us to reach all the way to the final.
• 39:35
  In that tournament that I mentioned earlier, we actually
• 39:37
  went all the way to the final and lost narrowly to a Spain
• 39:40
  team. And it wasn't just any Spain
• 39:42
  team. They have their own Sunday team.
• 39:45
  No, they had a Sunday League team.
• 39:47
  They literally played Ticketek a football.
• 39:49
  And they they all know each other.
• 39:50
  They're they're very, you know, flowing of each other.
• 39:53
  Of course, with our players, a lot of them had played a few
• 39:56
  friendlies together, everything else.
• 39:57
  But we are from different teams. So for us to achieve that all
• 40:00
  the way to the final didn't come from the players that have
• 40:03
  talent, actually came from the fitness coaches, even the media.
• 40:06
  We had some fans and some of the parents came to encourage us.
• 40:10
  Some of the Shabab came to, you know, do some videography and
• 40:12
  photography. All these elements bought
• 40:14
  together a success for this adult team.
• 40:17
  So I would believe for any share to be successful in any field.
• 40:21
  Just like you guys here in you know of the Mugabe, it's about
• 40:25
  the different elements being combined together and it's the
• 40:27
  same with sports. You guys obviously you try and
• 40:30
  operate at the highest level possible of everything like this
• 40:32
  is you know the set is amazing the every time I listen to it on
• 40:35
  on Spotify like the sounds amazing the presentation it's
• 40:39
  the same with anything same football life.
• 40:41
  It's it's everything brought from like you sleep to your the
• 40:44
  way you eat food, like the the things you see you feed
• 40:48
  yourself, the. And I say you know what the most
• 40:50
  important thing is, is, is having the self belief instilled
• 40:55
  in you regardless of what people are saying like you could I
• 40:58
  brought I get so many messages saying you know you're are
• 41:00
  constantly able you know you're you're this you're that you know
• 41:03
  you should hate it. Do you get well?
• 41:04
  No, I get more. I get more love.
• 41:06
  Yeah, Do you? Get a lot of hate, man.
• 41:09
  Can I can I ask, do you ever get OK, I'm going to ask that
• 41:11
  something straight up here. She has right now and today's
• 41:14
  day and age don't have the best PR.
• 41:16
  Yeah so we we we get a lot of hate just being a Shia podcast.
• 41:19
  A lot of hate that probably in the last year if I was to guess
• 41:24
  across Tiktok and Instagram probably has like like probably
• 41:28
  1020 thirty thousand comments on all videos.
• 41:32
  I would say a good. 15% of them, 20% of them are hate messages.
• 41:37
  Yeah. Am I right?
• 41:37
  Say it. Yeah.
• 41:38
  And a lot of those are Yushiya Kar, especially Yushiya this.
• 41:42
  Yeah. And to be honest, I can't begin
• 41:46
  to imagine. I was watching.
• 41:47
  I was on Twitter yesterday. Yeah.
• 41:48
  And there's a guy, he's, I didn't.
• 41:49
  Do you guys know Facebook? He's Iraqi.
• 41:52
  He's on SDS. Yeah, do you know, I see a
• 41:54
  sharky anyway. Oh.
• 41:56
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a he's a football guy.
• 41:59
  He's a YouTuber. Shout out to him if he ever
• 42:01
  watches. But he's a he's, I think a Shia
• 42:04
  basically based on whoever. But on Twitter he gets rammed
• 42:08
  with comments. Are you Shia?
• 42:09
  Are you Shia? Are you Shia?
• 42:10
  But why do you care? Like the guy, he's Muslim, he's
• 42:13
  Sunni, Shia, who cares. But the fact that being a Shia
• 42:15
  publicly is. Unfortunately, seen as a bad
• 42:18
  thing is difficult but you are a footballer wanting to come onto
• 42:22
  a share podcast. You're a professional boiler.
• 42:24
  You play for your national team. You're #10 like why do you do
• 42:30
  that And and there's also a lot of nothing I want to ask.
• 42:32
  Like a second part of that question, so many people send in
• 42:35
  a question for you saying do you ever discuss your beliefs with
• 42:40
  people around you? Someone send in the question.
• 42:42
  How are you? Like emulating husseiny vibes to
• 42:47
  people around you. Like in terms of your
• 42:48
  personality, your your manners, whatever it is.
• 42:51
  And I think that's one of the challenges now that I'm facing,
• 42:54
  definitely. I'd say, you know, there's a lot
• 42:59
  of Muslims in football and I've come across a lot of Muslims.
• 43:03
  You know, my team, It is easier when I go over the national team
• 43:07
  because a lot of the guys are Shiyamas in there.
• 43:09
  So if you're at home, if you like, you can be yourself.
• 43:13
  I'd say definitely that it's something that needs to get
• 43:15
  better at because sometimes you are the majority of of Muslims
• 43:19
  answered by football or sunny Muslims.
• 43:22
  And and again it's it's like you're always kind of trying to
• 43:26
  guess what these people are thinking about.
• 43:27
  You know, like do they know Shia, like do I need to specify
• 43:30
  that or do I need to? But honestly, I've reached a
• 43:33
  point now in my life where I feel like a greater
• 43:37
  responsibility to to be. A representative for not just
• 43:41
  for footballers, but just for anyone who who feels this.
• 43:45
  Because I'm sure there's many people who live in the UK and
• 43:48
  Shia Muslims who feel this, Yeah, And we feel like maybe in
• 43:52
  the workplace or, you know, in social settings, they're scared
• 43:55
  maybe to. I don't think this should be the
• 43:57
  first point of topic anyway. How are we saying actually, what
• 44:00
  are you? But I'm just saying like, if it
• 44:03
  comes there, but I'm just saying that if it gets to that point,
• 44:07
  which that conversation does, don't, I don't think you should
• 44:10
  shy away from it. And yeah, yeah, I feel like we
• 44:13
  should be able to be comfortable in saying like.
• 44:15
  Yeah, bro. Like I'm Shia.
• 44:16
  It's cool. I know you're Sonny, like I'm
• 44:18
  fine. Like we don't have to not get
• 44:20
  along because of it. As I mentioned, there was a
• 44:21
  beautiful photo of, I think you and one of your teammates
• 44:24
  praying next to. Each other.
• 44:25
  Yeah, man. Yes.
• 44:26
  And you had your talk about you're praying like a Shia.
• 44:28
  He was next to you and it was really beautiful and inspiring
• 44:31
  to see. Well, I'll tell you one story.
• 44:32
  If I was in the services, I'd say four or five months ago.
• 44:37
  And what does? That mean you know you know when
• 44:39
  the most. Like you just reminded.
• 44:41
  Me. Because I was in the military
• 44:43
  Because. This is.
• 44:45
  I kind of regained some faith in humanity until this point
• 44:49
  because like like Ali just said, I was, you know, at a club, I
• 44:52
  had a player who's unknown from Cambridge could Sheku and
• 44:56
  Charlotte to say who's my guy. And you know, we used to pray
• 44:58
  together every day. You know, he's Sonny.
• 44:59
  I'm sure you know we respected each other completely, fasted
• 45:02
  through Ramadan together, helped each other out.
• 45:06
  Towards the end of the season I was in a motorway going to visit
• 45:09
  a friend and stop at services and I don't know if you guys
• 45:13
  have spoken about this topic ever on about praying and shorts
• 45:17
  or anything like that. I don't know what you guys think
• 45:19
  about that. So I knew I was praying the
• 45:22
  shorts and you know, the shorts went like up here they were, you
• 45:25
  know, fairly, fairly, you know, long.
• 45:29
  And I saw the services went to a corner on my own to pray and a
• 45:33
  guy came up to me and then. I can't remember ways from when
• 45:37
  anything. And he just said, bro, can I
• 45:40
  just be honest with you. And I was like, yeah.
• 45:43
  And he said I don't think you should be playing the shorts.
• 45:46
  And I was like right, okay and like I just felt my blood
• 45:50
  stopped boiling. And then when he said that and I
• 45:53
  was like why is that? He said you just can't bro.
• 45:55
  He's like it's harm. You shouldn't be playing the
• 45:57
  shorts. And I looked at him for a split
• 45:59
  second. I was about to react and what I
• 46:01
  just said a favor. Thank you for the advice and
• 46:03
  they. Did the right thing.
• 46:04
  They walked out obviously. I say since Danny says it's
• 46:07
  cool. Yeah, obviously like there's you
• 46:09
  can have different opinion on it, yeah, but the but the way
• 46:11
  you handled that was. Yeah.
• 46:13
  And and and, you know, straight away the first thing got done
• 46:15
  was around my dad because I was so angry and I was like, dad,
• 46:19
  this happened, he was like, son just calmed down like this.
• 46:22
  Yeah, Yeah. And I've, you know, I've had a
• 46:26
  few situations like that, to be honest.
• 46:29
  You know, I'm not perfect in any way, shape or form.
• 46:32
  And I think that's what is also important is like accepting
• 46:35
  that. And I just spoke to Ali, Ofcom,
• 46:36
  I said about what do you think all kind of exposing your sins
• 46:39
  as you know, these people say this and I don't think it's
• 46:41
  about sinning and being proud about it.
• 46:44
  But, you know, it should be able, I should be able to say to
• 46:46
  you guys like, bro, like I've done this, I'm not proud of it,
• 46:49
  but you know, I'm trying to get better.
• 46:50
  Yeah, yeah. Like, bro, I've I've wore
• 46:54
  earrings. Like sometimes I go through
• 46:56
  pairs. I'm like no this is what
• 46:57
  sometimes and and I've had messages you know Kate, like
• 47:01
  people want me to die, bro. Saying like I got a message the
• 47:03
  other day saying bro like my son watches you like you know you
• 47:06
  should. It was obviously a bit more
• 47:09
  explicit than that. Something like these many things
• 47:11
  I need to get best at definitely.
• 47:13
  And I'm working on those things. This is coming from Muslims.
• 47:16
  Yeah, yeah, Muslims. Yeah, Muslims.
• 47:19
  I think that's a message for all of us for because, and
• 47:21
  especially if anyone who's watching is a FC Wimbledon fan,
• 47:25
  Iraq national team fan, which is generally a football fan, to be
• 47:28
  more respectful to the professional footballers because
• 47:32
  these guys are. I think we're just trying to.
• 47:34
  We're getting a drop in the ocean about how hard it is to be
• 47:37
  a footballer and not just that, to be a footballer whilst you're
• 47:40
  also trying to perfect yourself, improve yourself on a moral and
• 47:43
  on a personal level. And no one deserves hate,
• 47:48
  especially from strangers. Like, it's completely
• 47:50
  unwarranted. But I mean like like again, I'll
• 47:53
  repeat for you at 21 to be. Doing that, representing your
• 47:57
  country, being the number 10 for your club and consistently
• 48:00
  getting bombarded online like that's crazy.
• 48:03
  But Marshall lot because you've you carry yourself well and
• 48:07
  obviously you're of talented player so you're lucky.
• 48:10
  I think that most people or some other football players, because
• 48:12
  you're dealing with it properly. And also I just want to say,
• 48:14
  like, by the way, this is nothing against like so many
• 48:16
  people. I'm just, I was just talking
• 48:17
  about an experience with course. Yeah, kind of like just
• 48:19
  highlighted kind of some of the problems.
• 48:21
  Like I've got many sunny friends who I play football with who?
• 48:26
  Outside of football who you know I talk to and and and break
• 48:29
  breath and and and I'm completely like I I to me
• 48:32
  personally doesn't matter. I don't really.
• 48:34
  I don't really care and I'm sure most of the majority of people
• 48:38
  nowadays are decent enough to to be respectful of each other's
• 48:40
  beliefs. Well, you know, you've got the
• 48:42
  idiots who who ruin it for everyone, and especially with
• 48:46
  social media, and I think it like amplifies that a lot more.
• 48:49
  And so I've started. Just to be honest, I've I've
• 48:51
  gave my social media to someone else to manage at this point.
• 48:54
  Because that's why you've been ignoring my messages, yeah.
• 48:59
  Yeah, I don't really go on unless I sometimes maybe go on
• 49:02
  just a post and then I'll log off, so.
• 49:04
  Every time you deal, we've Dmed each other.
• 49:06
  It's actually you. No.
• 49:07
  Yeah, that's been me. But that's.
• 49:08
  So if I need to do something, if I need to do something, I'll log
• 49:12
  on. But I don't have it logged in
• 49:13
  anymore. I'll have someone like just
• 49:15
  managing it for me. Would it be fair for me to say
• 49:17
  that's part of the job that comes with the job?
• 49:19
  Yeah, so because. Now you're in the public.
• 49:21
  Eye. So a lot of people say that to
• 49:22
  me, so I'm quite big on like. Speaking about mental health, I
• 49:26
  was going through a period, you know, I just wait from Islam,
• 49:30
  like kind of promoting that in football and being bringing more
• 49:34
  awareness to it. I know the amount of people.
• 49:36
  I guess, you know, it's your job.
• 49:38
  You get paid to do it. Like sure I.
• 49:39
  Should be able to do what you feel and.
• 49:41
  That is true. That is very true.
• 49:42
  Like I do believe that I feel like to be.
• 49:45
  To be an elite level of any sport or profession where you're
• 49:49
  in the public eye and people are talking about you and especially
• 49:52
  football, people are reviewing your performance and how you're
• 49:54
  playing. You know, as a fan sometimes
• 49:57
  it's normal, right? Like you're watching a game and
• 49:59
  you're just someone will misplace a pass and like, oh
• 50:02
  he's. Well, did you see what Harry
• 50:03
  Maguire's mom posted? Not here.
• 50:05
  But you know, even that mental, I've seen that before.
• 50:08
  Like it's mental. But like you said, you know he's
• 50:11
  playing devil's alpha, but it's true like it is.
• 50:13
  True. What I want to say on this point
• 50:15
  is that you know #1 like the way you are doing it is amazing.
• 50:20
  Well, I'm this is something I'm learning from how to carry
• 50:23
  myself in such a situations. So I think what's important is
• 50:27
  that when you're on the pitch, and I'm saying it's out of
• 50:30
  respect, there are millions and millions and millions of eyes on
• 50:34
  you. When you're playing for, for
• 50:35
  example, the entire country is looking at.
• 50:37
  You and you feel it bro, like I feel.
• 50:39
  And I think it becomes an extra added responsibility knowing the
• 50:42
  first you're Muslim, but #2, you're from the share of the
• 50:44
  Milan Romanian. I think there's like an extra
• 50:47
  extra effort that we have to put in of how to carry ourselves.
• 50:51
  So in Charlotte, you know the way you're doing it is amazing.
• 50:53
  It continues and Charlotte improves.
• 50:55
  It can be an inspiration and for others that are maybe looking
• 50:58
  to, that's definitely through that path.
• 51:00
  That's what I wanna do. That's my main goal there is.
• 51:03
  I just wanna be representation for Shiite people within within
• 51:08
  what I'm doing. And yeah, that's why I'm.
• 51:12
  Well, may you be guarded and protected by the athlete
• 51:14
  Betalem. So I'm always born and amongst
• 51:17
  the the unsold of the imam in the last part of conversation
• 51:20
  because I know we've been talking a lot.
• 51:22
  So very quickly and maybe like the next two minutes, yeah, I
• 51:24
  want to get your opinions, probably both of you, on two
• 51:28
  things. Yeah.
• 51:28
  One is. Girls playing a female play
• 51:31
  football so my wife actually said to me before we recorded.
• 51:34
  My wife is a massive Iraq national team fan.
• 51:36
  She only watches Iraq. She hates when I watch Liverpool
• 51:38
  games, but anyway, and she's got come to tells with it anyway.
• 51:42
  But she said to me she's like. For boys, you guys, at least,
• 51:45
  you can play recreationally for the Iraqi or for Muslim sisters,
• 51:50
  she are sisters, she goes. We don't have recreational
• 51:52
  opportunities even to play football amongst ourselves.
• 51:55
  So that's the first thing. The second thing, what are your
• 51:57
  thoughts on the influx and the growing Middle Eastern football
• 52:02
  trends? So, for example, Qatar World Cup
• 52:04
  last year, the Saudi League, which has gone berserk.
• 52:08
  Yeah. And my last kind of join onto
• 52:11
  that, would you ever sign for Saudi League?
• 52:14
  I might as well ask him now in it five years time.
• 52:18
  I've got to go first. I'll go first.
• 52:19
  Yeah, I say with the, you know, I've got a list just and I see
• 52:24
  things in a different, I say a different light, especially as
• 52:27
  I'm getting older. It's it's a difficult football
• 52:31
  because I feel it's like, is is there enough demand, I don't
• 52:36
  know, for people to kind of. You know, it's like nowadays in
• 52:41
  the society is like for people to create something like that,
• 52:43
  like an opportunity or like say a club or something that
• 52:46
  requires funding, requires people willing to do that,
• 52:50
  people willing to kind of go above and beyond them and fight
• 52:52
  and scrap, especially in terms of the women's game, I feel like
• 52:58
  it should be. Well, it's it's a gonna take the
• 53:01
  demand. Is there enough?
• 53:02
  Iraq. Even if he's even if it's not
• 53:04
  professionally. Like for example, say it's got
• 53:05
  two daughters, four and six years old.
• 53:07
  Yeah, for a girl that age, she's learning a hijab.
• 53:11
  Yeah, she's learning SADA. And generally speaking they're
• 53:14
  developing social skills. So if say for example on Sundays
• 53:17
  took his two daughters to play football with a female coach in
• 53:21
  safe closed environment, they're just playing for fun and they're
• 53:24
  learning skills like that's something nice.
• 53:27
  And I think as as communities and we're all in our 20s and
• 53:30
  whatever 20s, early 30s and we should have the like maybe the
• 53:35
  leadership to to be doing. That I feel like you just said
• 53:37
  the needs of like a pioneer maybe, or someone to go like.
• 53:40
  You know, and there's, you know, there's a massive obviously gap
• 53:43
  there for something to go and also not exploit.
• 53:46
  But you know, there's a lot to be kind of done there and and
• 53:49
  it's probably an opportunity for someone to be that right.
• 53:51
  We're going to do this for Iraqi, young Iraqi, not just
• 53:54
  Iraqi, you know, Arabic, Muslim. I'll jump in on that point.
• 53:57
  I'll jump in on that point. The mind, I think is there,
• 54:00
  definitely, even on the female side and recently I think
• 54:04
  there's a lot of trust. Had a female tournament, yeah.
• 54:07
  And it was interesting because someone from within our
• 54:10
  community doing something like a female tournament, you'd think,
• 54:14
  okay, maybe there's not a lot of demand, but they had so many
• 54:17
  sign ups and there was a long waiting list as well.
• 54:19
  And they had female referees, they had female organizers, and
• 54:23
  it was very well organized and there was.
• 54:24
  So there is demand, there's definitely.
• 54:26
  Demand my. Community has.
• 54:28
  There's passion for it. There's definitely passion for
• 54:30
  it. I do know of a few maybe girls
• 54:33
  groups who play regularly football nice.
• 54:35
  But I believe that as a whole, as a whole, we need to focus
• 54:38
  more on it because the country, in the UK and England in
• 54:41
  particular, I think the focus on for example, women's football
• 54:44
  doing well and improving the women's league enhancing people
• 54:49
  are watching more women's football.
• 54:50
  I think as a country there's more maybe kind of kind of say
• 54:54
  funding towards grassroots football than female football.
• 54:57
  So I think for us to try and encourage our females to do
• 55:00
  that, I think it'll be wonderful.
• 55:01
  But then of course a halal environment and that's for us to
• 55:03
  try and and work on, you know, something that we know best to
• 55:07
  do. So therefore we need to
• 55:08
  encourage and that to happen. And of course, as I mentioned
• 55:12
  earlier, the problem right now is that even men's football is
• 55:16
  not really focused on from our community.
• 55:18
  So there's a big problem here where we need to resolve.
• 55:21
  Is there a problem? It's certainly a problem.
• 55:23
  So we have to focus on football. I'll tell you, I'll tell you
• 55:26
  what was the problem. I want to kind of jump into
• 55:28
  something very important. We also have the American
• 55:31
  National team done incredibly well in the 2022 World Cup and
• 55:36
  how inspiring that was to billions of people around the
• 55:39
  world, not even 1,000,000. And one thing we forget about
• 55:42
  that team is that the majority of the players actually expats
• 55:46
  from expat communities. Yeah, within different parts of
• 55:49
  Europe and North America. For example, the goalkeeper,
• 55:52
  Yes, in Buno, he grew up in Canada.
• 55:54
  Hakeem Zia, she grew up in in Holland.
• 55:56
  He's a Muslim, He's a Moroccan, from American Muslim community
• 55:59
  in Holland. I should have Hakeem, who scored
• 56:02
  against Spain, is actually from Spain or lived in Spain.
• 56:05
  And even their manager who's Moroccan when he grew up, he was
• 56:09
  born and raised in France. What inspired them is that they
• 56:13
  were able to have a connection with their country, but also
• 56:16
  they knew that their communities back in their expat communities,
• 56:20
  whether it's in Holland or France or Spain, are watching
• 56:22
  them and they're going to be inspired by them.
• 56:25
  So this is what we we yearn to to have within the Shia
• 56:28
  community, Shias who grew up within communities that are
• 56:31
  expats, whether that's in America or in the UK or
• 56:35
  Australia. And one day saying you look, I'm
• 56:37
  a Shia, I'm doing something incredible for my community, but
• 56:41
  I'm also on the top of my game in any sports or in any field or
• 56:44
  in any walk of life, as long as they aim to be the best and
• 56:48
  inspire others. This is something that we we can
• 56:51
  really learn from. That's your luck.
• 56:53
  OK, cool. Exciting stuff.
• 56:54
  So last like 1015 minutes apart. I know we've been talking a lot,
• 56:57
  so. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 57:01
  Can't does that. Oh yeah, so it's me two hours,
• 57:03
  we said about the World Cup stuff, man, I love it.
• 57:05
  Like I think it's. I think that's one of the other
• 57:08
  yeah, it's like Arabs are taking over.
• 57:10
  It's happening. No, honestly, like the irony of
• 57:14
  it as well. Like these.
• 57:15
  A lot of these players and their clubs at the Alpon Point were
• 57:18
  complaining about the World Cup and boycott and protesting and
• 57:21
  it's like. The best World Cup?
• 57:22
  Not half of them are moving there.
• 57:24
  Yeah, obviously, I don't want to speak specific about players.
• 57:28
  I guess I will come up against them.
• 57:30
  Yeah. You know, they've got players
• 57:32
  who are boycotting and and protesting saying, you know why?
• 57:35
  You know, they're not allowing people in the country because
• 57:37
  of, you know, the the, the human rights or this.
• 57:40
  And then you're going to move to play there.
• 57:42
  So it's like that's the whole picture and with that movie,
• 57:46
  yes. Yeah, yeah, I don't play.
• 57:47
  If they offer me the right money.
• 57:49
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 57:55
  Yeah, you know what's interesting for me with this
• 57:57
  World Cup, since we're talking about it, it was the first time.
• 58:00
  But I would say I enjoyed watching football.
• 58:03
  I think I had like this negative I think.
• 58:05
  Have changed out today by the way, but I saw this perception
• 58:07
  that football was heavily involved with like alcohol
• 58:10
  drinking, hooliganism. That gets growing up in the UK.
• 58:14
  Watching the Premiership and all of this thing, all you see is
• 58:16
  you know, alcohol everywhere and people jumping up and down going
• 58:20
  crazy. I never understood when someone
• 58:22
  missed a goal like the guy I'm watching football with.
• 58:24
  You go crazy. He loses, He loses.
• 58:27
  Like you can reach a point where you can throw the remote on the
• 58:30
  TV. How much is cracked?
• 58:31
  Yeah, that's how much the connection people have.
• 58:33
  That's why I enjoyed about this World Cup is that for the first
• 58:36
  time we proved as Muslims to the world, you can enjoy football
• 58:40
  without alcohol. You can enjoy football without
• 58:43
  Haram. You can enjoy football without
• 58:44
  all the distractions that Dunia has for us, you know, and and
• 58:48
  that's the beauty that we can show and Charlotte players like
• 58:50
  yourself and other Muslims now. Where, you know, I've seen
• 58:54
  situations where if someone's going to celebrate and there's
• 58:57
  like champagne being thrown around, you see the Muslim
• 58:59
  player goes to the site and it shows so much respect.
• 59:02
  I had that situation I have. We played at Wrexham and the
• 59:05
  final at Wembley and like we won the FA Trophy and obviously
• 59:09
  after like we got behind the board and they thought
• 59:13
  everyone's fucking ball had their rock flag around my
• 59:14
  shoulders. But yeah, you know, it's all
• 59:18
  time you have to. I just step back and you have
• 59:20
  to. But you know, like this Islam
• 59:21
  generally is beautiful because it's holistic and it's meant for
• 59:24
  all walks of life. And you mentioned Marco.
• 59:27
  Was it Hakimi with his mom, for example?
• 59:29
  Like that went viral. Yeah.
• 59:31
  Was it Hakimia or the itch one of them Hakimia.
• 59:34
  And like the the the world was shocked.
• 59:36
  Like wow. This guy's honoring his mother
• 59:39
  who's wearing full abaya and coming onto a pitch in the World
• 59:42
  Cup quarters or whatever it was and hugging and kissing him.
• 59:45
  He's And you think so, Paula like.
• 59:48
  A lot of other people are are are going for the drinks
• 59:51
  straight or they're they're taking their tops off and like
• 59:53
  just dancing with the fans away. But Marshall like he he emulated
• 59:57
  something which is respect for your mother and like these are
• 1:00:00
  genuine human beautiful traits which Islam promotes and in
• 1:00:04
  Charlotte we can push out there. So I want to ask your point.
• 1:00:07
  I want to move into the last thing in in terms of bull
• 1:00:10
  knowledge, but. It's in relation to football
• 1:00:13
  influx in the Middle East. So I would say football has
• 1:00:16
  always, the first thing I mentioned on this podcast is
• 1:00:18
  that football has always been popular in the Middle East and
• 1:00:20
  the Arab world. And whether it's in Iran or in
• 1:00:23
  Iraq or in Saudi Arabia or even in countries like Egypt and
• 1:00:27
  Morocco, you know, football is massive and it's always been
• 1:00:30
  massive. The only thing is it's kind of
• 1:00:31
  being ignored by Europe and other parts of the world.
• 1:00:35
  And I think what the World Cup did and even you know, the
• 1:00:38
  influx of the Saudi League is indicated to people that know
• 1:00:41
  football has always been massive in the Middle East.
• 1:00:43
  It's just an indication that now we are presenting it to the
• 1:00:46
  world. Of course, there's the political
• 1:00:48
  element of it and there's the financial element.
• 1:00:50
  Well, if we put that to the side, just a love for football,
• 1:00:53
  it's always been in the Middle East.
• 1:00:54
  I would say the average Middle Eastern household or group of
• 1:00:58
  young people watch football arguably even more than people
• 1:01:01
  in Europe. No way.
• 1:01:02
  So I think it just is going to come back, show an indication
• 1:01:06
  where football is going to rise in the Middle East and it's
• 1:01:08
  positive overall. OK, that's good.
• 1:01:10
  All right, guys, this, this last few minutes and Charlotte is
• 1:01:13
  going to be for the football nerds out there.
• 1:01:15
  Not me. Yeah, no, no, no.
• 1:01:17
  But to kick off now, said Ali. Said Ali said Ali's going to
• 1:01:21
  start, said girlfriend Miss Miller.
• 1:01:23
  We're going to ask, we're going to ask questions to each of each
• 1:01:26
  of us, but we're going to start with Mr. Hammadi, because I
• 1:01:28
  think it'd be very interesting to get your opinion as a as a
• 1:01:32
  baller, Yeah, about specific football players.
• 1:01:36
  OK so the first thing I want to do is start sub self.
• 1:01:39
  And for those who don't know what Stop, stop, stop, sell is I
• 1:01:42
  I give you 3 players, 3 football players.
• 1:01:44
  Who would you, if you were a manager, who would you start?
• 1:01:46
  Who would you put on the bench and who would you get rid of?
• 1:01:49
  All right, as I said, I want, I would.
• 1:01:50
  I just want to hear how you say these names.
• 1:01:52
  To be honest from God, this will have to follow.
• 1:01:54
  No pressure to say it. Jesus, Alvarez and Darwin.
• 1:02:01
  Jesus, OK Gabriel Jesus. OK.
• 1:02:04
  God, yeah. Cyprus neck guy.
• 1:02:06
  No, no, he's right, by the way. His.
• 1:02:07
  Name. Is Jesus.
• 1:02:09
  Ali was right. Jesus is Brazilian, not Spanish.
• 1:02:11
  So Jesus is Spanish. OK, Alvarez and Barwin, God,
• 1:02:16
  this one no time. Yeah, that starts or start
• 1:02:23
  Nunez. Off a bench controversial Who's
• 1:02:29
  the face tracker? Gabriel.
• 1:02:31
  Yeah. Julian Alvarez, Darwin Inez.
• 1:02:35
  I bench Alvarez and Sally Zeus. Same as me, wow, I was thought,
• 1:02:42
  Jesus, I think Alvarez is fantastic.
• 1:02:45
  We saw it in the World Cup. When he comes off the bench, he
• 1:02:47
  does impact. So he'll be on the bench and
• 1:02:49
  Darwin has to go. I'm sorry.
• 1:02:51
  Come on, bro. All right, What's the next one
• 1:02:53
  say? What's yours?
• 1:02:55
  I have no idea. What's the next?
• 1:02:57
  One I just see Jesus, I remember.
• 1:03:01
  So Alex Pep or Marino So managers talking about?
• 1:03:05
  It no starts up there, just ranking OK, I think in that
• 1:03:10
  order. So, Alex 10, Pep de Marino, come
• 1:03:13
  on. Pep and.
• 1:03:16
  Marino, Sir Alex, My guy, my guy.
• 1:03:20
  Why do you? Why do you put?
• 1:03:23
  So as a footballer, I'd say like playing on the pep bro.
• 1:03:27
  This guy's just beastly different.
• 1:03:29
  Different level. Marino, you just wrote for a bit
• 1:03:31
  more of him and I just would never play for Sir Alex.
• 1:03:33
  Or Sir Alex Highest points. No, but I do respect that.
• 1:03:37
  Like what, 79 points or something?
• 1:03:39
  You're OK? Yeah.
• 1:03:39
  I read this book actually, like my reason is I think obviously
• 1:03:43
  it's different generation, different errors.
• 1:03:46
  But Sir Alex Ferguson, I would say inspired, yeah, maybe
• 1:03:50
  generations since the 80s and what he done in Scotland, let
• 1:03:53
  alone what he done for Manchester United, is something
• 1:03:56
  unbelievable and will never be achieved again.
• 1:03:58
  That point, that point. I'll do the same as you.
• 1:04:00
  You're not going to lie, I I read.
• 1:04:02
  So Alex. I read Alex Ferguson, but not I
• 1:04:06
  would if I was a football player.
• 1:04:07
  I'd probably want to play for I. Think he's the favorite?
• 1:04:10
  I'd rather play for the player. That's the sort.
• 1:04:12
  Why? Yeah, not even because he unites
• 1:04:14
  other things like playing for path will be on mail, yeah, but
• 1:04:17
  you know. Just that he's like,
• 1:04:18
  psychopathic. Yeah, so I wouldn't be able to.
• 1:04:21
  I think all of them were incredible in the sense that
• 1:04:25
  they all, how can I say, had their aura about them.
• 1:04:28
  Yeah, wherever they go, there's an aura.
• 1:04:30
  And not a lot of managers in the world have this aura.
• 1:04:32
  Yeah, yeah. OK, say.
• 1:04:35
  Next year. Sala Hazard.
• 1:04:38
  Oh my, no, no, skip me. Sala Hazard or Neymar Mohammad
• 1:04:46
  Sala causes a Muslim Muslim podcast.
• 1:04:49
  Yeah, yeah. So.
• 1:04:50
  This is this is like peaks by the way.
• 1:04:52
  Peak Sala. Peak hazard peak Neymar.
• 1:04:54
  I've every talking peaks and like watching.
• 1:04:56
  I love watching Neymar, so I don't say to be honest.
• 1:04:59
  I've got yeah. Now for me, I his impact and I
• 1:05:06
  was going to mention this is a podcast.
• 1:05:08
  It's good to mention it now. When Salah first came to
• 1:05:11
  Liverpool, of course, he done an incredible job from the
• 1:05:13
  beginning and Islamophobia within Liverpool, which is
• 1:05:17
  usually very massive, went down, they say, by almost 20%, yeah,
• 1:05:22
  in the first three months of his presence because of the impact
• 1:05:24
  he made. So it's just an example of how
• 1:05:26
  much footballers can make an impact on communities.
• 1:05:28
  Mohammed Salah is like pioneer, bro.
• 1:05:30
  He's he's going to be eternal in our football club, but just
• 1:05:33
  generally in Muslim football for years certainly.
• 1:05:36
  Even when like because there's times where I I didn't used to
• 1:05:39
  be comfortable like like doing so do done on on the pitch like
• 1:05:43
  after I score a goal. I used to be kind of scared to
• 1:05:46
  do it until like last season and I've seen now do it after every
• 1:05:49
  goal and. But even not like I only do it
• 1:05:52
  cuz Sala salmas you know and I was like, you know what I should
• 1:05:55
  be doing. Although he didn't start it, he.
• 1:05:57
  Didn't start it and all but like cuz I watched it.
• 1:05:58
  Who started it? Well, I would say in in the
• 1:06:01
  Premier League then Baba and Pappisi said they were, yeah,
• 1:06:04
  yeah, Senegalese strikers who were both Muslim, of course, or
• 1:06:07
  the Egyptian national team players before that used to do
• 1:06:09
  it regularly. Yeah.
• 1:06:11
  Abutrika, the famous one, yeah. Not how you guys.
• 1:06:13
  I'm talking about legends. Yeah, sorry.
• 1:06:16
  I haven't had guys in this school to go.
• 1:06:17
  It's not all I say next one. Trent Reese Walker.
• 1:06:24
  Sorry Reese James. Trent Reese, James Carl Walker.
• 1:06:27
  So all English write backs. Yeah, How would you write that?
• 1:06:30
  I'm going. Trent Walker everything OK?
• 1:06:35
  I would say as a total footballer.
• 1:06:37
  Kyle Walker number one and then Trent second only because of
• 1:06:42
  Rich James's injuries. I think Trent Trent is
• 1:06:45
  incredible but I think it's more to do with his creativity as
• 1:06:49
  opposed to him being a fallback. So Trent 3rd?
• 1:06:51
  Just about. But Chant's got more assistant
• 1:06:54
  Azul Cazola, of course. Of course different levels, but
• 1:07:00
  we're talking about we're talking about him as a write
• 1:07:02
  back in particular. Yeah, that's why.
• 1:07:06
  Yeah, as in the more complete walkers, Definitely a more
• 1:07:08
  complete player. Yeah, in my opinion.
• 1:07:10
  OK, Trent will, probably. Walker's actually got a great
• 1:07:12
  legacy now behind him, but Trent will go down in history.
• 1:07:17
  I got revised that I would revise that of Trent 2nd and
• 1:07:20
  James said yeah. OK, I'll respect that.
• 1:07:23
  I'm gonna sell Trent. I go for the last one.
• 1:07:26
  You gone? Hopefully I can pronounce these
• 1:07:29
  Bellingham Pedri and. No idea.
• 1:07:33
  I mean, this is Musiala, but I know, I know, I need to now be
• 1:07:37
  OK, fine, let's go with that one first.
• 1:07:38
  Then we can revise it. Bellingham, Pedro Musiala.
• 1:07:42
  I say that all the to be honest. OK.
• 1:07:45
  Yeah, I think. I think Musiala is a striker.
• 1:07:50
  And he plays Cam. Yeah, Central pretend fielder.
• 1:07:52
  Yeah. I think Bellingham is looking
• 1:07:54
  like a generational footballer. I think it would have been, it
• 1:07:58
  would have been Pedri Bellingham, Masialo, Pedri
• 1:08:00
  Masialo, Bellingham. I think we've done the season so
• 1:08:03
  far, so far, I think in terms of the absolute potential.
• 1:08:08
  Who would you like to? Who would you like to play
• 1:08:09
  behind you as a striker? No, shout out the Brian.
• 1:08:19
  Really. Yeah.
• 1:08:21
  The Brian. OK and.
• 1:08:25
  The way he plays down balls into Harlem, it's just crazy bro who?
• 1:08:29
  Would you? Who would you compare your
• 1:08:30
  profile to as a striker? Are you kind of like target man?
• 1:08:35
  Are you a poacher? I'd say like I'm, I'm a mix
• 1:08:38
  between. I definitely like I'm very fast,
• 1:08:41
  so that's probably my main straight fast go for.
• 1:08:44
  I don't know. I'd say like the the runs and
• 1:08:48
  like my movements. I try and base, so that's the
• 1:08:49
  way Harlem plays. I like watching that Ally
• 1:08:53
  Watkins. He's quite.
• 1:08:54
  Like similar like build and start a play and say say those
• 1:08:58
  guys I like watching backing money so.
• 1:09:01
  The guys next level and I know you've got some ones you wanted
• 1:09:07
  to to mention terms off. Like rankings or players.
• 1:09:12
  I was going to say just do it like a football.
• 1:09:14
  Muslim football ranking will be nice, OK?
• 1:09:16
  So you've got your mind, Sadi Omani, Real Madras or Hamasala,
• 1:09:22
  which obviously what do you take as starting?
• 1:09:28
  And Mars, yes, I think that's, I mean from the start.
• 1:09:32
  OK, go on, go on. I think we're probably the same
• 1:09:33
  also. Yeah, I go Sala.
• 1:09:38
  You want to say Satya, but you know Mars is the answer.
• 1:09:40
  Yeah, I say it's Sala Mars. And then money, definitely.
• 1:09:46
  Mara is just so good to watch, man.
• 1:09:48
  Yeah, Madam, you know, canate Rudiga.
• 1:09:53
  You can't really say bongs throw him in, can't they?
• 1:09:58
  What defensive? Can't say, can't say yeah.
• 1:10:01
  I mean, that was a bit of a weird way.
• 1:10:03
  Can't say that OK anymore. No, I think that these are the
• 1:10:08
  main ones I have. If you have anymore, Charlotte
• 1:10:10
  will have more great Muslim footballers.
• 1:10:12
  And Charlotte Ali Hammadi, Ali Janabi, Ali Rado, by the way,
• 1:10:20
  when I was younger. Well, we used to have CYC versus
• 1:10:28
  all of the welfare association matches.
• 1:10:30
  We used to play in quicker with, if you remember, yes, yes, and
• 1:10:32
  Ali was excellent on the bench. I have the kids.
• 1:10:39
  Someone asks me which three would I want?
• 1:10:44
  God ask me, maybe some of the legends, Maybe someone I'm sure
• 1:10:47
  you remember. Something I'll give you.
• 1:10:49
  An article. Ronaldo, Messi and Maradona.
• 1:10:58
  I remember Maradona very young when I was young.
• 1:11:00
  OK, not Chinese age. I'll go with him first, yeah.
• 1:11:08
  Then I'll go with Messi and then Ronaldo.
• 1:11:11
  Maradona. Messi.
• 1:11:12
  Maradona stopped. Before you're born, have you?
• 1:11:14
  Huh. No, I don't.
• 1:11:15
  Stop. What?
• 1:11:16
  Late 80s? More 995, roughly. 995 like this
• 1:11:21
  No when. Was it Napoli?
• 1:11:22
  That was his prime, but he retired.
• 1:11:25
  Around, Yeah, Very interesting. So, Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo,
• 1:11:29
  Yeah. So, you know, I was in our mind.
• 1:11:31
  Watch, by the way, London the other day.
• 1:11:33
  And someone asked me very random, like, who do you
• 1:11:36
  support? Like, I think I went for like
• 1:11:38
  the same as I'm going through now.
• 1:11:40
  And I was like, look, I'll be very honest, in years I haven't
• 1:11:43
  seen football growing up. I support United, all right.
• 1:11:46
  And the guy was like, he got excited, he sportsman United as
• 1:11:49
  well. And he was like, who's the go?
• 1:11:50
  Who's the goat? I don't know what goat means, by
• 1:11:53
  the way. So last year we spoke about
• 1:11:54
  football. He's like goat means the
• 1:11:56
  greatest of all, something. So I was like, he asked me
• 1:11:59
  Ronaldo, Messi. I was like Messi.
• 1:12:02
  Like, I got pissed off. Like you should betray.
• 1:12:05
  You betrayed. You know, I was like, no, the
• 1:12:06
  truth is the truth at the end of the day.
• 1:12:08
  Yeah, That's ultimately being a Shia Muslim podcast.
• 1:12:10
  We're all confused. If you are confused, let me
• 1:12:12
  just. Are you too messy or Ronaldo?
• 1:12:14
  I'm Renaldo, bro. Come on, bro.
• 1:12:16
  I use one of my heroes growing up as well.
• 1:12:19
  Not life, not. I just love him and I love how
• 1:12:21
  he. But to be fair, when he plays in
• 1:12:23
  that #9, yeah, you you're similar to you, I.
• 1:12:26
  Love how he plays. Because he's must be some of the
• 1:12:29
  height similar. Yes, yes, compared to an ad on
• 1:12:34
  doing something right. Yeah, fair play.
• 1:12:36
  Yeah. Oh guys, thank you so much for
• 1:12:39
  for coming on and for agreeing to be here and I think it's,
• 1:12:42
  it's been an interesting, definitely an eye opening
• 1:12:45
  conversation for me. I've really enjoyed it, said.
• 1:12:47
  I know you have as well. I really didn't believe in my
• 1:12:49
  perspective on football has changed.
• 1:12:51
  Yeah, it wasn't that negative. Just to just I've seen it on my
• 1:12:54
  chair and this. I've been loved for football.
• 1:12:57
  I think now seeing more Muslim players and more, you know,
• 1:13:00
  representation, especially when upcoming or not upcoming.
• 1:13:02
  But Michelle, we see you more on the pitch, representing Islam,
• 1:13:05
  representing our beautiful method, the method of Ahlil
• 1:13:08
  Bates. And to recalibrate everyone's
• 1:13:09
  minds, there's a loss of Panamata Allah, Muhammad, Rasul
• 1:13:13
  Allah. And choosing by the three.
• 1:13:18
  If anyone is not subscribed already, hit that subscribe
• 1:13:22
  button on the aftermath of the podcast.
• 1:13:24
  If you're new to the channel, make sure you get in touch with
• 1:13:26
  us. If you've got feedback, leave a
• 1:13:28
  comment below. And yeah, just to wrap up guys,
• 1:13:31
  Ali Hammadi is from Say thank you so much bro.
• 1:13:33
  What's what's? What's?
• 1:13:34
  What's next for you? What can we expect?
• 1:13:36
  What's the come? Justin Sharla, The season goes
• 1:13:40
  well again. Score.
• 1:13:42
  Score loads of goals and yeah, Charlotte.
• 1:13:44
  Like, just keep moving up to the leagues and and Charlotte
• 1:13:46
  playing the you've got the Asian Cup in general, yeah?
• 1:13:49
  About Asian Cup in general. That'll be really big.
• 1:13:51
  That'll. Be exciting though.
• 1:13:52
  Charlotte on the I'll be in the Premier League.
• 1:13:54
  Charlotte on the Yeah, nice club partner, man.
• 1:13:58
  United. No.
• 1:13:58
  Come on, bro. I need you now.
• 1:14:01
  Be thank you bro. I really appreciate you being
• 1:14:04
  and keep doing what you're doing.
• 1:14:05
  You're you're doing incredible work both for for charities,
• 1:14:09
  organization, organizations and even now as well in the sporting
• 1:14:12
  world and long may it continue Charlotte.
• 1:14:15
  That's. What it says, Well, like thank
• 1:14:16
  you guys because you I don't know if I decided today, but
• 1:14:19
  you've had massive impact on me. And and it's very relatable to
• 1:14:24
  to to me and and I love listening to it.
• 1:14:26
  So I just keep keep doing what you're doing and keep inspiring.
• 1:14:30
  Thank you. So much, man.
• 1:14:32
  That means a lot. I mean, we all remember five
• 1:14:35
  years ago, you coming through. Honestly, I remember you and I
• 1:14:38
  spoke speaking about Ali Hammadi many years ago.
• 1:14:41
  So it means a lot now to hear that we can do something to give
• 1:14:45
  back. And yeah, thank you, man.
• 1:14:47
  It means a lot. All right guys.
• 1:14:49
  As always, we will be back next week for after market and we are
• 1:14:52
  fast approaching the end of Season 2.
• 1:14:55
  You will soon see new sets, new designs for both the podcast and
• 1:14:58
  for July night. So don't go anywhere.
• 1:15:00
  If you've got suggestions as well, let us know and we'll see
• 1:15:03
  you next week. We'll stay tuned.
• 1:15:04
  We'll start while they come the live or cut.