Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Chris Navalta on his new book "Inspiring Stories of Soccer Greats" released ahead next month's World Cup

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Chris Navalta on his new book "Inspiring Stories of Soccer Greats" released ahead next month's World Cup · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You were listening to my Shan O'Connell show, your source
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  Speaker 1: for the best Utes football company. Here's OC from the
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  Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to
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  Speaker 1: one a half am.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Shan o'conno Show. Welcome in Chris Navalta,
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  Speaker 2: author of several great sports books. We had him on
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  Speaker 2: when he released Basketball Stars, Stories and Skills from the
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  Speaker 2: NBA and WNBA's best Players, and now joining us to
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  Speaker 2: talk about the next project, inspiring Stories of soccer greats.
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  Speaker 2: Chris Navalta, Chris, welcome to the show. How are you good?
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  Speaker 3: John? Glad to be here. I have to say that
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  Speaker 3: when I was with you last time I signed off,
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  Speaker 3: I think I said go Utes. And my high school
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  Speaker 3: teammate in football who attended the University of BYU lives
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  Speaker 3: here and heard that and didn't appreciate itself. Just wanted
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  Speaker 3: to give a shout out to my old teammate justin Neville.
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  Speaker 2: Well you know what, this is the Utah station. So
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  Speaker 2: you chose the right team to root for as you
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  Speaker 2: were signing off and go you say, I understand though,
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  Speaker 2: why someone who went to be y you might not
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  Speaker 2: have loved it quite as much, all.
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  Speaker 3: Right, So.
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  Speaker 2: I asked you this last time when we were getting
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  Speaker 2: into the basketball book, but why why tell these stories?
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  Speaker 2: Why decide to take on a big soccer project like
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  Speaker 2: this one.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you mentioned the World Cups coming up, so
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  Speaker 3: I thought the timing was perfect, and you know, with
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  Speaker 3: the success of Basketball Stars, I thought like, this is
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  Speaker 3: a I think we have something going here. I think
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  Speaker 3: it's really important to tell these stories of these superstar
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  Speaker 3: players who we see as superheroes on ESPN, and similar
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  Speaker 3: to basketball stars, you know, the stories behind inspiring stories
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  Speaker 3: of soccer greats. Wanted to pull a curtain behind some
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  Speaker 3: of these athletes and show that, you know, before they
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  Speaker 3: were Superman or wonder Woman, these were the struggles that
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  Speaker 3: they went through growing up when they were let's just
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  Speaker 3: say Clark Kent or Diana Prince. So that's almost the
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  Speaker 3: same premise, but now we're talking about soccer greats.
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  Speaker 2: You mentioned in the preface on the book that the
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  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four World Cup was kind of the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of your own soccer interest in fandom, and obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we've got another North American World Cup coming up, which
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  Speaker 2: does make the timing on this book release makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: But also you know, it's the premier sporting event really
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  Speaker 2: in the world. It's the number one sports spectator sport
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  Speaker 2: in the world. It's not the number one spectator sport
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  Speaker 2: in the United States, but together with Canada and Mexico,
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  Speaker 2: we get to host the world's biggest sports party. How
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  Speaker 2: much interest does this have for you? Are you going
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  Speaker 2: to make sure you get yourself to an event? What
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  Speaker 2: are your plans?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so. Being from the San Francisco area, we
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  Speaker 3: will have some games hosted at Levi Stadium. I'm eyeballing
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  Speaker 3: that Paraguay VERSUS Australian match because I think that's gonna
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  Speaker 3: be a tough one. But yeah, to your point, Sean,
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  Speaker 3: I you know, it just brings out the best in
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  Speaker 3: all of us. I think back in nineteen ninety four
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  Speaker 3: when I first started watching soccer and just seeing everybody
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  Speaker 3: come together and seeing all the camaraderie and really having
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  Speaker 3: a lot of pride for your country. You know, regardless
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  Speaker 3: where you're from. I think it is a one big party.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I think sometimes when we go to
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  Speaker 3: college games or even in the pros, there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of that, you know, bitterness and rivalry. Sometimes fans take
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  Speaker 3: it too far, but I think we with soccer like
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  Speaker 3: it's an opportunity to really, you know, show how beautiful
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  Speaker 3: this game is and really show how we are as
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  Speaker 3: real fans. And so I'm looking forward to it, you know,
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  Speaker 3: So it's going to be an exciting few weeks.
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  Speaker 2: The first story in the book, if I'm not mistaken,
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  Speaker 2: is also a World Cup story about the nineteen ninety
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  Speaker 2: nine Women's World Cup, which really, I mean women's soccer
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  Speaker 2: has grown. There's now a pribing professional league and things
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  Speaker 2: like that, and you go back to the iconic win
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  Speaker 2: and the you know, the celebration, the Brandy Chas Stain
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  Speaker 2: and Mia Hamm. These are the icons of women's soccer
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  Speaker 2: in the United States and just you know, telling that
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  Speaker 2: story must have been a fun little trip down memory lane.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely, And it's not a mistake that that's
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  Speaker 3: how I start the book with the nineteen ninety nine
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  Speaker 3: US women's soccer team, I think, because they not only
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  Speaker 3: transcended women's soccer, but you can argue and say that
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  Speaker 3: they also transcended women's sports and how we watch it.
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  Speaker 3: You know, back then, you know, we were watching women's
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  Speaker 3: sports like the way we are now. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: I go into the book saying how they basically had
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  Speaker 3: to market themselves without help from US Soccer, and so
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  Speaker 3: they put in their own funding for travel and marketing
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  Speaker 3: and appearances. And then they and then I think, to
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  Speaker 3: their credit, they helped raise that awareness. And all of
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  Speaker 3: a sudden, they're asking for these matches to be played
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  Speaker 3: in bigger stadiums, so Giant Stadium, Pasadena, so. And sure
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  Speaker 3: enough everybody came out and saw what they did. And
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  Speaker 3: I think there's still it's still a record for a
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  Speaker 3: most watched women's soccer match when they played against China
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  Speaker 3: in the final. So it was super important to lead
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  Speaker 3: with that because I think even you know, oh this
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  Speaker 3: is a soccer chapter, you could say that they made
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  Speaker 3: their footprint on how we watch women's sports in general.
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  Speaker 2: So you go in the book from that kind of
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  Speaker 2: iconic I think all of us remember it to a
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  Speaker 2: much lesser known character, much lesser known story, and making
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  Speaker 2: that choice, what is that like? Because obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you can play the hits, so to speak, you can
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  Speaker 2: stick with the stuff that everyone knows and has a
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  Speaker 2: connection to. But as an author, it's all up to you.
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  Speaker 2: It's your license to tell the stories that you want
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  Speaker 2: to tell. How do you go from you know, a
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  Speaker 2: huge iconic, memorable moment that everyone has a connection to
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  Speaker 2: to then you know UK blind soccer player.
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  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, and so that's the second chapter with David Clark,
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  Speaker 3: the highest goal scorer in English football history. But like
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  Speaker 3: you just said, people don't know about him because he
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  Speaker 3: actually played blind. And yeah, that's a great question because
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  Speaker 3: I think I saw a stat that said there are
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  Speaker 3: one hundred and thirty thousand professional soccer players in the world,
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  Speaker 3: male and female. And so the question is how do
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  Speaker 3: I compartmentalize that into twelve chapters in this book. So,
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  Speaker 3: and they all have their own story, right, So I
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  Speaker 3: think my aim was to find players with stories that
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  Speaker 3: could be relatable to everyday kids. So David Clark being blind,
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  Speaker 3: Gigi Buffon, the most decorated goalkeeper in international soccer history,
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  Speaker 3: had anxiety. Marta, one of the greatest players female players
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  Speaker 3: in Brazil, her own family didn't wanted to play soccer
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  Speaker 3: because of how women's soccer was perceived in her country.
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  Speaker 3: And then we have Messi who was just here playing
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  Speaker 3: Real Salt Lake. He suffered a stunt in his growth
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  Speaker 3: and so I think that when kids pick up this book,
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  Speaker 3: I think they may find a story that they can
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  Speaker 3: actually relate to, whether it is inequality or social injustice,
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  Speaker 3: or a physical or mental challenge. So that was my aim,
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  Speaker 3: was that finding stories that were relatable.
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  Speaker 2: Christa Walta is our guest here on the Seoan of
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  Speaker 2: Connell Show talking about his new book coming out, Inspiring
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  Speaker 2: Stories of Soccer Greats. So, basketball soccer, are you? Are
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  Speaker 2: you planning on making a series kind of every You're
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  Speaker 2: gonna go systematically through all the sports or at least
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  Speaker 2: the ones you have connections to.
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  Speaker 3: I would love to is a short answer. The thought
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  Speaker 3: cross in my mind. I think, you know, I unfortunately
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  Speaker 3: I missed the boat on the Winter Olympics just last
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  Speaker 3: just earlier this year. I would love to do something
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  Speaker 3: in the Summer Olympics in a couple of years, so
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  Speaker 3: I have a little bit of time. But yeah, like
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  Speaker 3: I you know, I'm a big baseball and American football fan,
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  Speaker 3: So that's something that I would like to dive into
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  Speaker 3: as well, because there are there are plenty of these
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  Speaker 3: stories out there, just like when I highlighted them in
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  Speaker 3: Basketball Stars, and I don't think people understand or appreciate
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  Speaker 3: just the work they put themselves into to get to
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  Speaker 3: where they are. You know, it's out there for people
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  Speaker 3: to just do a quick Google search, but I don't
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  Speaker 3: think they really put that into perspective what they really
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  Speaker 3: had to go through. So yeah, I would I would
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  Speaker 3: love to keep this going.
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  Speaker 2: Do you find when you're you know, you're trying to
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  Speaker 2: interview people, when you're doing research, when you're fact finding
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  Speaker 2: for these that there's a maybe a different tone or
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  Speaker 2: a different level of willingness to participate because these are
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  Speaker 2: children's books. I mean, when we're talking about some of
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  Speaker 2: these athletes, especially in soccer, these are the biggest stars
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  Speaker 2: on the entire planet. And you know, even if you
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  Speaker 2: know messif if you were like a schoolmate of Messy,
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  Speaker 2: people are going to be asking you for interviews. They're
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  Speaker 2: gonna be talking to you. They're gonna be wondering what
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  Speaker 2: MESSI is about. And I imagine people there's some fatigue
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  Speaker 2: on telling these stories and answering these questions. But do
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  Speaker 2: you find that because it's a children's book project that
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  Speaker 2: you get some decent engagement.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? I think so. And because my audience or children,
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  Speaker 3: I actually find a little bit of joy in that
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  Speaker 3: because you know, the way I get into my process
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  Speaker 3: of writing is I imagine somebody asking me how good
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  Speaker 3: was MESSI when he was in his prime? How good
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  Speaker 3: was how good is Christian Pulisich who is currently on
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  Speaker 3: the men's US soccer team. Those types of questions, and
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  Speaker 3: then I kind of imagine myself kind of sitting by
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  Speaker 3: the fire and telling these stories, these old tales of players,
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  Speaker 3: but not their achievements, but just you know, everything that
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  Speaker 3: they went through. So I don't I don't get tired
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  Speaker 3: of it because I think that it helps give a
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  Speaker 3: three hundred and sixty degree view of who they are,
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  Speaker 3: not just as players, as people. And yeah, I'm happy
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  Speaker 3: to continue doing that in terms of like talking to
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  Speaker 3: the athletes. Yeah, sometimes there was a player I'll keep
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  Speaker 3: them nameless where I wanted to interview him for the
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  Speaker 3: Basketball Stars book and he politely declined because I think
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  Speaker 3: I just gave him an idea for him to write
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  Speaker 3: his own children's book. So yeah, So that's that's the
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  Speaker 3: kind of feedback I've been getting, and you know, much
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  Speaker 3: respect because it's their story, right, and if they want
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  Speaker 3: to do that, that's that's I have no problem with that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I kind of have a problem with that. That's
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  Speaker 2: not cool, Like, don't still somebody else's idea? Did you
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  Speaker 2: with these stories that you put in this most recent book,
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  Speaker 2: Were these all stories that you that you knew offhand?
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  Speaker 2: Or did you learn about a lot of this like.
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  Speaker 3: On the way? Yeah? No, I learned a lot of
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  Speaker 3: this along the way. One example is I have a
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  Speaker 3: chapter about the twenty fifteen sixteen Leicester City football club
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  Speaker 3: who overcame insurmountable odds to win the Premier League. Like
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  Speaker 3: you know, they were on the verge of being relegated
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  Speaker 3: to the lower tier league just a season prior, and
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  Speaker 3: then they go into the following year at five thousand
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  Speaker 3: to one odds to win the whole thing, And so
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  Speaker 3: to kind of put that into perspective, before the NBA
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  Speaker 3: season started this year, the Jazz were one thousand and
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  Speaker 3: one odds, So Leicester City had five times steeper odds
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  Speaker 3: to win and somehow they did it. And so that
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  Speaker 3: was actually one of my more favorite projects to research
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  Speaker 3: because they were literally a team like Jamie Vardi was
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  Speaker 3: the leading scorer, but there were really no real superstars
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  Speaker 3: on that team, and they just all came together and
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  Speaker 3: then before you knew it before and when it was
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  Speaker 3: too late, like they'd already won the whole thing. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: that was then example. But there were a lot of
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  Speaker 3: things I found out about these players doing these research
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  Speaker 3: that helped me grow a much bigger appreciation for them.
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  Speaker 2: Christavalter for another couple of minutes here on the Sean
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  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show, talking about his new book, Inspiring Stories of
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  Speaker 2: Soccer Greats. Where can people find it? Where's this thing
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  Speaker 2: going to be available?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they can easily find it on Amazon. It debuted
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  Speaker 3: at number two among the new releases back in April.
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  Speaker 3: But it's also available at local bookstores. So that's always
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  Speaker 3: something that I want to preaches, like support your local
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  Speaker 3: bookstores and find a copy there. But yeah, it's also
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  Speaker 3: available on Amazon.
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  Speaker 2: Chris, I love that you've collected these stories. I like
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  Speaker 2: the format you put this thing in. I like the
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  Speaker 2: way that you kind of you give us the play,
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  Speaker 2: the hits, but then you give us something that maybe
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  Speaker 2: we didn't know much about. Give me an anecdote if
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  Speaker 2: you don't mind, without spoiling too much in the book.
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  Speaker 2: That was maybe the most rewarding part of the process
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  Speaker 2: of writing this book.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that like, each chapter has a fun
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  Speaker 3: fact and sometimes it's not even soccer related without saying
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  Speaker 3: well being too descriptive, like sometimes in his early days,
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  Speaker 3: Messi's pregame meal was not necessarily the healthiest of foods.
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  Speaker 3: So this is another example of me highlighting things that
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  Speaker 3: kids may be able to relate to. That doesn't necessarily
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  Speaker 3: mean you can continue gorging on pizza, hot dogs, burgers
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  Speaker 3: for the rest of your athletic career, but it does
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  Speaker 3: show that you know these Again, these players are human too,
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  Speaker 3: so you know that's just one example, and then there
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  Speaker 3: are other fun factoids of each of these players too
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  Speaker 3: in each chapter.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I look forward to figuring out what the next
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  Speaker 2: project is going to be. And obviously, if you're listening
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  Speaker 2: right now and you're looking for a great children's book,
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  Speaker 2: Inspiring Stories of Soccer Greats from Chris Nevalta, you can
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  Speaker 2: find it at your local bookstore, you can find it
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  Speaker 2: at your big box bookstore, you can find it online.
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  Speaker 2: Inspiring Stories of Soccer Greats is the name of the project. Chris,
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  Speaker 2: thanks so much for hopping on again today.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me out again. Had a lot
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  Speaker 3: of fun