For over a decade, Quincy Amarikwa has managed to survive in a league that is often unforgiving and ruthless towards domestic players. During his time in MLS, the 32-year-old striker has roamed all across North America, playing for San Jose Earthquakes, Colorado Rapids, Toronto FC, Chicago Fire, Montreal Impact, and D.C. United. No matter the destination, Amarikwa has typically been a reliable target-man who isn’t afraid of doing the scrappy work to win, which is perhaps why he has been able to outlast many of his contemporaries. Most notably, though, Amarikwa is known for his mind games on the pitch and his vibrant attitude in the locker room.

Last season, in a game against Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s L.A. Galaxy, Amarikwa visibly frustrated the Swedish international and other Galaxy players with his on-field talk, and he was crucial in earning D.C. United a much-needed victory en route to the playoffs. Following the match, Amarikwa’s Mental Strength League (MSL) and Perfect Soccer initiatives gained a wide spotlight as a result of the striker’s ability to wear down one of soccer’s biggest egos.

Despite only recently gaining broad attention, Amarikwa’s projects have been in the works for quite some time. In fact, his business curriculum has steadily grown in tandem with his pro soccer career for the past decade. Since his childhood, Amarikwa always knew he would at some point start his own business, and he finally put this idea to fruition ten years ago alongside his Colorado Rapids teammate Ross LaBauex. After meeting in the Colorado squad that won the 2010 MLS Cup, both teammates wrote a book to share their tips to soccer success. Over the last few years, Perfect Soccer has evolved into a multifaceted company that provides mentoring, 1 on 1 coaching, training resources, and interactive social media content that allows fans to connect live with Amarikwa and other players for advice and discussions.

With the decade coming to a close, we sat down with Quincy Amarikwa at a Washington D.C. cafe to look back at his pro soccer and business career as a whole, discuss the importance of mental strength in soccer, and analyze the growth of U.S. soccer over the last ten years.

Amarikwa begins by tracing his winding — and at times uncertain — path to professional soccer, starting in his native Bakersfield, California. He gives insight into how he was drafted into the league, talks about his MLS Cup victory with the Colorado Rapids in 2010, and shares how Perfect Soccer came to be. Lastly, Amarikwa gives his opinion on the growth of U.S. soccer over the past decade, criticizing certain financial and youth development decisions made by MLS and the USMNT.

Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

How did you get introduced to soccer and what was your experience like playing soccer in California?

I got introduced to soccer by my dad. My dad is Nigerian. Born and raised in Owerri, Nigeria. We used to go play what you’d call Nigerian league every Saturday in Bakersfield, California. We’d usually go to the local college, Cal State Bakersfield. We played there for half of the time while I was growing up and then we transitioned to a park on the other side of town. Every Saturday we’d go out and play. And we’d do a free-form game where it’s open to everyone. So it starts out being 3v3 and it turns into 60v60, like one hundred yards long and the goals are three feet wide by two feet high. So there’d be like four people in front of goal and it’s almost impossible to score. But that’s my first experience with soccer. That’s where I got introduced to it and that’s probably where I learned my aggressive play and my approach to the game. It was also a great way for me to develop a close relationship with my dad. We would spend our times on the weekends together. If we weren’t playing in the Nigerian league on Saturdays, then I’d be going to play club soccer. My dad was my coach for a couple of years until I went to play club when he thought it was time for me to be coached by someone else.

At what age did you transition to playing club soccer and what was that like?

So I joined Bakersfield Alliance when I was nine or ten. On the weekends we would drive down south to our home field, which was two hours away in Lancaster since Bakersfield didn’t have a robust soccer community at that point in time. So that’s where we’d drive to play on the weekends with my team. While driving me and my dad would listen to talk radio. We’d listen to that and talk a lot. I spent a lot of time with my dad and soccer was a big part of how we spent our time together.

When did you decide you wanted to go pro? Did you know early in your childhood that this is what you wanted to do as a career?

I never made that decision actually. I made the decision to go pro when I was offered a pro contract. The first time I ever thought about going pro was after the end of my senior year of college. My teammate Chris Beville was stretching after practice one day and he looked at me and said ‘we all know you’re going pro.’ And that’s the first time I heard of that concept — professional soccer — as even being a thought or an idea in my head.

So when you transitioned from high school into college it was never with the intention of going pro?

No. Soccer has always been a means to an end, and that end was to pay for school. So when I was in high school, I was thinking of whether I could use soccer to get a scholarship to pay for school. I was gonna do medical school and that’s expensive, so I didn’t wanna pay for that. In Nigerian culture you can be three things: a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. And I knew I couldn’t bullshit my way to being an engineer because my dad is one. But I chose medicine because I did a pre-med trip to UCLA when I was younger. That was a trip where I learned a lot of things. Ironically, one of them was that I wasn’t going to be a doctor.

What steered you away from medicine and towards soccer?

I saw how long the process was. It’s four years of undergrad, four years of medical school, then two to four years of residency. You’re not actively practicing medicine until you’re 32 years old.

But you still decided to study pre-med in college.

I walk through life assuming I’m right — ‘cause everybody does — but I’m open to the idea that I could be wrong. So even though at that time I decided I wasn’t going to be a doctor, I still thought that if being a doctor was my worst-case scenario then that was not a bad worst-case scenario. I still knew I was gonna start a business and run a business one day, but I knew that if I wasn’t as good as I thought I was, or things didn’t pan out, then having a doctorate would be okay. So I still decided to go to school to do pre-med, but that day at UCLA is when I realized I’m not gonna be a doctor.

So how did you end up playing soccer at UC Davis?

In high school, like I said, I was trying to use soccer as a means to get a scholarship, but no one’s recruiting me or reaching out. I didn’t understand that process or didn’t know how it worked because I didn’t know anyone who’d done it. I had a lot of false assumptions, and that’s why I wrote a book, which you can check out at perfectsoccerskills.com/college. That book helps you understand the full recruiting process and walks you step-by-step on how to get college offers, but I can give you a broad overview.

The assumption that I had, which I later found out was wrong when I got to college, was that if you do well, then people will see you and offer you contracts or a scholarship. I actually didn’t get any recruiting offers. I just thought you score a bunch of goals a season and that’s it. But I didn’t get any offers, so I just thought I wasn’t good enough.

Anyway, the last game of my youth soccer career was at Nomads Tournament down in San Diego. We made it far enough to play a premier league team. Can’t remember the name. But it was a ten o’clock game at night — the last game of my career. Two coaches happened to be at my game recruiting the next year out, watching the other team. And in that game they both saw me and asked around to see who I was and how old I was. I was 16 as a senior, so I was young. They asked, ‘who is he playing for, who’s recruited him?’ The answer was nobody. But that night they recruited me and offered me a scholarship.

But you were originally gonna go to Berkeley right?

Yeah, I got into Berkeley academically. I was a pole vaulter in high school, and I had the pole vaulting record at Bakersfield. I looked at the pole vaulting heights at Berkeley, and I knew my height was good enough to make it into their team. So my plan was to go to Berkeley and try to walk-on to the track and field team and earn a scholarship that way. I thought ‘okay I guess I’m not good enough at soccer, so I’m gonna have to pole vault.’ My idea was basically to go to undergrad for pre-med, try to walk-on for pole vaulting, get a scholarship to pay for school, and start a business while I’m in college so I don’t have to go to medical school.

In the end I chose UC Davis because it was better academically. And that’s where I spent my four years. That’s where I learned the whole soccer process. That’s where I realized I could’ve been at a much higher organization and team, much earlier, if I had known this, this and that. But I didn’t.

Is that how the idea behind Perfect Soccer came to be? How does Ross LaBauex fit into the story?

Ross was the polar opposite from me in high school. Ross was reaching out to coaches and doing all this stuff since he was 12 years old. So by the time he was 17, he had 25-plus recruitment offers. He went to UVA. When I met Ross in Colorado, I heard his story and how he got there, and it was the polar opposite of mine. And that’s when I said ‘hey, we need to write a book and build a company around this.’ I’ve never seen anyone who likes to talk about soccer more than Ross. I don’t like talking about soccer. I don’t like coaching it or teaching it really. I know I can and I’m good at it, but I’ve never really enjoyed that. At the time I preferred to work with people who already knew how to do stuff. But Ross loved it, and I told him about the company and how he could just talk about soccer for the rest of his life. So I told him that in order to start, I needed him to tell me his story. Then, I connected it to mine and started building all this stuff. So that’s how Perfect Soccer started.

Zlatan said he’s MLS, well I’m MSL. Shut your bitch ass down. What’re you gonna do? You got shut down by a nobody. Why? Because you don’t understand our league.

One of the main concepts that you stress through Perfect Soccer is mental strength. How important is the mental aspect of the game?

Mental is the most important. It’s the only thing that matters. You could be the strongest, tallest, biggest guy on the field, but if I can creep into your mind and throw you off your game, what good does that do you?

When did you learn that the mental aspect was the most important part of soccer?

For me, I’ve always believed it’s the most important, but probably two years ago I learned it’s the most important.

How exactly?

So two years ago, as we are walking with my teammates to go play 5v2, we’re having a conversation about philosophical stuff. We’re playing, and I’m still talking to them, and my teammates keeps telling me to stop. And I’m like ‘what are you talking about, let’s finish this conversation we’re gonna have to warm up soon.’ And they couldn’t do it, and it confused me. They kept going like ‘come on I need to focus on this.’ And I’m like ‘what are you talking about why? Why can’t we talk and you do this?’

That was the first time I had to go home and self-reflect. So I started talking to other guys and they couldn’t do it. So it took me a little while to figure out what the fuck’s going on. What’s happening? I didn’t know that the concepts that I think about while I’m playing are things that people spend no time thinking about. When I’m playing a game I’m thinking like twenty steps ahead. Like chess moves. But I didn’t realize people weren’t doing that. I’ve been overthinking for ten years because I never watched anyone play, and I never talked to anybody who played at a high level. I just assumed that they’re making super long moves. So I have ten years of experience of thinking twenty steps ahead, and I come to find out that everyone is only thinking two steps ahead. So it’s like I’m an idiot. But I’m the idiot with the huge advantage over everybody else because no one else knows how to think a hundred steps ahead. So that’s when I found that out.

So it’s all down to mental strength.

All of it comes down to mentality. That’s what I was trying to figure out and learn. Because Ross, where he started, had the mentality of most pro players. And it’s because of Ross’ mentality that he ended up out of the league in three years. It’s not because of his talent, or ability — he was good, he could play — but he was too naive to get what you have to do to survive at the professional level.

What have you done to survive for eleven years?

I’ve stuck to my principles and been willing to be lied on and discarded. To stick to my principles, essentially.

One of the things that you’ve mentioned in your podcasts before is that you always need to clearly show the value that you can bring to an organization or a person. So what do you think is the value that you bring to a specific team when you’re playing for them?

I think I bring the most important aspect for a team: culture. But that’s scary to a lot of coaches because they’re scared of having someone so influential in their locker room. Someone who they don’t understand. But the problem is they’ve never tried to sit down and understand me. They’ve tried to put me in a box and decide who I am rather than ask me who I am. And that’s their mistake, and everyone has made that mistake for a long time. But I’m grateful for them making that mistake because that’s why I’m so good at what I do.

And you’re actually your own manager, right?

Yeah.

What’s that like? Specifically, when it comes to dealing with teams and all that.

It depends because now at this point in time people know who I am. At least enough to enquire if they’re interested. Early on it’s more difficult. At first I had agents. I had representation earlier in my career. Not because I wanted to. But because I had to. I didn’t know how it worked so I had to pay someone to see how it works. That’s why I talk to a lot of guys and tell them that if the agent isn’t willing to teach you how he does his job and what he does, then he’s not representing you to the best of his ability and capacity. He should be able to show you what he does and how and why. After you see all that, you make the decision that he’s the guy you want representing you. He should be telling you and showing you how he works. But most agents don’t because they don’t have to. But with how I’m speaking and telling everyone about it, in the next couple of years they’re gonna have to because I’m teaching everybody how to do it themselves. Then, once you know how to do it yourself then you’re gonna pick the person who does it best, not the person who’s been doing it longer. Just cause you’ve been doing something for longer doesn’t mean shit. It meant stuff in this old system, but not this new one.





I didn’t play at any high level. I didn’t play with any of those guys. The general expectation was that I wasn’t even going to make a team and that if I did, I was only gonna be around for a year or two and that’s it.

Going back to your college days, how did you make the jump from college into the MLS? What was that process like?

I did really well in my time at Davis. And the MLS invited me to the combine. That was the first time I heard about that. I didn’t even know what that was.

Yeah, so how did that actually work?

At that time, how it worked, is you flew up to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and you were there for like a week. You do physicals and all that. They also split you into six teams, and you play three or four games, and teams look at you and stuff. It’s pretty half-assed to be honest. It wasn’t as professional and as good as it should be. I think on my team I had guys like Steve Zakuani and Omar Gonzalez. There’s a lot of guys from that combine class who are still in the league or just now starting to retire. Chris Pontius was there. I think A.J. DeLaGarza was there too. There’s a lot of people from that draft class who are still in the league. I think that was the year of the mindset that was necessary to kind of make it through for a long time.

What else can you tell us about that MLS combine?

I remember distinctly Zakuani was on my team and I was not impressed. I think it was after the college season’s done, so a lot of guys are coming out of shape, and I just wasn’t impressed. It was the first time I ever met him, so it was just at face value. I wasn’t impressed. And other people were saying ‘he’s gonna be the #1 draft pick’ and I was surprised by that. But they told me to go check out his YouTube, and I went to see his highlight tape and I was like ‘oh shit this guy is high level.’ So my assumption is that a lot of those guys weren’t really trying all that much because they already knew they were going to a team and had stuff set.

What I now know looking back — and I won’t speak on anyone’s behalf — is that no one knew who I was. No one had any reason to. I didn’t play at any high level. I didn’t play with any of those guys. The general expectation was that I wasn’t even going to make a team and that if I did I was only gonna be around for a year or two and that’s it.

And how did you end up being selected by San Jose?

I was in my Bio 104 lab at Davis, and my phone started blowing up with text messages saying congratulations. I didn’t know what it was about, and then they were like ‘oh you were drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes.’ I didn’t know what being drafted meant. So I finished my lab, went back to my dorm, and I did research to see what it meant. Once you learn what it actually means you realize it doesn’t really mean anything. It meant you have a tryout with the team, and not only is it just a tryout, but you can’t get a tryout with any other team because San Jose called dibs. Basically the draft then was dibs.

Does it still work like that today?

To some capacity, yes. But not to the degree that it did when I started. There’s still teams who own the rights of players. There’s people who aren’t even in the league, but teams have discovery rights. If the person ever wants to come back to the league — dibs — they get to offer them a contract first. How stupid is that?

It does sound stupid. Well, after a year in San Jose, you moved to Colorado and ended up winning the MLS Cup. What do you think was the most important thing about that team that made you guys successful?

We had the right mentality. The reason we had the right mentality is we wanted to beat each other in training every day more than we wanted to play the game on the weekend. I think back to that point in time, and just remember all the young guys that we had — Andre Akpan, Ross LaBauex, Stew Ceus, myself, all the guys. We were coached by Gary Smith, and he would always set up young versus old. And I always wanna win. I don’t care. So we would show up every single day trying to beat the veteran guys. But Gary was a big veteran coach, so he’s always gonna play the veteran guys on the weekend. No matter what the young guys did, we were never gonna play. And, I can just speak for myself, but I was just talking shit to the veterans every single day in training like ‘we’re whooping your ass. We win, and we don’t play. This is bullshit.’ Which they wanted to prove wrong, so they wanted to beat us. I just think we had a huge level of competition.

But more important than that, on the field was on the field, and then off the field we were boys. Old guys and young guys, we’d be going to each other’s houses and we’d have barbecues. All of this was on our own too, it wasn’t like the coach and team was making us hang out. It was a really good time, I really enjoyed my time there.

There were a lot of American players on that team.

Yeah, we were a very domestic-based team. And we knew our identity and understood who we were. We competed. I wanted to win more during the week than on the weekend. By the time we got to the weekend you’re like ‘these guys aren’t scoring on us.’ We knew that if Connor and Omar at least got one goal, we’d win the game. The thought of losing never crossed our minds. Lose? How? But it didn’t mean that we didn’t work super hard and put in a lot of effort. There was a bunch of boring, mundane stuff. That’s why I tell kids 99% of professional soccer is boring.

What was it like playing for Gary Smith on that championship team?

Gary and I hit heads plenty, especially at that time ‘cause I was young and wanted to make a name for myself, and he just doesn’t play young guys. That’s why we used to butt heads. But I’ll always give him credit, he knew how to get the guys that he wanted, and he knew what system to play. He knew how to make sure everyone understood the system, and it was super defensive. It was boring, it wasn’t fun at all. Sometimes in training you’re just out there and you’re a mannequin for the other team. It was like being a cone. But I knew what Marvell Wynne’s job was, I knew what Drew Moor’s job was, I knew what Matt Picken’s job was, I knew what Wally’s job was, I knew what Kosuke’s job was, I knew what Brian’s job was, Pablo’s, Jeff’s, Jaime Smith’s, Connor’s, Omar’s.

I still know Gary’s system. I know how he did it and why he did it. And I knew why every team in the league hated us at the time. It’s cause it was boring. It sucked. That’s why the league was not happy with it at all. Because we need ‘attention,’ we need ‘excitement,’ we need goals. For them, we don’t need this defensive-minded bullcrap. It wasn’t fun, it didn’t look great, but it won! That’s why I’ll give him credit. Hell yeah, we won. The game is simple: put the ball in the other person’s goal more times than they do it to you. That’s it. Everything else that everyone else brings up is all just complexity to justify why they deserve a job.

MLS for American players is a horrible place to be as it currently stands.

You came into the league in 2009 and won a championship shortly after in 2010. Considering we’re about to enter the 2020s, what were your thoughts about the future of MLS a decade ago.

I was thinking that MLS was going to be a destination spot for everyone in the world. I thought it was going to be able to be one of the best leagues in the world. That’s why I was willing to sign for such little money and then figure out how to stick around for ten years.

Do you still see it becoming the top destination?

If it makes certain changes, yes. But it is actually the top destination. Think about it this way: let’s say I’m a super famous soccer player overseas who makes $5 million a year, and I step outside my house and everyone’s asking me for stuff, harassing me. But I come to any team in America and for the most part I can walk down the street, and no one knows who I am ‘cause they don’t care about soccer at all? But I can make twice as much money as I can in any place in the world? And I’m in some of the major markets in America — New York, L.A., Seattle, Portland? Yeah, think about that.

What about the American players that want to make into the MLS? Would you say that is a top destination for them?

No. MLS for American players is a horrible place to be as it currently stands. The league built itself on the backs of domestic players because they didn’t have to pay players like me. They used the money that they could’ve invested on players like me to bring international guys here. The international guys come here and make two or three times more than the domestic guys, but they don’t have a tie to the league in the same way that the domestic guys do. Guys like Valeri and Chara do end up building a home here, and they have a very big interest in being here. A lot of those guys are gonna stay here, but there are many, many guys who come for a year or two and then bounce. So that means you’re not investing in the future, you’re only investing in right now. And that’s the mistake the MLS is making because they’re still approaching it with the same mindset they did ten years ago.

Ten years ago, offering me that crappy contract and option years and all that, yes, you needed to do that because there’s no guarantee paying me $34,000 a year was gonna end up making you any money. Giving me a four-year option contract was the only way you could build the business infrastructure to be able to create a place where people like Zlatan and Carlos Vela and Wayne [Rooney] come. But now, that model will literally be the detriment of the league if they continue to do that. Because now you’re gonna let guys like Zlatan come over here and take a piss on our league and say all this shitty stuff about our league, not understanding it, not knowing why we do what we do, just saying we are stupid Americans who don’t know what they’re talking about. He gets a big payday to shit on us because the league likes the attention. I think that’s what we wanted earlier. Ten years ago we just needed attention. We don’t need attention anymore. We have enough of it. The attention we are getting from guys like Zlatan is just shitting on the league.

What do you think the league needs?

What we should be doing is taking that money and investing it to fix the parts of the league that aren’t professional. We cut corners on that. And I say ‘we’ because I’m part of the league and I want it to do well. So you’ve saved money on certain things so you could get those guys here, but you don’t need to save money to get those guys here now. They’re gonna come. So take that money and make sure accommodations are to standard, flights are to standard, and that all the organizations have a certain level. If we do that now, there’s no reason anyone wouldn’t come over here.

What about those who say that the quality of play is not there?

No, the quality of play is there. It’s mostly international guys who come here and can’t meet the level. They can’t meet it because they’ve never played in a place where it’s hard. That’s why I say MSL is greater than MLS. Zlatan said he’s MLS, well I’m MSL. Shut your bitch ass down. What’re you gonna do? You got shut down by a nobody. Why? Because you don’t understand our league. You don’t understand how it works. You understand how to do well when everyone around you is a top level player and you have all the money in the world. That’s easy. Beat the guy who’s on minimum making 70k and doesn’t know who the fuck you are. Beat him. You couldn’t. Because you didn’t understand him. Because you haven’t chosen to. You haven’t figured out what we’re doing or why. We’re not doing things the way we’re doing them because we’re idiots — well, some of us are. We’re doing it because that’s how it has to work here in certain capacities.

Yeah, you’ve never flown six hours across a country and had to play in a game the next day. You’ve been on a private jet with somebody massaging your legs all the time. The guy who’s passing you the ball is the greatest passer in the history of the game. How easy is that to score goals? Who can’t do that? Have all the resources, all the money, all the attention, all the support. Oh and do well when everyone wants you to? Who the fuck can’t do that? I think anybody can do it. But can anybody have none of the resources, none of the support, none of the attention, none of the praise, nothing? And still win? I think a lot fewer people can do that. But if that person can beat the person with all the tools and resources, then what are we doing? That should scare a lot of people.

Now that you’re talking about all these domestic players who don’t have a lot of support and must fight twice as hard as players overseas, what do you think is the future of the USMNT when it comes to world standing.

For me, I think you have the wrong perception on the national team. I think the national team has been coddled.

Really?

Yeah. All right, this is what I’m seeing. Take it from an old man who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, right. But let’s say you’re a young kid, you’re like 12, and you’re watching. Who are they promoting, who do they bring back? Michael Bradley for like a bunch of money.

Jurgen [Klinsmann] was saying that the quality and standard here in America isn’t high enough. He was saying ‘Americans need to be overseas and playing.’ Well, to combat that, Garber overpaid guys like Michael Bradley to come back to the league for like a 5 million dollar deal. I’m not saying he’s overpaid. I’m saying at the time, he’s overpaying him to come back. Bradley is not making that money anywhere else in the world, especially an American player. You bring in Dempsey and those guys back too. Well, if you’re 12 years old at the time and you see that, then you’re going like ‘oh, American players can make lots of money.’ Also youth clubs and organizations are going like, ‘now is the time, we’ve made it.’ So now those youth clubs are investing more in those players because they’re thinking they can sell them and make lots of money.





I’ve seen a lot of guys who are retiring now at 24-25 who don’t know what to do because they thought they were gonna be Landon Donovan.

The American youth development system hasn’t been developed for developing youth. It’s been developed for profiting off of youth players. It’s not run by people who understand the game and teaching to a degree and level on par with the rest of the world.

So I’m gonna give a little bit of context about that last comment because people are gonna get up in arms about it. But which is a more established market, the Barcelona youth academy system or any American youth academy system? Probably Barcelona right? Because they’re developing for a philosophy, a style of play, and they’re all in on that. And they care more about the development and winning than they do about the money. Here, in America — capitalism — it’s about money first. It’s not profitable to develop players. We’re not developing players, we’re gonna develop a machine that lets us profit off of players.

Now they’re seeing an opportunity to make more money. So now they’re gonna pick the best players in their system and then give them all the tools and resources, but without the proper fundamental foundation to develop into a philosophy or ideology on the national team level. So those kids now are given too many resources. It’s too easy. They go from 12 to 17 being told they’re the best player on their team and that they’re gonna play for the national team. They’re promised this by everyone around them in their world, for years and years. They’ve never dealt with any adversity. I’m not talking about everyone, but just for a vast majority.

When those kids are coming through, and they’re getting to the professional level, they already believe they’re owed something. So that kid is showing up to play me now — 17 trying to compete. And he’s getting shocked because this is the first time he’s ever actually dealt with what the professional world is. And in MLS, the league is not focused on developing youth players now. So if you’re a young 17-21 year old, and you’re not professional ready and can’t contribute to winning today, you do not play. You’re not gonna get games. And if you don’t get games for one, two, three, four years, now you’re 24-25 with zero games of professional experience.

What do you think these young players should do then?

First, understand what you’re signing up for — because you don’t. If you tell me you do, then you’re definitely in trouble. Then, decide if you want it to be a long-term thing, or do you just wanna cash all your chips in early and hope that you ride the wave to being that one kid in a hundred million where coasting just works. Yeah, someone wins the lottery. One person wins the lottery. Is that your plan? Your plan is to win the lottery? Okay then, good luck. That’s what people are doing!

Let’s say there’s a thousand kids who are all the next Landon Donovan. Okay, so there’s a thousand of you but there can only be one. You all believe you are the one. Who’s wrong? None of them will say they’re wrong. The one who goes ‘I could be wrong,’ that’s the one who has a chance. And a lot of them are gonna realize this isn’t for them. And they will have avoided a huge mistake and regret because I’ve seen a lot of guys who are retiring now at 24-25 who don’t know what to do because they thought they were gonna be Landon Donovan.

But if you’re the person who hears me say that and says ‘fuck you, Quincy,’ then you have a chance. Prove me wrong. I want you to.

Make sure to head over to perfectsoccerskills.com to listen to the full interview and to connect with Quincy and Ross for advice on becoming a better player, improving your mental strength, and to discuss the state of soccer in the United States.

Interview by Pablo Bayona Sapag.

Photography by Gabriel Bayona Sapag.

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