Life's a beach! Clint Dempsey says his future - and Fulham's - is written in the sand

Clint Dempsey doesn’t deal in cliches. Life, as he keeps saying, is too short to waste words. But he uses an analogy to describe how he views his place in the world.

The Fulham and USA star leans forward, suddenly animated, and his normally relaxed Texan drawl is injected with urgency.



He acts out his point, jabbing out first his left fist and then his right one, which bears a nasty cut and a number of stitches, the result of a ‘stupid’ accident and why the 27-year-old American has been sporting a bandage on his wrist of late.

Grains of time: Dempsey's season is ending on a high with Fulham and the USA

‘You grab some sand and put it in your hand,’ he says. ‘That’s all the people who want to play the game.

‘Then, you drop the sand and that’s all the people who make it to the next level.

‘Then you pat your hand and there are only a few left. And they’re the ones who make it in the world.

‘That’s how I view it. I’m just someone who wants to make it in the world, just trying to take care of my family and give them a good life and a better life than I had.’

When we meet at Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground in Surrey, Dempsey is two days away from becoming the first American to play in a major European final.

‘I don’t like looking at things like that,’ he says. ‘I’m just a player trying to go out and be the best that I can be.



‘There are players from all over the world who have their goals and dreams to do something. I know if I am the first American, I won’t be the last.’

It has been a remarkable, 10-month, 18-game and 20,000-mile journey for Fulham. To adapt Dempsey’s analogy, from the 192 grains of sand — teams — that started the competition last July there are now just two left.



Be the best: Dempsey's goal for Fulham against Juventus encapsulates the American's attitude towards the game

If you’re starting to think this engaging, articulate American is spouting formulaic nonsense from a Nike advert, think again. Dempsey has starred in campaigns for the sportswear giant, but his commercial was hardly orthodox.

Filmed before the 2006 World Cup, it showed the forward, nicknamed ‘Deuce’, rapping on the song Don’t Tread on Me alongside fellow Texans XO and Big Hawk.



Poignantly, at Dempsey’s instruction the video was dedicated to his older sister, Jennifer, who died suddenly in November 1995 from a brain aneurism.

She was just 16. Dempsey was 12. His early interest in football (he never calls it soccer) had been sacrificed so that his parents, Aubrey and Debbie, could channel their limited resources into Jennifer’s burgeoning tennis career.

VIDEO: Deuce and Don't Tread







But after her death Dempsey resumed the three-hour trips from the family’s trailer in the back of his grandparents’ garden in Nacogdoches, Texas, to Dallas, where the nearest football club, Longhorns, were based.

After three years at Furman University in South Carolina came a move to Major League Soccer club New England Revolution in 2004, where Dempsey was voted MLS Rookie of the Year.



His £1.5million move to Fulham followed in January 2007. It has been some journey.

Dempsey said: ‘I just go out and play. All you can really control is what you do on the field and try to be the best that you can be. That’s kind of what I’ve done my whole life.

‘You know that you’re having to fight stereotypes, coming from America. I’m coming from a place where the game really wasn’t respected.

African dream: Dempsey admits football isn't respected in America - progress at the World Cup would change that

‘When I go back it will be good if there’s an American who comes along and says, “I was inspired by this player”.

‘But if it all ended I’d be happy because I’ve accomplished my dreams. That’s why I am where I am today – hopefully, in a Europa League final.’

For Fulham, this is not just another European final. Like Dempsey, they have never been here before. They are aware that the club are making history and it makes the players relish it even more, he says.

The impact made by Roy Hodgson, the League Managers’ Association manager of the year, has also been ‘huge’ since his arrival in December 2007.

Dempsey said: ‘The thing that I enjoy most about Roy is that he’s given us the confidence to play. We’re not bypassing the midfield and just kicking it up all the way to the top all the time.

‘For me, that’s the style I fell in love with: getting the ball down, people running off the ball for each other, making movements, trying to keep the ball and build in attack.

‘That’s why I fell in love with the game and I’m glad I’m able to be in a team that plays with that style.’

Tonight’s final will not be the end of Dempsey’s season. There is still the small matter of the World Cup and that Group C opener, England v USA, in Rustenburg on June 12.

‘It’s exciting,’ he said. ‘To do well in the competition you’ve got to beat good teams so it’s going to be a tough game but we still think it’s a group we can advance from. Once you do that, anything can happen.’

The USA scraped through qualifying in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa, then beat Spain 2-0 and were 2-0 up against Brazil in the final before losing 3-2.

Despite the ultimate disappointment, Dempsey enjoyed the experience of playing in South Africa, particularly the feeling that football can somehow be a force for good in the country.



He didn’t mind the vuvuzelas, either. Dempsey said: ‘When you play in Mexico they have horns and it’s a similar sound. It shows their culture and how they cheer for sport.

‘It was good to see the passion people had; the excitement around the game. You see people living in conditions that are pretty tough and they are still so positive. It lets you know what’s really important in life.

‘Hopefully it’ll be a tournament that’s going to be a good experience for all and not something marked with tragedy, like the Africa Cup of Nations.’

Badge of honour: Dempsey is proud to represent his country but safety fears mean his wife and child wont be in South Africa

Dempsey’s parents and his older brother Ryan will be in South Africa to watch him in his second World Cup. But his wife Bethany, 26, an educational psychologist, and their one-year-old daughter Elyse will stay at home.

‘Even though there’s security you still worry about the safety of your wife and daughter,’ Dempsey said. ‘The world we live in today, you don’t know what’s going to happen.

‘Especially being an American, you’re always a target. We’re not really loved that much around the world, for political reasons. It is kind of scary when you go to these countries and you’ve got to know what to expect.

‘When I was in the Under 20 World Cup (in 2003) in the United Arab Emirates, we had helicopters following us and six cars in front of us, six cars behind us. It was after 9/11. If we do well, then great, if we don’t, then that’s what it was. The most important thing is everybody makes it home safely.’