How being interested in European football (soccer) has helped me in business
11 January 2010 | blog,General,Introspective | Comments Off
[This is another introspective post so if you don't dig them feel free to skip this one.]
Most folks in America spent the weekend watching the NFL playoffs and to be honest I watched the overtime session of the Packers and Cardinals game. Overall though I’ve found that my passion for European football has served me better than any other sport.
I haven’t always been a fan of soccer. To be honest I used to make fun of the kids who played it in high school. Little did I know that I would end up becoming a fan of the “world’s game” only a few years later. I didn’t jump directly from playing baseball and being obsessed with it and watching Lakers games as if I was a part of the team to the Barclay’s English Premier League. Like most things it was a long and varied path.
My first introduction to sports outside the US actually was the Tour de France. I became passionate about it starting in 2000. Watching a Texan win the race made this entirely foreign sport seem ok because it fit my worldview that Americans can win at anything. Cycling though isn’t televised here in the States except for the sport’s penultimate events. Plus the nation was catching Lance fever and by the time I knew the names of all the riders on the Tour in 2002 ESPN was covering every stage.
Then a very interesting thing happened here in America: Fox Sports World began it’s transition from a channel that had any sporting event Fox could license to begin focusing on nothing but the beautiful game (I was a huge fan of Aussie Rules Football and was hurt when it became that much harder to watch those matches). This coincided with my graduation from my undergraduate program and my becoming great friends with an Englishman and Argentinian, both of whom were members of the Tempe bar scene. These guys began to show me footie matches and entice me with opportunities to hang with them and have a beer.
The summer of 2006 did it though. With the World Cup in Germany, meaning the matches were live at 6:30AM and with my work shift ending at 6AM, my two buddies (who working at night or ran their own businesses) and I went crazy for group play. Every morning we were in the local English pub and I loved every minute of it. It was that following season (which starts in August) that Fox Sports World became the Fox Soccer Channel and started televising a dozen or more EPL matches a month. Pair that with my trip to Germany for Oktoberfest and it just made the soccer bug completely bite. Watching both an EPL and a Bundesliga match from a bar in Berlin was amazing.
But let’s bring this all back to business. On a personal note I’ve found it amazing how many people follow European soccer in America. I’ve had it listed on my resume for years that I’m a fan of Aston Villa and support the US Men’s National team and in almost every interview I’ve been asked about why soccer and then some question about transfer window or the injury report from the interviewer’s favored club. In a couple of interviews we spent more time talking about football (soccer) than we did about the job.
The next question is why then does it happen? I think that placing that I watch soccer on my resume makes me obviously different and, in some small respects, remarkable. So many resume books yell and scream that personal interests don’t belong on a resume but I think that those things are major differentiating points that can and should be used to make oneself memorable. If the interviewer has no knowledge of soccer all of a sudden I become a subject matter expert in their eyes which is a reversed role while in an interview. Pair that with the fact that when my coworkers are talking about American football, baseball or basketball and I have no clue what the heck happened this last weekend, it makes me much more interested in hearing about the results of the game. In turn this can make them feel like I’m willing to hear them out with my full attention on other work related issues. While these are little things I tend to believe that they can make all the difference in business and if that means paying a few bucks a month out of my pocket to be a little different, it’s a small investment compared to taking up other business place acceptable behaviors (golf, I’m looking at you).
Oh and by the way, don’t go and tell the American on the street this but soccer is becoming more and more popular here in the States. It’s not a mistake that on ESPN.com now the soccer tab is on the top navigation or that great goals are making the Sportscenter Top 10 regularly. I fully expect over the next 10 years that following European Football will be as acceptable as being an NHL fan. There’s my trend spotting for the week, the question to you is with that knowledge, are you going to choose to get involved with the world’s game or wait until someone shoots you a wry look for not knowing what’s going on?