Open Mic | Kieran Gibbs on Developing the Next Generation of Soccer Players

0:00Hello everyone and welcome to Open Mike. Great to have you with us. I'm Susanna Fuller and today I am super stoked because I get to have a conversation with a guy who not only had a stellar playing career in England and in the States. He's also doing some incredible things to help grow the game here. Karen Gibbs is a former left back whose career is impressive. He spent over 10 years at Arsenal where he won three FA Cups and two community shields before Stens at West Brom and Inter Miami where he ended up finishing his playing career, but also included 10 caps for England's senior national team. And now he is focusing on the next generation co-founding a youth academy one FC in Miami alongside his former Inter Miami teammate and World Cup winner Blazmatwiti bringing high level European professional training and methodologies and experience to the United States in an effort to develop young players.

1:02We love to see it. So we are going to hear more about that and talk about what's in store for one FC. And obviously I'm gonna have to ask him about Arsenal and how he's feeling about the Premier League in general right now. This guy is a great human, it's a great conversation and I'm really excited for you to hear it. So here it is. Karen Gibbs, welcome to Open Mike. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on today. How are you? I'm very good. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. There is so much that I want to talk to you about today. I kind of went through your incredible career resume in the intro, which is extensive, but one of the things I find so fascinating about you is that when it comes to football, you have worn so many different hats from being an elite player, broadcaster, and now you are a co-founder of a youth soccer academy, one FC based in Miami, Florida, where you spent time as a player and Inter Miami. And you've been doing

2:05the thing now for over two years and I'm just it's so gratifying for somebody like me who loves this game here to talk to somebody who is excited about growing the sport and supporting youth development. So I'm curious to know from you where and when that seed was planted in you that you wanted to create something like one FC. Yeah, well it's crazy. Even just you mentioned it's been two and a half years feels like so much longer to be honest and it just feels like kind of my career as a chapter. It feels like so long ago now. And honestly it came around quite organically I would say, I played with Blaze between you who's my business partner. We played it Inter together for two years, so we were familiar with each other as teammates and then we kind of both retired at a similar time.

3:05And I knew that he wanted to stay in Miami after he finished playing and so did I. And yeah, he just got in contact with me after probably about ten months after I retired. And we had spoken about potentially looking into being in the space. He has a son who played out in Miami for the two years that he was playing. So he got he was a little bit familiar with the landscape and just how big it was. Whereas for me, you know, I didn't have a son playing in in teams out here. So you know, I used to play in Toronto and I never went to tournaments or different parts of the country. Whereas Blaze and our other business partner, Silvan Marvo, he had a he has a son of the same age as Blaze as well. So they had, you know, more experience into just how big the sport

4:06is here at a youth level. And Blaze brought me on the train really. We didn't have we started from scratch. We announced the opening of the club in I think it was April 2024. We hosted tryouts. We didn't know what how the reception was going to be. And then when I saw, we saw like over a thousand kids in about three months from April to July. And then I was like, oh wow, this is the sport is just so much bigger than I then I thought and the appetite was incredible. So I then kind of got hooked instantly because I felt compelled to try to give back, you know, my, the gratefulness I had for the career that I had. I thought, wow, you know, I really need to try to help the next generation. And I shared the same passion as Blaze and Silvan. I think we

5:14realized that we how privileged we were. And you know, when you play and you have a certain length of career, you gain a certain amount of knowledge and experience. And when you finish, you realize that you've got to try to, I just felt like I had to try to, I have to try to give give that back, you know, and try to democratize it and give it and share as much as I can with with the next generation. It's, it's pretty incredible because you, you think about yourself and Blaze and Silvan. I mean, these are like three former players with proper, proper experience. And how unique and special that could be for a kid wanting to get into the sport here. And you as somebody that came up through the, the Wimbledon and Arsenal academies, you know, how much of what you're doing has been inspired by that experience, those experiences, how does,

6:17how does it compare? And how do you think you're kind of taking it to the next level? Yeah, the aim is to try to use all of that memory that I have because, you know, I signed for Wimbledon in 2001, I think it was until 2004. And then from 2004, when they, when they went into administration and I joined Arsenal in 2004. So, you know, I still have fond, fond memories of those experiences that even moving from Wimbledon to a club like Arsenal, which was, you know, just a different, just a completely different level. And, yeah, me, Blaze and Silvan, we, you know, we spent probably the last two years and still now evolving of different ideas of what we learned and trying to remember, you know, Blaze went to Claire Fontaine. So, I think that kind of we built something that is a, is a culmination of, of all of those things, right? Because what's,

7:19the experience I had was completely different to Blaze. You know, I didn't join an academy and I didn't join Wimbledon until I was 11 years old. So, people here, they think that, like, that's really old. And it is, it's getting older because, you know, the more footballs advance, who players are starting younger. But I think people here have this, this, this conception, if you're not starting by seven years old, you're never gonna, you're never gonna make it, you know. So, even just that fact alone, I didn't start until I was 11, is surprising for people over here because they just think that since I was like six years old, I was in a professional environment, you know. But we try to, yeah, we try to make that environment the similar to what we experienced as much as we can within the frameworks that we have, you know, we don't, obviously, we don't own our own facility. I mean, we would love to, but yeah, we have to, we try every day to improve

8:22the environment and to make it as similar to what we had. One of the things that I discovered when I was reading about when FC is that there's also a focus on education and personal development for these young players. Can you kind of like explain what that, what that looks like and why, why that's such an important part of all of this? Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, you know, we have to understand that the sport here is still different to football in Europe, you know. The MLS was founded in 96, I believe. You know, whereas you have clubs that are hundreds of years old in Europe. And so that culture and that kind of stability of football over in Europe is just

9:22completely different to here. So with that comes, you know, a certain amount of education in terms of letting the people know, letting our students know, you know, the essence of football in a different way, you know, because these kids, they see football now because they know they follow in Baphe and the best players in the world and Messi. But football goes way, way, way before that. So I think, you know, teaching them the origins of football and the things that we focus on, you know, we don't really, we don't tend to focus so much on competition and winning, especially at a young age, of course, we want to win. But we believe that as a process to giving the kids the tools to be able to compete at the best they can. And I think that sometimes, you know, if you focus too much on the

10:25on the winning side and the competition side, you miss, you will miss the tools. So yeah, we are a big part of our education is based on, it's based on fundamentals. And, you know, fundamentals on the pitch, but also fundamentals off the pitch. Now you behave and now you have to try to live your daily life in order to give yourself the best chance. And how to be a professional, you know, I mean, I think that that's that's one of those things that is that is so overlooked. So I love that. In terms of what you have seen talent wise, you know, it feels like, you know, the US is a big place, obviously, you know, and there, there are a lot of, a lot of different sports for, for kids to go into. And, you know, I think we've always kind of maybe been a little bit behind the curve in terms of football or soccer would have you. But I'm curious to get your take on sort of the

11:25talent that you've that you've seen. And if you, you know, based on what you have seen and what you guys are doing and the work that you're doing with these, with these kids, you know, is the talent there for the US and North America to, you know, truly become a footballing nation. Yeah, absolutely. I think otherwise, I probably wouldn't be, I wouldn't be in the business because, you know, at the end of the day, I think we want to create a world-class football institution in the US. That's our goal. And with that, you need talent. So it's been incredible to see the level of talent that not only we have our club, but also across the US in the last two years of going to tournaments and seeing different teams compete. It's just incredible to see. I think that there is a lot more room for growth because obviously talent

12:27only gets you so far as many people will say it's the oldest cliche in the book. But, you know, I certainly had talent, but I was not the best in my team when I was, even when I joined Arsenal in 2004. And, you know, I was 14 at the time. And a lot of my teammates, I felt, were way above me. I was definitely bottom of the pile. And I think probably anyone during that time will tell you the same. I barely got a scholarship at 16. And so, you know, sometimes things click at different ages. So the talent we probably take into account, you know, I would say, if you were to describe a complete player, we would only count talent as probably for 20 to 30% of the player, you know. Most things that we look for are, you know, the mental side

13:38because, you know, without that, I think you are really going to struggle to have a career in the game. Physically, of course, you need to be at a certain level. But then also, you're willing to want to learn, far exceeds the talent. So, yes, we definitely have talent here. But I think now we're starting to see more of a hunger for the game. And, you know, obviously, it helps that the World Cup has just been here. And we have Messi here. And, you know, the sport is exploding in the country. So I think that that's going to just drive more and more appetite. Because I think that that outweighs the talent side for me. No, 100% and I mean, with that too, I mean, you guys are expanding, you know, you started in Miami, but now, you know, you've branched out to Boston and Houston. So, you know, what are some of the other future plans? Like, where do you guys plan on going next?

14:42And sort of what are the next level goals for 1FC? Yeah, I think for us, scale is important because obviously, you know, we want to try to reach as many kids as we can. And we don't want to close the doors on anyone. I think when it came to Houston and Boston, they were also quite organically founded. We, you know, I got contacted for Boston by Robbie Robinson, who played with me and Blazer Inter. And he contacted me because he had just moved there and started doing, you know, more kind of private training, but was getting a lot of demand for people asking him to set up a club. And so he, you know, didn't have the experience. So he saw what we were doing. He contacted me and said, like, I would love you to come to Boston and I can join you guys and join the mission. So we, you know, that was the only reason Boston came around, really. I knew that there was an app, I knew that there was a big appetite there,

15:47but we will only go places where we, where we know that we can almost replicate what we're doing in Miami. Otherwise, we, you know, we want to make sure that we're working with the right people and people that are, you know, kind of want to join under our methodology, because there was also many different ways to teach the game, right? So we kind of have our way that we believe. And so it's important for when people want to work with us that they, you know, believe in that vision as well. You guys are also getting in the, I don't want to say fashion business, but you guys did a pretty awesome kit launch a few days ago for the new upcoming season. And I saw it on your, your Instagram, you did the whole, the cool reveals very cinematic and, but I will tell you, these kits are, are fire. Can you, can you show it off for us? Yes, of course I can.

16:53I would like to add this to my collection. Also, this is, look at that logo. Yeah, we honestly, we were so happy when, when, when, you know, when we even found, like, came up with a name of the club, one FC, we, we didn't have a name, we didn't have a logo, we didn't have anything. So, you know, building everything from scratch was, was interesting because it's like, you know, you're just as a player, you, you don't really get that as much time to express your creative side. So it was, it was really cool to come up with even the design of the kit with Hollywood. You know, we have like the, the established 2024, with the free stars representing me, Blaze and Sylvan, and then we have Blaze's famous celebration, logo on the bottom. Oh, that is so, so, so good. So we want to try to hopefully trademark that up at some point and

17:59make sure that he's recognised for his, his greatness and how much effort he puts into the, to the club is just incredible, to be honest. And Sylvan, they're incredible, just incredible people to be honest. So yeah, that's, that's the jersey. It's, I would love to, I'd be proud to rock that. It's so clean. You guys did a phenomenal job. Yeah, phenomenal job. No, thank you, thank you. Such a good looking kit. No, I mean, it is, it's so cool to see what you guys are doing and, yeah, I'm, I'm very excited to see where this goes and how it continues to grow because you all are doing incredible work. I want to hit on something you mentioned because we are about, I, I will, seven weeks post-World Cup, I still feel like I'm kind of like coming down from that whole experience. I saw that you got to go to the Azteca for the England, Mexico match. And I,

19:00I mean, I don't know if I've ever had worse fomo in my life. I've never been to the Aztecids. Obviously, like a bucket list venue for me, but I cannot imagine what that experience was like. So I just kind of want to hear it from, from you. Like, what was, what was it like? No, honestly, I mean, you know, I, I felt that I had played in some pretty, you know, hostile atmospheres in, in, in my time. But this was just, it just didn't feel like we were on the, the planet. It felt like it was something that was created like from a movie, from the football gods. It was just, it was just crazy. It was just crazy. Even the way, the, the way the stadiums built, because I was kind of sitting on the bottom rows. And the bottom rows, you actually go, you go down into the stadium, into the tunnels before you come up. So like, just that experience alone, walking in with the echoes coming through with the, you know, the

20:05brickwork that you could just feel the history in the stadium. And then, and then yeah, walking out to go to your seats, every time, every time we scored or even every time they scored, we would just get drenched in beer. And from, from the mix, it was just like launching four beers. It was, you know, the, the ponchos were up every, every kind of 20 minutes, because there was a there was a lot of goals in the game. Like, it was just one of them, like, it was just an all-time great. Like, I, I, I couldn't, I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe the, the level of the noise for the whole game, the drama. One of the, you know, after that, I was kind of like, I don't even, I don't live in my office with me going to any more games. Where do you, where do you talk to that? I did, I went to go from there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and it was like, after that, that performance from England as well, like, it was just like, I don't know, like, my god,

21:06like, I don't know, exactly. I mean, you've, you've worn, you, you've worn that crest. Like, you know what it's like, and I feel like that was such, that was one of those, like, marquee performances that, like, you know, England will be talking about for, like, hundreds and hundreds of years. Absolutely. It was incredible. I'm, I'm so jealous, but happy for you that you have that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I ran into some of the players in on their vacations like over the summer. And I mean, even they, you know, I was speaking with John Stowe's and he just said, like, even for him, who's, you know, an absolute legend of a player played in the biggest games, just said that it was just not, it was just completely separate to any, any other game, any other game. Like, that just goes to show you just how crazy it was. Wow. Wow. Unbelievable. So, you know, I think a lot of us, especially in the media, we were, I don't want to say trepidacious about this world cup, but we weren't quite sure

22:12how it was all going to go. You know, like, it was this expanded field, you know, politically things are so all over the map right now. Like, it was just like, how is this going to go? Are we going to represent ourselves well on the global scale to the, you know, to the soccer world? And so, you know, as an Englishman living in the States now, how do you think it was received? How do you think that North America represented itself in this world cup? Because I felt, I felt pretty good afterwards. Do you mean as a, from an intro infrastructure standpoint or like the actual team performance? I think no from the infrastructure. Yeah, the team performance. We, that was a little, that was a letdown. That was a letdown. It was a sour ending, but I actually, you know, I think the US, you have to say, has taken a big step. It's taken a big step. And you have to start somewhere, you know, I think from, if you look at kind of past, you know, performance level of the US national team,

23:19okay, yes, they, they, they, they didn't perform well in the last game, but before that, you know, there was a significant improvement, I think. So you have to take, you have to take these things as they come, you know, I think we're quick sometimes too. I think probably because everyone really started to get behind it. I could, I could feel the US national team. And so, you know, for the people that have that really do love the sport here, days, days saw this as like, wow, this is really something that they want because everyone wants, you know, if you're a big football fan in this country, I think that you, you probably want more in terms of from the national team, from, from the MLS, from, from leagues. And so I think that it was more of a sour note for, for those people, you know, that want to see the sport grow here. So, but yeah, I mean, in terms of

24:19infrastructure, I thought it was fantastic. I went to four games for the, the way that the US welcomed the teams and the fans that did come was great, you know, and the reception that I, from what I heard from different nationalities and friends and people that were coming over as players that I knew that were competing in the World Cup. They had nothing but good things to say about, you know, but obviously, you know, with the, with the controversies of, of some people not being able to get into the country and stuff like that, you know, that's always, as always pretty sad. But I think from the actual experience itself, it was, it was pretty good. It was pretty good. I, I have to agree and I, I do think that there has been an increased appetite and interest in, in the sport and, you know, that certainly benefits us in the, the soccer media world and definitely benefits you and what you guys are, are doing over at 1FC. So we'll call it a win-win.

25:26Before we let you go, though, Karen, I have, I got to ask about Arsenal because I know you can, clearly I'm a Liverpool fan, I'm sure you can see in my background. So I want to, I just say, I, you know, I, I, it is what it is. It is what it is. But I want to say congratulations, congratulations on winning the title last year. They're off to another good start this year in the 2627 season. And in fact, I feel like the majority of the, the sort of season previews that I, I read most pundits are, are picking Arsenal to win it again and, and go back to back. You know, Liverpool won it the, the year before. And I remember with all those lofty expectations as a fan, I felt very nervous. It's like, I didn't, I was like, oh, I don't, I don't, I don't want this, yes, last season. And then we saw how it went. So I'm curious to know how you feel about now you guys

26:26are the favourites and you kind of have the target on your back. Like, you know, how does that, how does that, that make you feel? Yeah, it's new, it's new territory, it's new territory for me as a, as a fan. And certainly for, for most of the players, you know, so I think that that's going to be the, the, the, the deciding factor as to how they do is, is how they deal with that mentally. But I think like you say from the first two performances, it feels like they're really owning the, the position of being league leaders and they just, it just, honestly, it just, it looked pretty scary for the rest of the, of the Premier League at the moment, at the moment. And yeah, I'm optimistic for them because I think they're, they're, they're such an elite team, but also I just don't really see everyone else. I think that they've kind of, there's a lot of clubs in transition, you know, four of the, of the six, six, I've got new managers and there's,

27:29there's all sorts of trades going on at the moment. And I think people are just kind of, it's, it looks a little bit chaotic. It looks a little bit chaotic with, with, with, with most of the other clubs at the moment. So, whereas I think just Arsenal just look like real, really stable right now. Maybe just very sure of themselves, they know who they are as a team. They, they have a clear identity. And when, when you, when you have that, that's always going to be your, your, your best chance of more success. I couldn't, I couldn't agree, agree more. It does feel like the Premier League right now is like a little bit like the Wild West. It's like what is going to have, which is kind of exciting, you know, from a, of your standpoint, like it's like, man, I do not know how this is going to unfold. But I think you're right. The consistency of Arsenal having that baked in identity, like really gives them a massive advantage. Okay. Last question. Who is a team you think could surprise you in the Premier League this year in a positive way and then in a negative way? A negative way. For, for positive, I think it's going to be Chelsea. Okay. I think they're looking

28:33good at the moment. They made some great signings. And, you know, I think that, that, well, probably it's about time that they kind of had that little, had a bounce back. And for the team that is going to surprise me negatively, I mean, I can't even say Tottenham because, oh, I know. I don't know how much worse, I know how much worse it can get there. But, I've heard city, I've heard Liverpool. I think I think I think maybe Liverpool, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know which it hurts, but I just think they're kind of all over the map right now. It's like they don't really like the, yeah, I think last year, I'm delighted about Barcola. I just think that last, the off season last year, I think that they are now sort of in a vice script because of all the money they spent last year and not really

29:35knowing what to do with the pieces that they got last year and how that all fits together. And now Eriola comes in a brand new manager and has to like figure out. So it's, I think it's going to be a lot of growing pains. I'll just put it that way. It's a miss. It's a miss. It will be entertaining. We'll just say that much. Well, thank you so very much for taking the time to come on. It was such a pleasure. Before we let you go, can you tell people how they can find out more about 1FC and what y'all are doing? Yeah. So for our website is 1fc.us, I believe. Yeah, I think I'm trying to think that's probably our best way to keep up to date with, you know, the things that we do and how we're trying to just innovate in different ways. We're hosting a tournament. We hosted our first ever tournament called the One Cup, which was held in Orlando in January,

30:39which was, I think it was a success. We blazed, brought over PSG from France and we had some MLS teams compete and I think that that's something that we really want to grow in the US because take some of our teams over to France. We took three of our teams over to France for the last two years to compete in some really high level tournaments against all the I saw Liverpool play in the U10 tournament in May. And that was just incredible to see how they run their tournaments out there. So we want to try to do bring something like that to the US, you know. So stay tuned for that because we want to blow that up because we want to be able to get all the top level teams in Europe and get the kids over here exposure to the level over there, you know. So that's something that we're really trying to focus on as well. I cannot wait to watch what you guys continue to do. Thank

31:42you for the amazing work and again, Karen, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. It was a pleasure. No, thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. Huge thanks. Once again to Karen for taking the time to join us here on Open Mike. I really loved our conversation and I hope you did as well. So make sure you check out First Touch Weekly hosted by yours truly where we dive into all the biggest and most interesting storylines from the global game every single week. Like, subscribe, all the things and of course as always tell your soccer loving friends. We'll see you next time.