The Rondo - Ballers League

Yeah, so I got hit up by PK, actually

He invited me down to their... Gerard himself. I got his number in my phone, man

I'm flexing. Recently, Thierry Henry said that 90-minute football is getting boring

and it wasn't until the Barcelona-Inter Milan game that he really felt the true enjoyment of football nowadays

We're seeing the introduction of leagues like the Ballers League, Kings League, TST, short-form version of the game

that is condensing the game into around 40 minutes, you know, two 20-minute halves

How do you guys feel about the future of football? Do you think this is the future of football

Short, shorter matches? I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, I cannot emphasize enough how much I hope not

I just, oh my God, this is where I become like an actual boomer. 90 minutes of football is the point

Sometimes sports are boring for some periods. That can just happen. You've watched an NFL game

Sometimes you go, wow, like there isn't happening, right? But you still watch NFL

Some NBA games are a little bit boring. Right? Soccer can be a little bit slow sometimes

That is okay. You don't have to like screen max, tick tock, brain rot this whole

and commodify this whole sport. But I will shut up considering the man next to me has experience

No, but I'll agree with you on that. Like you kind of need to go through

some of those boring moments for the big moments to mean more. If you just have crazy goals

being scored all the time, I think it takes a little bit away from the game. magic 100 well that's why the intermilan barca thing was so good because both teams were like

what if we just played football here yeah what if we didn't even think about our opponents and

just thought we'll just we'll just kick ball for 120 minutes and see and that was awesome man that

was so cool but like you said it's because it was the outlier right it was the exception to the rule

it's just the commodification of the game the way it's become like so much about celebrities and

egos and personalities rather than actual football like oh so do you think influencers are killing

football in a way i can't say that to either of you because you guys are trying to smash it i'm

not gonna take it i'm not playing a tst this year so you're good you're not nah all right good luck

um no i but there room for both right yeah is that not i think so think so there room for there to be five a side leagues and then there room for the real thing well i mean what gets me

is that influencer culture in america is massive right it's so big and it's so important it is it

is relevant to the growth of the game but it doesn't feel like like football and this is where

i will definitely say football or not soccer in its purest form do you know what i mean it's

Definitely. No, I don't think it's trying to be that, though. But it's like, how do you if that is like the brain rot screen max, like four different formats of media open at the time playing subway surfers while I watch TikTok while I have Netflix on in the background

If TST, Kings League, Bowler League are like catered towards that, how then you get that infant who cannot watch anything to then watch 90 minutes of football

That is, that is, that's a great point. It seems like the wrong entry point, bro

I get it, right? Like, so for me, I watch football religiously

And because of that, you could probably get me to really f***ing reluctantly watch Bowlers League, Kings League, TST

Because I'll be like, all right, this is a different interpretation. The thing that I love. But I'm always going to go back to the thing that I love

Do you know what I mean? You think it's like a little side dish, but then the real meal is a 90 minute match

I think that is a good way of putting it. It's a really not that tasty side dish that I wouldn't order again

Okay, okay. So honestly, this is how I feel. Like, I feel like there's a place for everything, right

At the end of the day, I feel like these leagues like Kings League, TST, Baller League

they're giving people the opportunity who maybe haven't got the scouted or the looks or who have played pro, the ability to play at a level that gets, you know, the aura

the visibility that, you know, maybe these content creators want or need at the time

Or maybe these players needed an atmosphere, an environment to just grow and develop and play in front of a crowd like a set of the day

Yeah, but that doesn't mean you deserve it. Sorry to interrupt you, mate. It doesn't mean you deserve it

Football's a meritocracy, right? Of course. Look, and there are some lads, like, honestly, in a sense, like yourself, right

who, like, were there, should be in the system. Like, right now, let's be honest. Like, you probably should be playing professional soccer, right

Yeah, yeah. But, like, and, you know, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. But just because what really f***s me off is that, like

is like if you come from like not a professional football background not with that training not with that whole thing and then you just like all right i here now i play in bowlers league king league you talking about like dreams for people that that how you shit on every single other person dream yeah because you

haven't cared you haven't given it but you're at one of them right like you were yeah so i went

down to kingsley yeah so i got hit up by pk actually he invited me down to their gerard

himself i got hey i got his number in my phone man i'll flex that i take everything back you've

got no but he hit me up in so they have this thing called the king's league world cup and this is

their latin american league so it's a bunch of teams owned by uh influencers who are you know

all spanish speaking um from spain from like latin america from south america this was in held in

Monterrey in Mexico City. So I went down there, not knowing a ton about Kings League. Obviously

I'd heard of the hype around it, but I didn't know how big it was going to be. We get to Monterrey

and you've seen the stadium. Not great. That's a whole side story. Eight years of classes that

didn't get me a whole lot growing up. But you all know the stadium in Monterrey, with the mountain

in the background, very famous stadium. They sold that out for 7v7, which I was not expecting

we get there and they have a sold out stadium they have like a sumo wrestling like event like

halftime they got a concert as well like that you know it is kind of like the brain rot you know

there's always got to be something going on attention spans yeah but um i will say people

people seem to love it and i i do get your point where it's like if this is you know a kid's first

sort of like entryway into the game how are they gonna be able to survive 90 minutes right i hope

that's not the case i hope it's the opposite where it's like this gets them into football you know they want to see the real thing right i hope it's the opposite of that but i do think

there's room for both why not man and you talked about the players right it gives more players a

chance to keep playing at a high level to get paid to get their names out there so i think it's a

good thing um we'll see how long it lasts though that's the one thing i don't know the longevity

of some of these leaks. Well, that's the thing, isn't it, about social media? And look you guys are smashing it in your respective brands and I not here to ever go at you but influencer culture seems to be It really easy to be a flash in the pan do you know what i mean it seems like you guys have got to keep evolving keep doing your thing and like establish like serious right and like in

a different way but like can these can these guys do the same thing because it's like it seems like

they've gone from zero like not existing to 100 okay now that we're going to have sumo wrestling

now there's going to be like concerts now ronaldinho is going to be behind a mask and he takes off the

mad so it's winothedio viral viral viral viral discord goes mad but like like but what's the

like what's next what's what's gonna keep the people staying what's next because if it's just

like if everything is content and everything is you gotta keep one-upping yourself if everything

is just an immediate dopamine hit then how do you achieve the next of course i think honestly at the

end of the day i think there is a place for it but also we talk about entry points like for us Like, I started off being a fan of soccer through playing FIFA, right

That was a condensed version of a 90-minute match in a way, right? You know what I'm saying

I'm playing a condensed version. I don't know. I know the players from playing the game, but I'm not really watching 90-minute games

So I can see for an American, you know, who is just coming into the sport, they look at TST

They're able to, okay, Nani's playing. Aguero's playing. Dope. Like, I get to come into the sport from that capacity and maybe even play alongside them

or play against them in the tournament, make it a meaningful experience. Like, I have a bunch of my friends who got cut from their USL teams, you know, graduated college, who don't play pro

And TSP gives them the opportunity to stay fit for, like, a potential trial for a team if they get an opportunity

So I see it as a way as, like, hey, it's providing a pathway for someone who doesn't have it

By all means, I understand. If you're a football fanatic and you like 90 Minutes, you like watching Arsenal on the weekend, you like watching Manchester City

You don't like watching Arsenal, man. I can totally see why you don't put PK Humboldt doing his dance after every goal

But at the same time, there is a place for it. Like, kids these days, they're on TikTok, they're on social media

They see a cool little goal from their favorite content creator. They want to repost it. And that's what it's made for

Like, not many people, I think, are sitting down watching TST, watching a full baller league or Kingsley game

They're seeing the highlights. They're seeing the best goals. That's my thing with, like, TST

I'm intrigued by it as a concept, but I'm never going to watch it. At the end of the day, I feel like for these small-sided leagues

you know, it's all about moments where football's forever