A 33 Day Football/Family/Friend Adventure

I just returned to India after being on the road for 33 days and am feeling incredibly proud of myself.  Now being on the road for 33 days is not that spectacular especially if you are in sports marketing, an actor or rockstar on tour. Now I’m definitely not an actor or rockstar but as a sports marketing person I should be used to being on the road for this long as so many of my industry peers leave their homes and come back many months later after putting together major events like the FIFA World Cup, Olympics or Asian Games.  I wasn’t part of any major global events team yet I’m still proud of myself. 

The reason I’m proud of myself is that over the course of the past month and three days I was somehow able to balance my life in a way where I could spend quality time with high profile professional contacts, friends and family in 10 cities across the US and Europe.  Quality, quality time, not just fly by conversations or small talk at a hospitality event where you can’t hear anything over the loud “background” music.

No, what I’m talking about is creating value out of my annual visit to the US and Europe.  Not just value for my organization but value for the quality of my life.  This is so important to me as I’ve now been living in India for 4 years and I know that I’m at my best in this country when I feel connected to my family and friends abroad, can continually update my global soccer contacts with our activities in India and have the opportunity to build Libero Sports India into a global organization.  This was all more than accomplished on this past trip and I just feel so blessed with how everything just came together.   

Ok, so I know that up to this point I’ve just written a bunch of crap praising myself for how I filled 33 days so I’ll try to add some substance to this post with my favorite list categories The Great, The Good and The Not So Good as it relates to my recent business development excursion:

THE GREAT
  • Experiencing the growth of Major League Soccer while celebrating the league with former colleagues and thousands of soccer fans in downtown Kansas City
  • Watching US beat Panama to win another Gold Cup from a suite at Soldier Field
  • Watching the Liverpool FC vs Stoke City match from the Liverpool FC Directors Box
  • Eating breakfast in Harlem with FIFA Executive Committee Member and US Soccer President Sunil Gulati and having the opportunity to educate him on the present and future of the Indian football industry  
  • Being able to avoid hotel room expenses and spend 30 of the 33 nights staying with friends and family across the US and Western Europe

THE GOOD
  • Being able to coordinate 34 meetings across 33 days in LA, Chicago, Kansas City, New York, London, Paris, Stoke, Manchester and Liverpool
  • Meeting Jamie Carragher and Ian Rush at the Liverpool  Academy and Anfield Directors Box respectively
  • Watching AC Milan vs Chelsea FC and Inter Milan vs Juventus from a suite at MetLife Stadium
  • Experiencing the true football culture in Liverpool especially inside Anfield  and local taxis on the first weekend of the premiership season
  • Going to Paris and meeting Paris Saint Germain

THE NOT SO GOOD
  • Having to carry 2 massive bags around the world
  • Watching the rupee value plummet while I was in the west
  • Watching my weight not plummet as I devoured every American food item I had been missing
  • Having to drive again after 51 weeks of being driven around by my awesome driver
  • Red eyes for pretty much every flight which made me feel like a zombie

All in all it was extraordinary. I feel blessed to be in a unique position to represent Indian football to the global football community.  I don’t think I would get the same opportunity if I was still in the US or in any other country but fortunately I made a choice which allows me to do exactly what I want to do in life: travel the world building meaningful football programming and partnerships.  


Here are some pictures from the trip, sorry for posting so many:




















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