You can't give up, you can't let the
perception of the outside world judge you.
If I let the perception
the outside world judge me,
I would have given up in 2019
long time ago,
because people were talking crazy,
you know what I mean?
And I was at the lowest point
of my footballing career at the time.
I was going through a lot of stuff
on the personal side.
But at the end of the day, I was like,
you know what, I'm going to take this L.
It's fine. But when I see you
I’mma see you.
First up, I want to ask you all
the same question.
Now, you all play football
in different ways,
with different styles,
and at different abilities
But what I want to know
is just what it feels like
to have the ball at your feet?
Yeah, since I was a little kid,
my first memory of touching the ball,
I saw possibilities
because of the ball,
I learned how to dream.
I think playing football is just
the biggest kind of joy
I can feel to this moment.
At the end of the day for me, like
scoring goals and winning
brings the absolute joy
so I think football can give you
a lot of opportunities in life
but in the end of the day, you know
you just want to entertain
and have fun when you play.
My first memory when I was a kid
playing football was, you know,
putting on a Didier Drogba shirt
and replicating some of his skills
and some of his goals.
Now, I want to take you back
to when you were a kid.
What was that first memory of you
learning to love the joy of the game?
It was R9, basically.
That final, I think, in ‘98
with Inter Milan
when they played against Lazio Roma
when he scored a goal and
he came in front of the goalkeeper
and he dropped his shoulder
like two times.
You know like, right, left.
I was like oohh.
I was like you know,
give him the business.
I was like yo, okay,
that’s what I want to be.
So from then on, I was five years old.
I was a man on a Mission.
Growing up and you playing football,
tell us a bit about some of your experiences
and maybe when the pressure
started to kick in for you?
The first time I felt a lot of pressure
was when I was selected to train
with a few of the best boys in Berlin
at the age of 11.
And I kind of felt that
I always had to prove that I earned
my spot in this training team.
My story was hell, you know,
for I would say, like 11 years.
For example, in my house,
I'm living with no electricity
you know, my mom has diabetes.
We have difficulties
to go and get medicine for her and
and stuff like that.
And I'm six, seven years old,
and I have to deal with those problems.
I think personally,
it's about having
like a good social department in every
academy of every football team.
So if one player had a different
personality, for example,
the person of the social department
will talk to the coach
and tell him how to approach the player.
So every player that's
a bit different in his behaviour,
still have a good relationship
with their coach
because the coach knows
how to approach the player.
Do you guys have that?
People that are there from
social department that
talk with you outside of football?
The first time I was in contact
with a mental coach was
in the national team in the under 17.
And I think that's a little bit late.
And even for youth academies
where boys play
I think they need a little bit more
because the pressure's even higher.
That really resonates a lot
with some of the work that I do at FBB.
What we call it is the iceberg effect,
where everybody always sees
the tip of the iceberg above the sea level
but they don't see, you know,
how big it is underneath.
And a lot of the social,
emotional and mental health
issues and concerns
that football coaches just don't understand
because they see the world sometimes
through a footballing lens
tends to allow these really talented
players to fall through the net.
I grew up in South America.
I'm from Ecuador.
When I realized that I was
good at playing and that I love it
I went to do the tryouts in the team,
and South America is the jungle man.
It’s just the strong survive there,
it’s crazy.
And I was not, I was not aware
of that at all. I wanted to try out
and I went to play just for joy,
you know, and I had a great performance.
I did my game.
Second time that I went, I started
getting some abuse of other players,
verbal abuse.
Because yeah, I was like from
a different background let’s say.
And that thing broke my head.
Like I really I broke down
and that basically, eventually
I quit playing because I didn't have
the mindset or the personality
at nine years old to understand that
out there was the jungle for real,
I was just playing for fun.
What I wanted to kind of move us onto
was Romelu maybe you sharing some of
your experiences when you first came
to Chelsea. How did you kind of cope
with that experience and the pressure
that was on your head
kind of at that point?
Wow man. I would say it was a dream.
It was a dream.
I signed in August 2011.
And looking back,
three months before in May,
I was still in high school. My last year.
I never lived outside like
I wasn't living by myself,
like I was with my parents.
What I told myself is, you know what,
let me work on myself mentally
to get even stronger and
to be ready for when my moment comes.
My mindset became like, you know what,
I'mma work hard. I'mma work hard.
I know I have like talent.
But what's going to define me
is the work that I put in.
I've always felt that there's
so much talent left behind.
So my motivation was to offer
and actually build a platform
where we champion common people.
So it's like your dreams didn't die,
even if you didn't make it to professional.
And I felt that was something missing
that football is not only
in the stadiums, and the clubs
don't have to be your only option.
There must be another option more freely
to also become someone in football,
Let's say. And that's the motivation
of how I built Street Football Barcelona.
For a young German international,
I know there must be a lot of pressure
on your shoulders when you're training.
But the fact that you chose
to be a part of Movement FC
I'd really love to know kind of
you wanted to go beyond?
I think what's important to know
or to realize is that there's not
only the way of playing football.
So most most little ballers who start
playing football would think that they
have to make a pro. But the other thing
is just playing out of joy and I think
that's what's important and I really
wanted to step out of my comfort zone,
do something new and maybe
inspire other people.
A key thing about football for me is
whenever there's lots going on in my week
or there’s like a lot of pressure
that I'm dealing with,
when I'm playing,
I don't think about any of it.
And I get to play in a way where
I'm also not expected to, like
overly perform in the moment.
I want you to look back on a moment
where actually, you being
able to play the game
allowed you to forget about everything
that was going on in your day
and you celebrated one of the
best goals that you had scored
on that pitch in that moment.
What did that joy feel like?
Yeah, it's a great feeling of emptiness,
there could be clarity.
That you're just there present
in the moment and you feel light.
So yeah it's quite crazy
to this simplicity you know,
so I feel just light, and that's awesome.
Awesome feeling.
With me I remember a moment
where I scored my first international goal.
I scored a volley goal with my
weak right foot and I was so happy.
Are you left-footed?
Yes I’m left-footed!
My dawg. Haha.
Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah!
Baller! Baller!
I didn't even see the ball going
into the net
and I saw all my teammates
running up to me,
and I was so happy and I felt so free.
And yeah it was so,
it was such a good moment. Yeah.
So my first goal for Chelsea, for me,
because it was a lifelong dream.
I waited for this moment for
well like since 2004,
I waited for this like 17 years,
you know what I mean.
17 years to just score a goal
for the team that I supported as a boy.
So even though it was a tap in,
a goal is a goal! I don't care!
A goal is a goal.
As long as it passes the line,
I scored the ugliest goals in my life! I don't care.
I don't care.
A goal is a goal,
but for me that one was like for me it was like,
you know what
I waited 17 years for this.
But yeah, that's dope man I was happy.
Alright so before we leave,
Romelu give us the last bit of advice then...
Play football why you started it for,
for fun. That's what I would say.
Enjoy yourself, because
at the end of the day, you know
that's why, you know,
the game is so important to us,
because we watch the game
and we play the game because of love.
It's been such a nice conversation man
No, thank you. Thank you
for the good conversation, guys.
I feel the vibe and
energy from all of you.
Thank you. Thank you.
See you in Barcelona soon guys.
Peace and love, see you later.
Thank you very much.
Peace.