In 1984, John Fashanu, a black Englishman of Nigerian descent, signed with the British club: Millwall FC; an openly racist club at that time. The semi-official chant the supporters sing from the crowd is: ‘We are Millwall, No One Likes Us, No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care, We are Millwall, From the Den’. (The Den is the name of their home ground)

The supporters hated him, they abused him, they threw bananas at him, they threatened his life if he dare stay. Somehow, as time progressed - they came to adore him. Impossibly, he became the most beloved player at the club. His passion, his skill and of course his goals just won them over, kind of like the Soviet crowd conversion in Rocky IV.

In fact, they revered him so much that when he left the club, the ‘ultra’ supporters – a notorious group known as the F Troupe – were so distraught, that they took out a hit on his life, and he had to go into hiding.

And this is just chapter 4 for John – It was such a good time to chat with him - Give us a listen to hear it all.

soccerPod - Ep: 20

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He was known as ‘the mayor of Rome’ – and he was such a great player that later in his career the great Pele would go on to say that he was the best player in the 1982 World Cup.

But Bruno Conti had a very humble start – his home village of Nettuno was actually known as the baseball capital of Italy.

It was the site of a major US Naval Base during World War 2 – and the Italian boys would watch in fascination as the American GI’s would play baseball on the beach. Eventually they started to teach the locals and a small league formed.

Bruno was so good as a lefty pitcher that he was scouted by – and offered a trial with the NY Yankees – which would be the right team for an Italian – being the club of: Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra.

But he chose soccer and became a legend of both club and country. I met him at his AS Roma facility where he could not have been nicer. It was a real honor to sit with the man and hear his storied career.

I hope you find it as interesting as I did – SoccerPod #19 – the great Bruno Conti.

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If you love sports and you love sports stories, then it is hard to do much better than Wes Morgan, and the absurd story of the 2015 Leicester City Silver Foxes.

They were 5000-1 odds against winning the title. But it may as well have been 5 million. It was not going to happen, no way, an impossibility. To bet 10 bucks on it, was to throw 10 bucks away.

They played Manchester City away late in that year. The cost for the starting 11 that Man City put on the field that day was: 477M (USD), the cost for the Leicester City starting 11 was 32M (USD). In fact, Man City had 6 players that cost more than the entire Leicester squad. Leicester won 3-1, comfortably.

It was the classic David and Goliath story, but with a twist that we can never see in American sports. In America, our titles are won with an end of season tournament – NFL playoffs, March Madness, etc – short term events where strange things can happen – a pitcher gets hot, a quarterback is injured, a boxer has the night of his life.

But, what are we to make of an upset that lasts 9 months? 38 weeks of ‘upsets’ until they lift the trophy as champions? I don’t know but upset seems the wrong word. It is what makes that campaign so strange, so special and so very unlikely to ever happen again.

The great Peter Drury, who was commentating that final day, put it like this - as the captain, Wes Morgan, lifted the trophy to the screaming home fans and as the fireworks went off behind him - ‘It is quite simply the greatest tale told in the history of football’

Even Wes cannot help but smile as he recalled some of the moments from that insane year. And this was but one chapter in his remarkable career that I was humbled to hear him lay out in a small room in a small hotel on a rainy day (of course) in his hometown of Nottingham.

Wes Morgan – Episode 18

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