Kieran Gibbs: Arsenal’s Title Win, The Bitcoin Salary & Moving to Beckham’s Miami (Ep122)

33:21If I hadn't have had that, I probably wouldn't have learned as much as I did. So even me taking myself away from my comfort zone exposed me to learning more. When did you start investing? I started investing in probably 2000, personally investing in 2019.

33:46Kieran Gibbs:When you see 100 grand a week, Kieran Gibbs paid, say, well, I'm just making it up. Do you get 100 grand a week? Or is then there like an agent and then another agent and then another agent and then at the end of the day, I'm left with, you know. Obviously, you'll get tax, right? Yeah, well, yeah, there's obviously the tax, But with the agency stuff, that also, a lot of that's paid up front. So especially like when I signed West Brom, that was already kind of included in the fee. Did you get a signing fee? A signing bonus? Signing on fee, yeah. What was the signing? Do you know what? I can't even remember now.

34:29It wasn't massive. I didn't go for a lot of money. I went for seven. You went for double the salary. i had a low i had a low i had a low fee so yeah that's probably why this the salary was a bit i think it was something like that between five and seven compared to the prices now yeah they

34:46Kieran Gibbs:got a good deal yeah did you did like sponsorships make up any of the revenue for you yeah sponsors sponsors you mean like nike nike adidas deals yeah sponsorship was was was healthy if you hit your target in terms of appearances or you know representing your country there were big bonuses for for in with the sponsor deals what was your biggest sponsor my biggest was probably when i signed for adidas well i went to the headquarters actually in in germany and i was blown away by um and they just send you loads of companies and yeah they send you boxes boxes and you have a little card. Oh, that's cool.

35:34Yeah, the card is cool. What does this card get you? It's like an Adidas credit card and you can just get stuff on the website. It's not a discount card, it's just for free? It's free. A Nando's black card. It's free? Do you still have it? No, no, no, I don't have it. There's an Adidas store just down the road from here so we could have gone and had some fun. I think it was because obviously Arsenal were with nike as well so i think that when when your club is with a certain brand and then you are as well to to pull you out of that it has to be a significant deal for you for you to to get out i think what's the uh when you're at us or any of your contracts really but if we just use the english ones what was the deal with you on your image rights versus what you could do outside of working for the club because as you say nike with the club and adidas personally presents a clash Yeah.

36:30Do you know what? I only used to deal with my sports deals. I only wanted to concentrate on my football. I think if probably if I look back now, I probably would have ventured a little bit more into my personal brand, but I was more, I didn't want any distractions. I think the game is obviously completely changed now. But that's the one Harry's asked you about advice. Like that's the thing now, isn't it? The challenges. You know, if you have the opportunity outside of it, how far do you lean into that versus continuing to make sure that your everyday is on the training pitch and doing all of the work on football?

37:04Yeah, I admire players that don't do what I kind of did in that regard in terms of like just wanting to focus on football. I think for me, I just didn't feel like I had the capacity to focus on other things. Obviously, as I got older, it changed. But when I was younger, certainly I was making my way in the game. And all I cared about was, it was all I cared about. It was honestly all I cared about was playing football. Because I think one piece of advice I'll give to young athletes,

37:39Kieran Gibbs:being an incredible athlete myself, is actually to think about social media more. when you look at like the greats now in terms of monetization outside, whether it's your Ronaldo's or Sabalenka's, like Sabalenka's dance videos, I get her fucking Van Cleef's multi-million dollar deals. And like, you know what? If she was just a tennis pro just on the game, she would not get the deal she does. She's world number one though. I get you, dude, but the personality drives more. I think that that's a big part. That's a big part. What being number one? Well, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so the interesting one there is who's doing it who's world number 70 who's really lent in socially and therefore built the Ilona Ma type impact in rugby without being maybe on the pitch the best player yeah yeah yeah and I always felt that I wanted to prove myself in terms of bringing success to the club first before I start to you know kind of use my personal brand and obviously still pains me to this day that I never managed to win the big prizes with the club.

38:47But, you know, I see players now that are nowhere near, reach nowhere near what I managed to, and they have massive personal brands. Nowadays, it's more acceptable, I think, now. It's more of like a new school mentality. Can you talk us through the whole US move and piece from there? We've been talking about commercial money, business, high level of performance in football. us has so much of that on some sides of it maybe lesser side on the performance piece when you went into miami i mean for an 85 pay cut but also there was so much there that was probably intriguing and exciting that wasn't yet known i it was in the first years at the club you have david beckham as the owner can you just tell us about why you went out there how it comes about and what's actually worked out for you since yeah so i was coming to the last year of my contract at West Brom and I just felt that I didn't really want to kind of kick the can down the road anymore.

39:44I've been in the league in England for 15 years and I just felt that I needed a change mentally. I always wanted to move abroad in some regard, whether it was to play football in another league or to just pack your bags and move. Just not Turkey. Just not, yeah, just not Turkey. But yeah, when it became that choice of Turkey or Miami, and it was Saudi as well, after speaking with David, it didn't take me long to make the decision. because, well, one, how do you say no to someone like David Beckham? But also I think the way he shared the vision on what's happening over stateside in terms of the league and the club that they're building, but also just the opportunity outside of football in terms of commercially and stuff like that.

40:45I thought there's more value that I can add and I can extract from a place like Miami than a place like Turkey. I was already, you know, started to be involved in the crypto kind of industry. I say crypto, more the Bitcoin world. And I could see the news over there with how forward thinking the city was in terms of the mayor. And I mean, we spoke about it earlier, the kind of crypto bros that were all moving out there. You had your FTX and these huge, huge companies. And I thought, I'm just going to take a gamble. I took a big gamble. And I'm very happy that I made the decision to go there.

41:30Kieran Gibbs:Was it what you thought it would be? It's even more wilder than I thought it would be. How so? In terms of Miami? Yeah. It's such a multicultural place, but also it's actually a lot smaller in terms of their kind of network out there. It's much smaller than like a city like London or New York. But because of COVID and the tax rules, so many people started flooding down the year that I moved there. was incredible to see the amount of, not just the amount of wealth that was moving there, but the diversity. Everyone wanted to be in Miami, literally the year that I moved. It just created this melting pot, and I don't think it's slowing down.

42:18I don't think it's slowing down. There's just many interesting people that are moving there from all walks of life, and every day is different in Miami. There is no one day that's the same. There's no Monday. There's no Sunday. it is just one constant uh very intense and fast moving city and how was the football sold to you you know you you drop in how do you say no to david beckham i think a lot of people would agree with you on that but from his early involvement you know him actually calling up players being making sure that you understood the vision from him but also like the immediate reality of going in to play for a new team right because he could have spoken about what they want to build into Miami into but you're playing now so there's a fine line between you going well that sounds amazing but I'm going to be here for x amount of time at the early stages of this like how how is that position to you on both fronts I signed halfway through the season so they were rock bottom of the league when I joined.

43:25And it was funny because I was actually pretty surprised that I'd passed the medical, which no one knows. I had a herniated disc that was pretty bad. But I didn't want to sign and be injured. So I did everything I could. I had steroids. I was doing the most to be fit because I didn't want to let him down as well for taking that risk in signing me and giving me that opportunity. After the first game, I made my debut in the second half. I can't remember who it was against now. But then after that, we didn't lose for like 11 games since I started the first game. So we went from rock bottom to like fifth in the league.

44:17And it was incredible. I mean, even I hadn't hit that form in a long time, you know, at West Brom. And so I think that, I mean, after that, I ended up having to have back surgery. So I had surgery right at the end of that season. But it was a case of, you know, the club was not in a great position at the time in terms of its position in the league. I think it was its third year. Was the quality of football very different?

44:52Kieran Gibbs:Slower, less physical, less intense? It was more physical. Really? It was more physical. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of compare it to like checkers. In America, it's just end-to-end and very fast and no real kind of structure like chess. You know, chess is slow, but then it's very, very quick. whereas checkers is just you know it's just chaos isn't it really um and that's kind of how i describe it less structure but more more physical they don't they don't keep the ball as much they don't have that structure the league is dominated a lot by uh latin players and so the high talent um but in terms of of football footballing kind of structure is it's growing but it's it's low On structure, we often speak to owners or CEOs, and they often talk about training grounds and facilities around it.

45:54Kieran Gibbs:Comparably, training grounds, facilities, amazing around it when you're arriving into Miami and the Americans crush it or not? Facilities are good. Facilities are good. The training ground is amazing. I mean it's very difficult to compare it to a club like Arsenal but yeah they have good infrastructure they have good infrastructure there Do you feel quite pampered when you're in Arsenal? when everything is I'm sure so beautifully done and so perfect It's definitely a unique environment in terms of I think the way everything is set up there at the training ground I think that the more the more higher pressure club that you're at the the nicer the in the environment it kind of reflects um how big of a of a club you're at and obviously the food the facilities the level of care is is yeah it's another level what's happened with the club now right you've got the messy effect everyone knows what that's done how have you seen it you stayed in miami right so yeah you stayed out there you've seen this you've been at a club in an early stage of its life you've seen it grow into now or growing into something which is a global brand um well i mean when i arrived there i think they was still figuring out that kind of uh the the culture side of it more and it takes years and years to build culture right you're talking about a club that was three years old when i got there and so So most people, they probably don't know what they're following as such.

47:42It takes time to build that. And I didn't realize that until I got there because I just grew up in the ranks at Arsenal. And I just thought that that was the standard. So it was apparent to me when I moved there that for me, it's culture first. It sets the rest of the tone for a club, for a community, for a business. It is the single most important thing. And I didn't realize that when I was a player, but I realized that when I went to Inter Miami. And obviously, you know, now the club will be in a completely different place to when I was last there, which was three years ago. Now they have the world's greatest player.

48:31that that will start to induce a new culture with probably how he, how Messi wants or expects things. I think that that will probably be filtering through the club at the moment. Is it night and day when you see the Messi effect?

48:47Kieran Gibbs:Like just the teams and teams of fans that are now new into Miami fans to press the spotlight, the attention that comes? Yeah. I mean, I went to the first game that he played and the atmosphere was just completely different. Was it? When I was playing there, yeah. Not just there, but everywhere he goes, in any stadium that he goes to play in in America, it's just the buzz around the place and the rate of growth of interest in the sport. Not just from Messi being there. I think in general, it's increasing rapidly. This is a discussion we have a lot, right? and harry's quite critical not critical skeptical probably the right word of i know weird him skeptical um you see these bounce yeah you see these bounces in athletes when they go to place now because athletes are so well the top athletes are followed more more so in a lot of clubs right but while that's amazing when they're there at the club does that sustain when they leave and if you're looking at miami as a business right you're loving it right now but how concerned are that when Messi leaves, a lot of that appeal, a lot of that value goes with him?

50:02I mean, it depends if, you know, it goes with him because is he going to, will he continue playing after this? So I think that the club will always attract amazing players, maybe not to the point, the level of a Messi. But I think the way that fans and players are building their brands, they will actually be able to build brands that can, I'm talking about brands, maybe not level of player, but brands that will attract fans because of technology that will be huge audiences. So clubs will be able, Inter Miami will bring another player eventually, maybe not as close to Messi, but close enough.

50:55Kieran Gibbs:But my argument is that essentially they will not sustain the Messi effect and that you have an increasing number of sports and events which take consumer time and attention and football will not break into tier one entertainment in the US as a result of the competitive budget for consumer attention. I disagree. I disagree because I think if you look at how new the sport actually is there, you know, the MLS was founded in 96, right? What has happened since now you're about to have a World Cup there. So it's been 30 years. If you look at what's happened in those 30 years, it's actually been quite rapid growth.

51:49And I think if you look at what's going to happen probably off the back of the next World Cup, I think the next 30 years, I think you will rapidly. I think I actually I actually think the complete opposite.

52:01Kieran Gibbs:Do you not do you not think that is predicated on getting tier one players to leave tier one leagues in a time where they are playing their best football? Not great players at the end of their career wanting to monetize building a brand. Yes, some things definitely have to change. some things definitely have to change and and some tough decisions have to be made by the governing bodies that are over there that is also without a doubt what is the toughest decision that has to be made by the um i think they need to pay players more i think they need to pay players more i think the fact that you can have a player that earns six million dollars a year and another player that earns sixty thousand dollars a year is just unacceptable to be honest Can you explain the structure there?

52:49Because how pay works in the US is different to how it works in other leagues. I don't know how and why it started, but yeah, you basically have three designated players on each team that are exempt from normal salary cap of each club. and I guess it comes down to the fact that the teams are basically owned by the league and so what you have, obviously you have this single entity structure that's owned by the league and so they can't just then go and pay players exactly what they want. They have to keep it equal and I don't know how they're going to be able to change it but to attract more quality players as you're saying you have to you have to pay them more um it's it's it's it's really self-explanatory so the other thing just staying on that though

53:50Kieran Gibbs:is like every american has an english football team that they support that's the funniest thing i have so most of my friends are american they all like arsenal they all like chelsea they're like manu oh what about like the ms i don't watch that yeah but and with the concentration of quality and talent towards the English Football League, which is great. Yeah. You have more people want it. But how many Americans were watching even the Premier League, you know, up until how many years ago? Much fewer. Much fewer. Yeah. So I think that there's a lot of catching up to do, but I think that there are going to be significant milestones that happen after the back of this World Cup that's coming.

54:40Yeah, you mentioned pay. Tell everyone what you did with your salary when you first signed. Yeah, so we announced a new sponsorship about two weeks after I signed the club, a new front of Jersey sponsor called XPTO. They're a crypto finance company. And the club basically messaged me and said, oh, we're doing a launch of this new sponsor. would you like to come they're a crypto finance company and we can see your they could see my twitter and stuff and they they said that we we can see that you're you you like um bitcoin and i said uh i said yeah sure i went to the launch i met the whole company met the founders um and we just got on really well and and i did the launch with them and they said would you i i actually asked them if they would be able to do it.

55:33And they said, yeah, we will explore it. So do what? Pay half of my salary in Bitcoin. Pay half of your salary in Bitcoin?

55:41Kieran Gibbs:Yeah. How much was that? It wasn't, obviously, it was 85 % less than West Brom.

55:49So we keep you in here to wear you down after six hours.

55:53Kieran Gibbs:You'll be like, it was 13, 15, 20. And I'm like, ah! Okay. Okay, the half salary in Bitcoin. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was more of a... It was more of a... I did actually do it. It was... They didn't actually send me Bitcoin. It was more of like 50 % of my salary was... It was like a direct debit because technically you're not allowed to buy law. You weren't allowed to do it. So, because we couldn't pass it through the MLS. So I just had like a direct debit that basically sent them 50%. and then they sent me the exact... Yeah, they converted in and sent him back. The reason why I announced that was because...

56:37Well, there were two reasons, really. I wanted to kind of increase my network in the area of Miami. And it actually worked because when I put it out on Twitter, I had so many people messaging me. I had Pomp, Anthony Pompliano. I don't think you'll know. I don't know if you know him. Yeah, that's Joey Pompliano's brother. Joey does all the sport, yeah. Balaji, the ex-CTO of Coinbase. Very smart guy. Michael Saylor. And it just completely spiderwebbed my network in that industry, which was what I wanted to do. I wanted to kind of get a deeper understanding of the technology but I also wanted to let people know that this is a powerful technology and I wanted to try to help people understand it more and I felt that by announcing something like that, like a salary announcement, that's showing high conviction and so I thought that maybe someone might do some research on it like I did because it helped me massively when I first got into the space.

57:56Kieran Gibbs:Did you feel the volatility of the price swings? Because obviously your salary is then tied to the price of Bitcoin. And so in some weeks going up massively and some weeks you're not looking good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But by then I was already four years into the technology in terms of understanding it. I'm not being a dick and I'm not asking for money or numbers, But at that stage, it's an awful term, post-economic, where you're like, eh, I didn't need it. Like when you go to the US, you're like, okay, I've made X amount of money. I know that's safe. Yeah, this was not about the actual money. This was how can I get people researching this stuff?

58:42I think that players have platforms, and I've never really come out and spoken about politics or religion. And I felt that, for me, I was attaching my name to something that I felt can help many people. And that was why I wanted to do it. What did your advisors say to you?

59:11Kieran Gibbs:But no, I'm being serious because like, actually, I think it's very sound financial decision making. Respectfully, agents and football agents are not very good investors, are not very good portfolio managers, actually aren't equipped to manage your money very efficiently at all. Most wealth advisors are actually not very good either and they're incentivized by fees and you trading and transacting, which often isn't the best either. What were they advising you? By this time, I was already 27. And so, you know, I think if this would have happened, you know, before, then I don't think my mum would have...

59:47She had less control by this point, but she was also not happy at all. But also, it sounds like you've done... You know, it wasn't like this was a, I wake up one day, read an article, and I'm going to go and bung half my cash in there. You said you spent four years looking at this. You make a very specific decision at a, as you say, a specific time of your career on a much smaller salary, you probably assessed your percentage risk where you're going, okay, like I can do this. And as you say, if it happened to go to zero, let's just say, it would be gutting, but I'm not broken. So I'd imagine for you as part of a much longer process than just a - Oh, absolutely.

1:00:26No, no, no. The first time I bought Bitcoin was in 2017. 2017. The amount of Bitcoin that I bought through my salary was probably less than 2 % of what I'd owned total. So it was purely publicity. It was purely publicity at that point.

1:00:47Kieran Gibbs:Can I ask you, it's lovely when money's coming in. Then you stop playing and the money flows stop. And you see this with a lot of players where it's like, oh shit, didn't factor that into my thinking. What does that look like? Is it all presenting, investing dividends? What does the money flows look like today for you? Yeah. So, you know, I sold a lot of assets over the last three years since moving to America. That ended up turning out all right. But yeah, I think being as a US resident, owning foreign assets is a complete pain. so I think it was time for me to like consolidate and I knew I was going to be based in the US I knew I wanted to be based in the US longer term and then now I just yeah now I just have it based in the US that is with a very trusted person that I work very closely with and it's spread across stock market and a bunch of other different asset classes tell everyone what you're doing now you got really cool business that we've already spoken about you said how was one and who you're currently working with now is another is like the top athletes um from the business perspective but what you guys are doing is really cool tell everyone about it yeah so i got lucky enough to be honest to play at inter miami with uh blaze matuidi who obviously i played i played against him for PSG and against France as well.

1:02:25An amazing player, but an even more incredible person. Played with him at Inter. He decided he wanted to stay in the US long term, and I decided the same. And we, together along with Sylvain Marveau, just as remarkable as Hal and Blaze actually in terms of his intellect and his ability to operate at such a high level. I couldn't, I just can't believe the guy that he is. We set up the club together two years ago and the idea is to create, I mean, at least for me, I think we all agree that we want a world-class football institution built on strong values, strong community, and we want to base it in the US.

1:03:21Kieran Gibbs:What does that mean? That's like training grounds? No, youth academy. So it's youth academy training the next generation. Yeah, I don't even like to call it an academy, honestly. I like to call it an institution because there's, I think for us, there's no, we don't want to, I don't think we want to limit ourselves. I believe that we will probably break into the ownership level in terms of at the MLS level. We compete already in the MLS Next, which is the highest youth academy league that you can compete in. And then obviously you have the MLS that sits at the top. And in between you have what's called the MLS Next Pro, which is kind of like the feeder league into the MLS.

1:04:11non-MLS teams can also have next pro franchises and it works pretty much identically to the MLS model but just on a much smaller scale. What's it like, academy side, kids coming into the game, talent? What's that like in the US compared to what it was or what it is from your experiences in the UK? Where are we at with football at grassroots over there? We are still behind, to be candid, but it's growing. But I think culturally is what's keeping it behind. And that's what we're trying to inject. I think what you have in, obviously, in the US is kind of like a top-down structure. So the grassroots is kind of like the last people that get affected by the sport, right?

1:05:04The leagues were kind of built first and the infrastructure was built first and the culture followed. Whereas in England and in Europe, the culture was what was built first. You know, football was built from teams out of churches and factory workers and war. England played against Germany on Christmas Day, you know, like the culture was built first here. And that is what I think has slowed America down in terms of producing top talent. So what we want to do is try to inject some of that kind of bottom-up culture. And that comes from the experiences that we had as players. Doesn't it come back to also, though, grabbing those kids and making sure they're playing soccer, not necessarily going and playing all the other options that you have in the US.

1:06:04Because over here, academy football, as you said, football is so ingrained into the fibers of this country. Football academies thrive because it's the number one priority for a lot of kids when they are first discovering sport. But the market honestly is huge in America. The country is so big. You have 350 million people there. And soccer is actually, it's really big there.

1:06:30Kieran Gibbs:The interest in the sport is not the issue there. Do you not think it's exclusionary to young people, actually? The cost of soccer for young people is very prohibitive in the US. Yes, and this is a big part of our business. Obviously, we have to operate as a business because we don't own our own facility. We don't have 200 million to go and buy a facility and put kids through our system that way. We lease our fields. We have to pay our coaches. You know, we're not part of some big institution, unfortunately. But I think that there is a massive opportunity for, you know, big companies to come in and support and kind of, you know, join a movement.

1:07:16Because it has to be a longer term vision if you want to create something, you know, really big there. and we can't do it on our own, obviously. We're not big enough. But also, what you generally have to have to make a sport successful in its domestic market is you have to ensure that you have a good pipeline of players that come from that market. Saudi's greatest challenge is great. You bring in all these international stars, but at some point, the academies have to be feeding Saudi stars in because that's going to be the lifeblood of that league for 20, 30 years. The US has the same. you want those players at the top top level i think we have four in the premier league right now we've got you know you've got those some that have been really successful over the years but you want to be retaining the chris richards of the world that you know like in the u.s systems playing in those leagues inspiring the communities because that's how you build the culture yes we grew up here following the england players yeah i love all the international players coming but still yeah frank you know when we were growing up as chelsea fans right you you have that yes That kind of grounding.

1:08:22And that to me feels so important for the next stage. So you kind of coming at it from that reverse angle. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. And that is, you know, it's also selfishly given me kind of a new lease of life. I think the first year I retired, it took me, I was a little bit lost. And now I've found that passion and it kind of made me think about all the people that helped me get a chance to have a career in this game and change the life of myself and my families. And now I feel completely responsible to do the same for other kids. And they need someone to look up to. We take that responsibility fully on our shoulders and we're on the field most days while we're there.

1:09:16And we're really on the ground trying to see how we can add value. Finally, a couple of minutes on World Cup in the US. You play for England, right? You've had that experience. The pressures that come with it, I'd imagine are insane. The expectations of this country on its international players are huge, particularly coming up to a World Cup. Oh, God. I mean, I wasn't lucky enough to go to a World Cup, but I can tell you that, yeah, putting on the England jersey, there is no feeling like it. there is no feeling like it um because you know you you you realize that all of the the grounds that you go to that you've played at um up until that point as a as a scholar as a as an academy player um you realize that that actually you are now representing all of of those those people so So the magnitude just completely is completely different to representing your club.

1:10:30And you have that at the same time as having an incredible feeling of pride. I can only imagine what it's like stepping out on the finals of a World Cup stage. How do you think it's going to be? I was speaking to someone from New York who lives in New York yesterday. And he was saying, you still wouldn't know the World Cup is on, which was interesting, right? So I hope it ramps up in the time. do you yeah it's that still got that feeling in miami yes yeah yeah i mean i've been back a week

1:10:56Kieran Gibbs:and so yeah i just left and do you think when it's on it will be no one can stop world cup fever it's the biggest event in the world and so i think what is is it bigger than the olympics yeah surely yeah i mean well whatever metrics you're measuring on the two they're the two biggest but if you're really looking at fandom right yeah if you're watching that people love watching like we all love watching the olympics but yeah you're every single pub pretty much in london every single one exactly is booked out yeah you literally cannot find brazil they they close the brazil stock exchange that's how big it is you know like it's it's absolutely enormous but But yeah, I think that the fact that it's spread out between the other countries is probably the only thing that will make it kind of less intense as it could be.

1:11:58Weather? Everyone's been mentioning this. You've played obviously out there in the conditions. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how they're going to do it. Really? Yeah. I don't know. i don't know how they're gonna do it to what did you do to get through it i know it sounds stupid

1:12:13Kieran Gibbs:is it like hydration is like electrolytes is it you change your prep plan i didn't play 190 minutes in for example in that 11 games were my first 11 games i played i don't think i played more than 80 minutes it was just impossible especially as you know i think for me i i arrived and played straight away that you know they've got a couple of warm-up games and i think that that will help them um that will help them a little bit but it's just very difficult very difficult especially in especially in miami so well you know i think it will play a part it's gonna play a big part big part i saw um i think again i haven't checked it but i saw someone say that it'll be as hot out there as it would have been if you played the guitar world cup in the summer which obviously they moved to the winter in some of the cities where it's playing interesting interesting yeah well I think the hottest place on earth is in Death Valley isn't it in the US that's where the highest temperatures on earth have been recorded so it's going to be insane are you ready for a quick fire round okay are we ready for this what was your favourite stadium to play at that was not home ground the Signal Iduna Park ooh good one yeah the what Dortmund Borussia Dortmund who is the most impressive physical specimen you have played with or against?

1:13:38Danny Welbeck, just an absolute specimen. He would walk into the gym after not being in the gym for months and doing upper body, and he would just put 100 kg on the bench and just start doing reps. Really? He was just as complete. Or Mika Richards. I mean, he's just huge, right? I mean, that was a strut. But he was also just strong as well, like naturally strong. strong. Him, those two. Danny Welbeck, by far. Danny Welbeck obviously had a little well, he hasn't resurrected he's been actually quite solid for a long time. 14, 13, 14 Premier League goals. Highest scoring English player. Ollie Watkins just got him on the final day.

1:14:22But he was unlucky. There's a lot of people wanting him to go to the World Cup this summer. I'll be honest, I'm very surprised he's not there.

1:14:29Kieran Gibbs:Quite a lot of people have said how. Added out that he's still playing. Yeah, yeah.

1:14:35quite a lot of me what's football

1:14:43a few people have said and i've heard it in their other interviews he's like he's quite hard on the list of some of the most impressive people that people have played with as well so i think he's massively by the sounds of it you should get appreciated oh yeah yes okay who was the least impressive physical specimen physical um santi gazzola oh well played why well just like just like a pudding just just just just just epitomized everything that i thought a footballer would would would not be but yet but yet that was the best player i ever played why just like bad diet bad no just i just think yeah genetically like he just wasn't um you know he wasn't built like uh your average footballer you finished off with the best players ever played with so that's that's why that's why i was going yeah i was like because you've got a guy in there who you can say physically but the talent was just extraordinary i mean the best player that most players that played with him will tell you, will say Santi Gazzola.

1:15:55Is it wrong to say, like, how did he compare to a Mesut Ozil, just in how they played? I just think they were different. I just think they were different. I mean, Mesut closely follows, but I've just not seen the way Santi plays. I mean, the same with Mesut, really. I hadn't seen anyone play the game like him. Very unique. But I think for Santi, because he wasn't blessed physically, do you know how good you have to be to be able to play at that level when you don't have the physical kind of attributes that you're almost... I wouldn't say you're at a disadvantage because it was also his blessing.

1:16:49that he was able to be so agile and, you know, kind of could spin on a sixpence. Van Persie the best striker? Best striker. Hammer of a left foot. Yeah, Van Persie best striker.

1:17:05Kieran Gibbs:Who did you hate marking most? Eden Hazard. Why? Because you just couldn't get near him. I just felt that he, yeah, was just one of those i mean there was yeah it was probably him i didn't like playing against antonio valencia um he was he was he was tough even when he was at wigan i was playing against him when he was at wigan um and he was yeah just another he was a specimen but yeah edin edin hazard on his day uh was just unplayable he was one of the players we i think we we used to be quite um an ego-driven team in terms of we felt that we should outplay everyone that we played against just in terms of the style that we played and we never used to speak about opposing players at all but whenever we would play against Eden Hazard the team would would say well we've we've got to play against Eden Hazard tomorrow and that was remarkable considering some of the the players that we had and that was on you right as well not only do you talk about it he was probably on your side i mean he's just everywhere yeah he was just everywhere he would be on he would pop up on the left in the middle in between you and me and the center back and it was just hell yeah he was just so good he's single-handedly one that won the league for them in in 2015 i think you've played under several different managers who was the worst i would have to say my least uh favorite who i felt i least connected with was alan pardew how long did he last five four five months did you push him

1:18:58what's the most lavish purchase you've made so so is there like a is a house included in that or not

1:19:07Kieran Gibbs:lavish that's not lavish let's say luxury like a luxury luxury highly liquid asset that yeah yeah um oh that's a good one that is a good one i don't think i've ever been asked that probably my car that i bought when i went when i got to miami what is that it was it's a defender how much was it it was jazzed up yeah yeah and i i couldn't get i couldn't get a lease because I don't have any credit. Yeah. How much was that? It was$140 ,000. Dollars? It's not that bad. Not too bad for a player. Yeah, I had some shockers. Yeah, I wasn't into... What about experience? Because you said you love experiences.

1:19:57Like most lavish experience. Yeah. And that's probably like giving you some amazing times, right? Yeah, I used to go away and on holidays and take my brother and friends and stuff. And we were just kind of, I would say, yeah, I would say holidays. Is that one of the nicest things about being a professional when you can do that with your family? You know, you give an experience that you're just not going to have anywhere else. Yes. That was the biggest, I felt that for me, that was the biggest thing that I could, the best thing that I could spend my money on. Nice. Yeah.

1:20:35Kieran Gibbs:Kieran, this has been such a joy to do leaving on the best thing to spend my money on that's a great way to end it thank you so much for being so open and fantastic with us my pleasure, absolute pleasure thanks for having me on thank you so much to Kieran for joining us all the way from Miami in the studio having watched him for years and seen brief reports of the work he is doing alongside football it was a privilege to hear more about it and hopefully that proves inspiring and helpful to any of you listening from an athlete's perspective of how you can get involved in business opportunities beyond the game.

1:21:06A huge thank you, as always, and I hope you enjoyed the show. Now, if you want to see more from today's show, you can do so by going to YouTube or any of our other social channels across Instagram and TikTok. There are more snippets to share and bite-sized chunks to consume. And while you're there, please do like, subscribe, and follow the show. As you will hear from your other favourite pods, it makes a huge difference when bringing you the best guests and conversations from the world of sport, which is, of course, our endless aim. Thank you again for tuning in and we'll see you next week.

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