In conversation with U.S. soccer legend Brad Friedel

Former U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper Brad Friedel speaks about his playing career, what he’s been doing since retirement and his involvement in the recent Gold Cup

Brad Friedel made 544 appearances in-goal throughout his 21 year professional playing career. In addition, he is the fourth-most capped goalkeeper in U.S. national team history with 82 appearances.

I recently had the chance to speak with Friedel prior to the Gold Cup final. He served as a representative of tournament sponsor Allstate and also worked as a broadcaster for Fox Sports. We discussed his successful career and his post playing days life.

When asked how he got involved with Gold Cup sponsor Allstate he explained, “Whenever you get a company that’s willing to invest from the grass-roots all the way up to the professional level, I’m more than happy to work with them.”

He then added:

"The second thing Allstate is doing is going around the U.S. putting in training fields and giving equipment and uniforms to programs that are underprivileged. Myself, Adolfo Rios (former Mexican goalkeeper) and a few others have gone in and done clinics. It’s a wonderful program where we get in front of the kids. To see the smiles we can put on their faces it’s a tremendous feeling."

Friedel was a standout college player at UCLA

Friedel began his goalkeeping career at UCLA. He was a part of the university’s 1990 NCAA Soccer Championship side and was named the first team All-American goalkeeper in 1991 and 1992. Friedel was also awarded the Hermann Trophy in 1992 which goes to the top collegiate soccer player.

He made the decision to leave UCLA early to try to pursue a soccer career. That wasn’t as easy then as it would be today. Friedel explained that, “there was no professional league in the states at the time so if you wanted to play professionally you had to go abroad.” He added, “you really had to sell yourself.”

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Friedel was offered contracts with four different clubs in England; Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United and Sunderland. Unfortunately, he was denied a work permit each time

When asked why, he explained that back then there was no appeal process.  “It was pretty standard, you either played 75% of your national team’s games from the previous two years or you could not qualify for a work permit.”

He added, “I was young so it would have been really difficult to have the 75% of the games. Then when I started playing games I was always in a lot of competition for starting places with Tony Meola and Kasey Keller, so getting 75% of the competitive games was really difficult.”

Friedel moves to Turkey to sign for Galatasaray

Friedel didn’t give up on his dream. “It was very frustrating but I went and played in Copenhagen with Brøndby and Istanbul with Galatasaray.

When asked about the highly charged Istanbul derby Friedel stated, “If you can play in a Galatasaray Fenerbahce derby you can play in any derby around the world. The pressure’s that big, the fans that loud. It was a great atmosphere.”

At the time, Friedel was the only American playing in Turkey. He said he was treated well.

"What I’ve always done whenever I’ve moved to someone else’s country, I’ve tried to immerse myself in to their culture. I tried to learn the language as quickly as best I could. I tried to learn as much as possible about cultural differences, their religion."

He added that in interviews he would say a few Turkish words and it was appreciated.

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Looking back on that time, Friedel said, “I have some wonderful friends today from Turkey. It was a time in my career I wouldn’t change for the world.

In part two of our interview Friedel discusses his career in England, playing for the U.S. Men’s national team and what he’s doing now.