Marcos Matthew’s – Your Goals Have To Become Your Life

How did you get picked up by CD Leganés to play for them?

 The team I was on at the time was going to a tournament in the Scandinavia countries. I’ve been unhappy with the level of the play we have been playing I have been looking for an agent to find trails in Spain. Then a week before the tournament an agent took me to Spain to go on the trail with FC Malaga for a week. Then right after that, he flew me into Madrid for CD Leganes. He told me they were one of the best teams in madrid at this level. When I got into the locker room I met the other players who were also on the trail, some were from Atletico Madrid, West Ham, Brighton, and Atletico Bilbo, all massive clubs. But I knew I had a shot if I just played aggressive which I did and I was the only one signed from that group.

At what age did you realize that you wanted to be a professional football player?

 I truly made a decision when I was 15 years old. I was in special ed at the time while playing at a low club level. I remember any time i spoke nobody would truly listen to me, I think because everyone didn’t expect me to do anything significant with my life, so I spoke with soccer. I would wake early in the morning and do a mile run to school, get a ball and pass against the wall during lunch, then after school play with the school team and straight from there I would rush to go play with my club team, Once I finished training with my club team, at night I would read and watch videos on how to better comprehend the game of soccer. I did this at least 5 times a week for 4 years

How have you found the competition over in Madrid compared to the leagues you were playing in California?

 Playing for Leganés makes the competition very tough. We have players who played for AC Milan, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, so when a new player comes in on trail you already know that he can play just by getting the trail, almost always a new player comes for a massive club because our team doesn’t look at small-time players.

I feel that the competition in California is at a good level to the extent of the youth because they are fighting for attention from college scouts, academies, and playing across overseas but once players are 20 years old and above the level competition drops off tremendously because players lose faith being a professional. They either are satisfied with their degree or lose patients. I believe there’s a need to be more professional leagues in the US to keep the competition high to allow players even when they get older to get playing in a highly competitive environment.

Any advice for kids that dream of playing professional football?

 I would tell them no matter how big your goals are it will never come to you unless you are willing to put in the work. You have to be willing to sacrifice almost everything in life to achieve great things. The sacrifices that you have to make is missing family time, cancel plans with your friends, go to bed early. Your goals have to become your life and you will know once you are getting closer to them because when the dogs are barking in means your walking.

Tell us about your company M Squared?

 I want to begin to start doing personal training with players then work my way to start training coaches to learn how to be a better coach and learn how to have better training sessions and find the proper player for the position.

I also want to help players who are in high school who are struggling to get college attention or help them to contact colleges professionally with the necessary information you would need for them to engage to scout you.

Then I finally I am developing a clothing line. The focal point of having the clothing line is to express everything i had to go to through to get to where I am today, to tie in the community of players, coaches, Dr.s, teachers who all struggle in life but never lost sight of their goals.

To help promote everything I will be doing fundraisers to feed the homeless, clean dirty beaches, and train less fortunate players and coaches.

What are your future plans for M Squared?

I want to have a few buildings across America where I have well-trained coaches providing the necessary training for players and other coaches that need to keep growing into their goals. Here I also want to have a section that I will provide free tutoring for players who need help in school and a sports psychologist to help the minds of our clients to talk about their problems and help them to continue pushing forward.

I want to have a team that handles everything when a player is interested in attending certain colleges. Here everything will be online so anyone can contact us on a worldwide scale, and we will walk you through the process of all the different information you will need to more appealing to the colleges. Whether that’s us making a highlight type for you, showing you how to form a CV, which scores you would need the SAT or ACT, etc.

Was there a particular team or player that influenced you and inspired your career?

 I have always been an FC Barcelona fan since before I could walk. Watching Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets play in the midfield was something special. They showed me that you don’t need to be fancy in the way you play you just need to work on the fundamentals. This is where I began to develop my personality on the field.

What are you hoping to achieve in 2020?

 I want to become a full-time player for a terca team. Right now I’m struggling to be on the roster for games for Leganés B so they put me to play games with Leganés C. I’m going to keep working hard than the rest of the competition and slowly to continue to work my way up to where I am a starter every game.

Where can we keep up to date with your football career?

 I am constantly posting photos, videos, stories on my Instagram page. There you guys can see action shots from my last game, and there you can always talk to me directly through my dm or via email. I respond to everyone to try to inspire and help the people around me.