00:00I can't let Lyon sit here and say that there wasn't a factor, but I think there's no way that I could sit here and tell you as well that just because of those reasons, policy or tax, that's why I'm going. There's no way I'd have gone anywhere. It had to be a whole plethora of different reasons as to why I was going to make that move. And again, family is at the heart of all the decisions that I make. And so again, this is an adventure. Who knows how long am I going to be here? I'm really enjoying myself now.
00:29The energy is fantastic here. And like I said, my children are really happy. And so I can't put it down to just one one aspect. Do you expect other Brits to follow suit? They are already. I think I'm late to the party. I think yeah, I think people again looking for different reasons. They're going to make these moves. And no two people have the same reasons for going anywhere. Yeah. And you you've obviously had an extremely illustrious and successful career as a footballer. And now you are in I guess the
00:58second phase of your career, which is with the launch of Ferdinand Group. And that is a sports and entertainment company. Talk to us about the types of investments that you're looking for for the group.
01:10Yeah, I've got that. But I think that's just my media company, Rio Presents, which hosts Rio Meets and different podcasts, my football agency and commercial agency, New Era as well, which are really thriving.
01:24And again, it's just I'm from a football background and that obviously encapsulates sport as well. And we want to speak to that. And new media is exactly the way to do that. And talking to people directly, seeing it from the horse's mouth and being a part of that culture and the ever evolving culture as well.
01:44And that landscape is moving quickly. And just being a part of that and being at the curve of it because I've been used to doing linear TV, which is great. And I just wanted to step out and have
01:53that freedom and that capability to kind of move and expand and talk in a new way that I think is being consumed very differently to the way when I first started 10 years ago.
02:02And that's why, again, I invested in a company in Saudi called Kura Breaks. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. So we reported on that last year.
02:09Yeah, because a million dollar investment. Yeah. And everyone was saying, well, what you do? It's just a fast growing place. It's a fast growing. We've seen with all of the investment that's going in there now.
02:20But in terms of media, football, sport in general, it's crazy, the growth there and the ability to kind of go there and really get into that market.
02:30And actually, because I'm coming from where I'm coming from and my background, there's a lot of value I can add in that.
02:36Yeah. So, you know, that deal got a lot of attention because it was, I believe, one of the first times that you had a foreign investor invest into local Saudi
02:48fintech startup, right, or fintech platform. And typically what we've seen in the region is money going outwards as opposed to investment locally.
02:57Do you think there is enough investment taking place at a local level to promote, you know, grassroots sports endeavors?
03:04Yeah, I think that's something that is coming. I think the first, obviously, tranche of kind of interest, money, investment, etc., was going to be to kind of
03:12definitely cultivate eyeballs coming to the region and to say, look at what we're doing.
03:19And I think then after that is an underbelly of hard work and the real work that starts happening in terms of making sure that it becomes a
03:25sustainable economy in that sense through sport. And I think what we see is a glitz and glamour, yes, but listen, I'm having a lot of
03:32conversations. I've been traveling to Saudi for the last two and a half, three years and understanding the culture, the differences,
03:40but also the real intent to really create that underbelly of young, aspiring people from the kingdom who they want to really push and make
03:49people that everyone can be proud of. Do you think bringing over Ronaldo galvanized football in the kingdom?
03:54One hundred percent. I mean, he's obviously a wonderful footballer, so it makes sense in that capacity. But his reach, his ability to kind of
04:00shift industries with either even his investments or when he applies himself to a certain trend, people follow. There was no
04:11players, real big players going to Saudi. Cristiano Ronaldo makes a decision one day to go. All of a sudden there's an influx of
04:17players. That shows you he can move the market. Yeah. And you expect that to continue in coming years as well. Yeah. Well, they've got the
04:23World Cup now in Saudi. So in 2034. So to have that, there's going to be a huge lead up to that. They're going to invest heavily
04:30into that, I'm sure. But I think it will be smart investments. Listen, people can say that it's been extravagant. But sometimes you
04:37have to really, really invest high at the beginning to really get the gains and to really kind of stabilize yourself to a point where actually
04:43you can make good, better decisions in the later years to make great decisions for the country and for that product when it comes
04:49around. Yeah. Well, you've successfully made that transition from professional footballer to businessman investor.
04:58Is it incumbent on all athletes today to be thinking about what they're going to be doing post retirement and to have that
05:04business lens? Yeah, I had this conversation with a lot of young players and a lot of players that are coming towards the end of
05:09retirement. And I kind of saw in my generation above me, a lot of players were really reactive to retirement. So when they
05:18retired, what do I do? What do I concentrate on? And because the adrenaline stops, right? Yeah. And then there's pressure to
05:24maintain a lifestyle. Then there's pressure to find something to fill that void. And then you maybe make decisions that
05:30aren't the right decisions when that pressure is on. So I made a conscious decision that around 27 years old to kind of start
05:37putting things in place. I started a restaurant. My foundation has been going 15 years now. My media company, various other
05:45things that are about five things I wanted to do that when I retire, I can walk straight into any one of those businesses. And
05:51that's what happened. And so I had a choice. The pressure was alleviated because of that. And I'm making better choices because of
05:58that now. And it's put me in a position now where I'm in a much better place than what I saw as examples previously. So I tell the young
06:06players now, like, get your football right first or whatever sport you're in, get that right. Make sure that's working and you
06:11understand how to really put out tip top performance consistently. Once you get to that stage, you can actually then your focus can actually
06:19drift a little bit here and there interests that you're into. But you just never want it to get to a point where there's an imbalance where that's
06:26taken over. What's really your your bread and butter. What's your this is your home run every day. Your sport, your football. Yeah. The
06:32other stuff is extracurricular. Don't lose the focus but prepare for the future. Yes. There's something I want to touch on that you
06:37mentioned earlier, which is the importance of perhaps digital presence and you in your own most recent ventures broadening out the scope of
06:46where you speak to your viewers. Right. So now you have your your podcast and you have these platforms where you interview some other famous
06:53athletes as well. Yeah. Do you think perhaps today there's too much pressure on young athletes to also have a digital presence
07:00because they're sort of exposing themselves to a lot more scrutiny than they would have say back in the day. Yeah. I think there's
07:08there's good reasons to want to have been a player in this generation because the finances are just huge now compared to when we
07:13play. We were we were well paid. Don't get me wrong. But it's another level of or two or three now which is great. But coming with that is
07:20that pressure of social media. And there's there's there's some good with social media. But there comes a lot of dark sides to that.
07:26Yeah. The immediate responses that are there negative always. They don't go away.
07:32It's at your disposal all the time. It's the fingertips through your phones. Everyone's it's there for everyone to see. So you never get away from it.
07:39Whereas our generation if it was on a TV station or in the newspaper one day it's gone. But now it's there forever. And it's that's a huge
07:48pressure to take. So the the layers of skin the thickness of skin that these guys need to maintain the focus
07:55and the ability to kind of deal with that pressure is of a different scale to what we ever had to deal with. What advice would
08:02you give them. Don't either don't don't consume it or teach yourself to look at it and delete as quick as you can. Now that's really
08:14difficult for a human to delete negativity aimed at them. But if there's anybody out there that's not a bad
08:20business I don't think to get into if you can help young people especially do that not just football players.
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