Ricardo Moreira is very passionate about soccer, it has been the major driver in his life. Since playing from a young age in Brazil, along side his law studies and now his job as Orlando City’s General Manager and Sporting Director, he has made his life mission to stay close to the game.

This episode is a great summary of the podcast season so far. It has sports business strategy, analysis of the current landscape in the US, and a lot of passion and anecdotes from someone who truly loves his sport.

He dives into FIFA and the World Cup, the future of the MLS and the strategy that is driving the team.

Ricardo Villar has had a unique career:

• he started as a professional soccer player, leaving his hometown in Brazil at age 17 to travel the world,
• got an engineering degree from Penn State and after retiring from the pitch,
• founded a company that would later be acquired and remains as it’s CEO.

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He is behind the innovative Florida Cup, an annual club association soccer friendly exhibition competition that is held in the state. It has featured major European and South American clubs, such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Atletico Mineiro, Flamengo, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Juventus, etc.

Additionally, he founded 2SV Sports in 2005, an exchange program developing student-athletes in Brazil and placing them in U.S. colleges through sports.

Michael Forde has been in the NBA business for the las 20 seasons, and he is currently the Chief Sales Officer in the Orlando Magic. In this episode he shared with Kaio Philipe why he went into the sports world and how he made his way into the business side of it. Spoiler: this wasn’t always obvios since his career started as an exercise physiologist.

This conversation is full of anecdotes and knowledge that can be applied to most industries, so get ready to be inspired and entertained.

Michael dives into:

• How he went from making 15k in first year in sales, to almost 2 millions the next year.
• Why it is important to foster and created fandom from an early age for teams.
• The importance of planning and scripting every aspect of the experience in the arena.
• What are the main areas to develop for a team in the NBA and more.