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.

This week on Gameplan, Matt Wiener has made a great name for himself as a master negotiator, he has closed deals for over 100 million dollars and was behind the historic partnership between the music streaming service and the Spanish soccer club.

Kieran Gibbs is a professional soccer player with 10 years of experience in the Premier League.He followed that up with a stint in Inter Miami and now is the co-founder of ONE FC, a youth soccer academy.

Watch this entertaining conversation in a top notch location, a very-Miami marina. Kieran shared with Kaio:

• a lot of knowledge of the sport (from the pitch to coaching new coaches),
• his prediction of who will win the World Cup (it all begins with top player Lamine Jamal),
• where he stands regarding crypto and Bitcoin,
• and his new venture, a youth soccer academy to further expand the sport in the USA.

By Inter

The next FIFA World Cup is just around the corner, and Florida is in the midst of major preparations to host. It is no small deed, they are expecting around 700,000 people to arrive from all over the world, in a 30-35 day period.

We are talking major economic impact, over 1 billion for the Orange State.

Alina Hudak is the wizard behind the curtain, she is the President and CEO Miami 2026 World Cup Host, and she had a very informative talk with Kaio about the ins and outs of hosting major events.

She has had quite a career in public service and in sports, for instance, she has managed 6 Super Bowls in the state.

Lets dive deep into the business of sports. This episode is guaranteed to inspire you, it has career changes, passion, advice and some fun facts, did you know Orlando has won

Get ready for major name drops in this episode. Media veteran Campbell McLaren has been a prominent figure in entertainment and sports since the 80s, and today, is behind the premier Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise, Combate Global.

Some would refer to him as “The Godfather of MMA”, other’s say he started reality tv… As you can imagine, he has had a career worth knowing, and he is at the top of the game with Combate Global, reaching millions of people around the Americas and harvesting the young fighting talent.

As Campbell told Kaio, he answered straight forwardly, unlike what other fight promoters would:

• How much money can a fighter make?
• Who is the number one fighter now?
• Did Joe Rogan create the UFC or did the UFC create Joe Rogan?
• Is Conor McGregor the closest thing we have to Muhammad Ali?