Danny Karbassiyoon is amongst the rare group of American soccer players who has played for one of the world’s premier soccer clubs. He spent two years at Arsenal, before moving on to Burnley and then ultimately having to hang up his boots at a young age due to injury. But injury didn’t take Danny away from the game, instead he has gone on to become the North American scout for Arsenal FC. We had a chance to sit down and chat with Danny about a variety of topics. Check out part one of our conversation after the jump.
Give us some background information on you – I’m from Roanoke, VA. I grew up there until I was 18 and moved to London. It’s not really known as a soccer hub, but it has produced some great players. I played club soccer for the Roanoke Stars.
So what was the path from playing for the Roanoke Stars to playing for Arsenal FC? – I got spotted at the adidas ESP camp in North Carolina. It was kinda cool because I was wait listed for the camp and I didn’t get called to go into camp until the day before it started. Luckily it was in North Carolina so it was only a five hour drive for me, so there was no way I was missing it. While I was there I ended up playing well and won the Golden Boot. Paul Mariner was my coach that week at the camp. Paul ended up calling Steve Rowley the chief scout at Arsenal (who is my boss now) and he came over for a couple of days to check me out. Two days after I got back from ESP Steve invited me over for a trial with Arsenal.
What’s going through your mind when you get that call that you have been invited by Arsenal for a trial? – It was pretty crazy. When I went to ESP my goal was to be seen by an ACC school and hopefully get offered a scholarship. While I was at the camp, Paul Mariner pulled me aside and asked me if an opportunity arose for a teenager in the US to play abroad if I thought that they would take it. I told him I wasn’t sure, and that a lot of kids would say they would want to, but when push comes to shove I didn’t know if a lot of kids would jump on it. I had no idea what he was getting at. At the end of the camp him and Bob McNabb let me know that Steve Rowley would be calling me when I got home. When Steve called it was really cool. He said “this is Steve Rowley from Arsenal Football Club. I don’t know if you have ever heard of us, but we are one of the top clubs in the world.”
Ha! – Yeah, I let him know that I had heard of them. He ends up telling me they want me to come over to London for a couple of weeks. He said to take the next week off and rest, and then spend a week getting as fit as I could because the team was already in pre-season. So two weeks after ESP ended I headed to London.
What was it like going to London for your trial? – I was brought over for two weeks which was kind of a long time of assessment. I had a lot of time to show well as well as a lot of time to make mistakes. They do it on purpose. Steve wanted to make sure that the week he saw me at ESP wasn’t a mistake. I joined in with the reserves straight away and it was really intense. I thought the level of play at ESP was really tough for me, it was the highest I had ever played at. When I got to London it was like ESP on steroids. All the players were the top players. The training was incredible, the facilities were the best I had ever seen. Everything was top class and I enjoyed it so much. I spent the first week training with the reserves. A couple of days before I was going to be heading home they told me I would be training with the first team. I got to train with Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Pires and all of those players. The day I trained with them was actually media day so there were hundreds of cameras. All the interviews were being conducted because it was the only day for media during pre-season. As soon as I walked out on the pitch all the cameras turned to me because they didn’t know if I was some new signing. It was pretty daunting.
At the end of the two weeks Steve and the Arsenal staff told me they wanted me to go back to the States to finish my senior year of high school and then they wanted me to come back to London. They wanted me to come back for a week in December just to assess how I was doing, but they told me they were looking to offer me a contract the following year.
That’s pretty crazy. I have to ask about that first training session with the first team. What was that like? – It was crazy, awesome, a dream come true is the only way to describe it. When I turned that corner to come out on the pitch, the first team had just started jogging and you see all these guys that you have watched on TV. But for them, it’s just their team. I think they had 5 World Cup winners at the time. All of a sudden I’m in there running next to them. As much as you want to just take it all in that you are running next to these guys, you have to realize you are there to do a job and that technically you want to knock them off their spot.
I spent most of the warm up and first part of training with Sol Campbell. We did some partner agility stuff, and Sol just looked at me and asked if I wanted to partner up.
Kind of hard to say no to Sol Campbell. – He was super cool. They all were really great to me. After the agility training we played 8 v 8 against each other, Mr. Wenger calls out the teams and he said Thierry and Danny you two are up front. I was like oh geez, Thierry Henry and myself are going to be playing as strikers together. It was just awesome. It took some time to focus and not ball watch, because I would have been happy to just sit on the sideline and watch.
So what ends up happening at Arsenal? – I signed a contract for two years and that first year was really tough on me. When I first signed Steve Rowley told me that in all honesty my first year was probably going to be a mess. It’s huge culture shock, and the easiest part will probably be that we share the same language. And it was tough. I missed home. All my friends had just gone to college. On a Friday night they would all be off going to parties and I had to stay in because I had training. I spent my whole life thinking I was going to go to college, so I questioned my decision at times. Alone in my apartment, six thousand miles from home on a Friday night knowing I had to wake up in the morning and go run in the rain was definitely hard at times.
I also went from training twice a week with my club team in the States to training five days a week and a game on a Monday. It was really grueling. In the first part of the season I only started one game and came on twice as a sub as a striker. I trained everyday and played a total of not even 100 minutes. And it was really tough. They basically break you down and take pride in building you back up. They knew it was tough on me too.
I went over as a striker, and there was probably eight strikers between the youth teams and reserves, including guys like Jose Antonio Reyes… Jeremie Aliadiere was still there. Robin van Persie came in the next year. So I just kept getting knocked down the pecking order of strikers. I really doubted myself at that time. But about two months from the end of the season our left back went out on loan and the reserve team manager Eddie Niedzwiecki (assistant manager at Manchester city now) said “the boss and I were talking and we want you to play left back this week in training.” I didn’t mind. I spent four days in training at left back, and then when we played Watford in our next game I started and played the whole game at left back. That was like a turning point for me because I hadn’t played in a full game since I was there. The next week I played the full 90 minutes again, and then I started the rest of the season at left back. When I came back for my second season, I returned as the starting left back in the reserves.
Was that a tough transition for you? – I had never played any defensive position before. But I knew that if I didn’t make that move I had no future with Arsenal. The most important thing was that I was getting to play. My positioning was way off when I first made the move, but I would watch Ashley Cole a lot and learn from him and all the coaches.
Tell me more about your second year at Arsenal. – At Arsenal the first team and reserve team spend pre-season together. Right off the bat Mr. Wenger is watching you in training
every single day. I think the training staff saw a noticeable difference in me. I came in a lot more confident. I actually played in the first friendly of the season with the first team against Barnett where the reserves play. The first team usually plays against them as a way to raise money for Barnett. I got to play in that game with guys like Bergkamp, Reyes and Ray Parlour. That gave me a really big boost.
I started the season in the reserves holding down the left back position. Every week was a battle in training and games. You had to perform in both or lose your spot on the pitch. I was starting to train with the first team quite a bit because of injuries to Ashley Cole and Gael Clichy. The first team trains with 22 players, 2 for each position, so if Cole was injured, Gael Clichy would be on one team and I would be on the other in training. Training with the first team and marking players like Pires gave me a lot more confidence when I would go play in the reserve team matches.
I ended up getting to play in three games with the first team in the Carling Cup. The first game I played was at Manchester City. I came on in the last 10 minutes and ended up scoring the game winner in injury time.
That’s not a bad debut! – Yeah it was everything I could have dreamed for. I was happy just to travel with the first team and get a jersey with my name on it, never mind actually making my debut and scoring in the 92nd minute. I ended up starting the next game in the Carling Cup which was at Highbury against Everton. That meant a ton for me because I had been to Highbury so many times to watch games, but had never got to play there. Being able to walk out in front of your own fans was a dream come true. It was an unbelievable experience.
Mr. Wenger is known to put out young teams in these cups, and I think the average age of our team was like 21 years old. At that time Everton was 3rd in the league and had players like Gravesen, Tim Cahill and Marcus Bent that all played in that game which we won 3-1.
The next game we played Manchester United at Old Trafford which was incredible. Not many people get to say they got to play for Arsenal against Manchester United at Old Trafford. I got to play the last 15 minutes of that game. The stadium was sold out and even though we lost 1-0, it was an incredible experience.
That’s a pretty remarkable story. One day you are playing for your local club team in Roanoke and a year and a half later you are playing for Arsenal against Manchester United. – The park I would play at in Roanoke was called the Vinton Vineyard. I joked with a couple friends that a year and a half ago I was playing at The Vineyard and now I’m playing at Old Trafford.
It’s pretty amazing that something like that can happen in soccer. That should give every kid that plays soccer in America hope and inspire them. – I’m actually just finishing writing a book about it all. If a kid from Roanoke can go to London and play for Arsenal than anything is possible.
How has it been writing a book? – I ended up having a big surgery about a year ago where I got a meniscal transplant and they also cut my tibia and realigned my joint and put four screws and a plate on my tibia where they removed the bone. I was on crutches and walking assistance for about 6 months. When I was recovering in Chicago I was staying with my uncle and he asked some questions about my experience. So I wrote a little about it and then he asked me some more questions, and I wrote about some more. At some point I realized that I should go ahead and just write a book.
This isn’t one of those books about somebody that has won every award in the world. It’s more a book about how anything is possible and what it’s like to be a professional soccer player in Europe. Not a superstar player, but just an average professional soccer player. There aren’t any books about that. There are books from big players that have won everything, but nothing really like this. There’s a big drop off from the top players that are making 120 grand a week to players that are making maybe 10 grand a week. That’s still great money, but its not Bentley money. When their career is over, they can’t lay back and retire, they have to find a new career.
That’s an interesting perspective. I think people forget about what happens to a lot of players post career. – Phillip Senderos is a really good friend of mine. When he was on loan at AC Milan last year I sent him an early draft because I had written a lot about him and I wanted to get his thoughts and make sure he was cool with it. He talked about how short a soccer career is. Even if you play until you are 35, you have the majority of your life left to live. There is a lot more that happens after your soccer career. And this is coming from a guy who has had a ton of success in the sport and played at the very highest levels. It’s good to realize that even some of the biggest players have that kind of perspective.
Images courtesy ArsenalPics
Check back tomorrow for part two.
