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February 16, 2025 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: February 16, 2025

Sam Khedira was with Team Germany when they won the World Cup win and has played for Real Madrid. His one word advice for preventing injuries: yoga!!!
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Okay, so it's really a weird kind of situation because
we're going to be talking football and football. Now. By that,
I mean I am introducing you to Sammy Kadira and
he was with the world champion Germany team, you know,
winning the World Cup, and also played for Real Madrid,

(00:33):
So I mean two complete powerhouses. We call it soccer,
they call it football. And as luck would have it,
I am speaking to Sammy. This is actually a conversation
we had last week because he's speaking to me from
Super Bowl, so he's actually a soccer great at our

(00:56):
biggest football game of the year. So welcome Sammy. First
of all, Well, first of all, have you been to
an NFL game before?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Hello, hello to everybody, and yeah, I've been. I've been
to actually to Super Bowls and also to the wildcout games.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
This year.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
I've been to the Division around Chiefs. I watched the Eagles,
I watched the Ravens. I've been the regular season a
few times in New York. I watch the Giants, I
watch the Jets. So yeah, I'm a huge NFL fan
and I actually don't have a team who I'm supporting,
but I'm supporting the NFL. I'm supporting the game, and yeah,

(01:34):
it's always fun to be.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
In the US.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Do you find it peculiar this football versus football that
we call it soccer and the rest of the world
calls it football? And what do you think of professional
football as a soccer player? Because you know what, you
know what, it's the soccer players who become the best
kickers in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
I heard about that, and it's also a question that
I ask many many times, and yeah, you're absolutely right.
So and I'm okay to call it soccer if I'm
in the US. I think it's also a respect of
how do you call it? And on the other hand, yeah,
we have greats like soccer players who can be involved

(02:18):
in the NFL. I could imagine that Gareth Baye who
played with me, and raymondre Tony Cross, they all have
the potential to be a part of an nflg mess
A kicker one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Okay, So coming to MetLife, we are so so psyched
that the World Cup Final will be played at MetLife
Stadium along with eight other matches, and that's not this year,
it's in twenty twenty six. But there is a big

(02:52):
event coming this year which I think most people really
unless you're in the soccer world, you're really not aware
of it. And it's the FIFA Club World Cup. So
what we're talking about are some of the most famous
football or soccer clubs in the world that will be

(03:13):
playing at mett Life right exactly.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
So yeah, if you're talking about a FIFA Club World Cup,
it will be the first time ever that this competition
will be will be placed and played and host in
the US, and and we have the semi final and
the final in my last stadium in New Jersey, New York.
So it will be a creative and a great competition because,
as you mentioned before, the best teams in the world,

(03:40):
the best clubs in the world coming together along from
Real Madrid and you went to stream like my former
clubs in Europe, but also we've got you some South America,
some Asian teams, African teams, as Broon students where my
dad is coming from from Tunisia, and it's really global,
the best clubs with different culture, different style of Yeah,

(04:02):
soccer coming together and at the end we have the
best games, the semifinal and the final in the Medlife Stadium.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
And I'm a huge New York fan.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
I'm a I'm a huge fan of the stadium in
the Medlife, so I can't wait to be there. And yeah,
support the teams who will be host or will be
play the games in the Medlafe Stadium.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Will the US team be playing?

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Like in the club we have an Inter Miami and
Seil Thunders who are be part of the Club World Cup.
But then next year in twenty six, obviously the US
team could be a big role.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
No, I'm talking.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
About all right, Will any United States club teams be involved?

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Okay, we have the Inter Miami who is having the
opening match in Miami.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
With Lionel Messi.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
I think it's familiar to almost every in the world
by those skits and who played with him in Barcelona
and uh and then we have the Cerrol Thunders who
are also taking place off of the Club World Cup.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah, what what does this mean to the economy of
the Tri State area when you have the Club World
Cup or even when you have the World Cup Final?
What what does this mean financially for those who you know,
who are listening and saying, well, I don't really care
about soccer, but they care about how our economies do.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Actually, I'm not an expert in finance, and I don't
know how much they got, but I can guess. And
what I heard about is that even economic wise, it's
a it's a big, big advantage because as you can imagine,
the whole what is watching these games, the whole what
is coming to the United States is coming to New York,
New Jersey. So they are spending a lot of money

(05:57):
over there and having their best time. But only other hand,
it's also for the sport, for soccer itself, perhaps a lot,
because it's a you know, the younger journeism can be inspired,
it's visible, and that they can engage to our wonderful
sport in soccer.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
I think that's what really changed in my mind, what
made soccer more popular among our general population was the
fact that well, certainly all three of my kids grew
up playing soccer, I mean starting at four years old,
and so they became soccer fans for life, you know,

(06:37):
very early. Do you think is that what changed the
culture here where people are more interested in soccer or
is it also because we have more immigrants.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
I think it's a mix of everybody.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
So you have to you have to know that that
it's always about the visibility and access to it. You know,
if it's if it's the opportunity not to play soccer,
or it costs too much, or like they are less
coaches who can train teams and young kids, then it's
quite a difficult to be involved in the game. And
it's the same like if you switch to Europe of

(07:15):
football American football, it's becoming more and more popular, so
more the younger generation is also playing more American football.
But back in the days when I was young, I
never watched American football. I had like no access to it.
I didn't understand the rules. So it's maybe the same
like here with with soccer. And if you have like
such great events like the FIFA Club World Cup or
the World Cup next year, then the people getting more

(07:36):
addicted to it do understand the game much better, and
then maybe also they would like to play. And as
you mentioned, your kids, they are they're fans for lifetime.
But at the end, I do love soccer and I
hope that everybody will play soccer. But at the end,
I'm happy that everybody's doing sport and going out of
their house and not just playing video games and not
doing stupid stuff. So just playing games and be involved

(07:59):
in our one of sports.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
I am speaking with Sammy Kadira. He is with FIFA
and he was with the World Cup champion Germany team,
also played for Real Madrid, and we're talking about the
FIFA World Cup Final coming to MetLife Stadium in twenty
twenty six and eight other matches will also be played there.
But this year, this coming summer, we have the FIFA

(08:26):
Club World Cup that'll be coming to MetLife Stadium along
with other stadiums around the country. Tell us your story
when how did you get I mean you probably just
everybody play soccer. Where are you from? When? How young
were you when you started? And you know, parents are

(08:46):
kind of consumed here with grooming their kids for one sport,
and how did that work with you.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
I'm from Germany, so and I started playing soccer a
super young age.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
I think like when I.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
Was able to walk, like the two three years and
then I moved to into a club when I was
like six years old, and then I was like training
day by day or twice in a week, twice a
week in the club, but then every day like the
in the breaks, doing school after school on the street
with my friends at home. My mom got like super

(09:24):
angry when I like smashed some stuff at home. So
I played football or soccer everywhere because I'm just addicted
to it. All my friends played soccer, so we used
every free time, did you play soccer? And then like
if I got like fourteen fifteen years old, then it
becomes like more professional day by day training in the
clubs with our team. So yeah, and then my dream

(09:47):
to become a professional soccer player came to in the
age of eighteen nineteen.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
When how old were you when you realized I want
to do this for my for a living. I want
this to be my career. How old were you?

Speaker 4 (10:02):
So the dream to become a professional soccer player was
like always, But then to realize that I'm good enough
and the coaches told me it was like an age
of fourteen fifteen. So then they were like, if you
are like improved in several skills, then you have really
the big opportunity to.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Become a professional soccer player.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
And then what I have to say, the effort was
like was tough because I didn't have let's say, a
normal childhood life where I can go for parties or
girls or having like just trips with the school. So
I just was focusing on playing soccer and trained day
by day, wake up early in the morning, going to
tournaments to games. But I put everything on one card

(10:46):
because it was my big dream and I really felt
in love with soccer.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
But you missed out on a lot. Do you feel
like you missed out on a lot as you know
as a teenager and young man.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Absolutely I did. But it was my own decision and
my own choice, so I was not pushing by my
parents or by my dad to do that.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
So it was my own decision.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
And I prefer to play soccer on the street or
training or during the weekends in tournaments instead of having fun.
On the other hand, with I don't know, school mads
ll like that. So I preferred that life and at
the end it paid offs everything.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
So I'm at the end, I'm super happy, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Let me ask you about injuries, because particularly ACL injuries
are really common in soccer, and particularly you know with kids,
what can be done to prevent acl injuries because maybe
you had maybe your teams or your country did it

(11:50):
differently than the way we do it here. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah, so first of all, to say like that, injuries
is part of the game. It's not just in so
course also on football, like almost every game you have
a injured players. So that's that's part of the game.
You have to know that, and that's always the risk.
But on the other hand, you have a lot of
prevention stuff and it's getting the medical improvement. It's it's

(12:15):
it's yeah, immense how it could proves in the last
few years. But yeah, you can do a lot of
strench work, a lot of mobility. If you're speaking about yoga,
it helps a lot to prevent a bigger injury and
kind of a cl or legal mand injuries.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Let me ask you when you were playing, did some
of these clubs actually have the team members do yoga
as a as a routine as a way of preventing
these injuries.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Well, when I started to play professional soccer back in
the days in two thousand and six, it was not
that common and not that famous. But it starts like
in yeah, let's say two thousand and nine, Chen that
even in the national team in our German national team
when we play the World Cups and the European Championships.
So we had a guy with us with a professional

(13:08):
yoga teacher, and it was not obligatory that you have
to do it, but many of us and our teammates
they used it early in the morning and it helps
to prevent.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Injuries one hundred percent. So it's it's common in soccer.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, that's really interesting. How about meditation.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
I never did it, honestly, but in the past years
I do it a lot because your mind it's it's key.
So that's why I'm just with all the pressure that
you have with all the training, with all the games
and really strong calendar, it's so useful that you do

(13:49):
it and that you are like one hundred percent focus
and concentrated.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
What are you doing?

Speaker 4 (13:54):
So like meditation, it's it's in my point of view,
it's key because it controls your ego to those your
soul and this one influence also your body.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
How many times a day do you do it? Is
it daily or is it twice a day? And what
type of meditation type?

Speaker 4 (14:11):
I tried to do it like on a daily basis.
It's not always that I can do it, but I
tried it every day. It's like a kind of mix
of meditation briefing, so it's like at fifty minutes briefing,
it's an exercise and yeah, there's a lot to keep
the balance in a stressful day.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Actually, was that fifty or one?

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Five, fifteen?

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Okay, I do twenty.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Almost the same. Yeah, I can improve, I can approve.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
No, it's just about that that amount of time that
you know, fifteen to twenty that we're talking about. Well,
it's been a pleasure talking with you, Sammy Kadira, and
we are so looking forward to the FIFA Club World
Cup coming this year to MetLife Stadium, and of course
the World Cup coming in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
You've been listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
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