Welcome everybody to Soccer 101. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and this week we are talking about a concept that somehow has not yet been discussed in detail before on this show.

Graham Rutheran, how have we not talked about number 10s before?

I have no idea how we've not done this episode before.

It's a little bit like I listened to the rewatchables podcast, and a couple weeks ago or a few weeks ago, they did Pulp Fiction. And I was like,

how have they not done Pulp Fiction before now? And this show has been going for years. So similar sort of

thing with Soccer 101. How have we not done an episode on number 10s? And I believe from my

rewatchables knowledge, a lot of that is because Bill Simmons, who obviously owns the ringer, runs the ringer, hates that movie or does not like that movie, and so has mixed it every single time, which leads me to the assumption that Graham, you do not like number tens and have been quietly working against this concept the whole time.

Well, the first thing is that that rewatchable's episode is actually two episodes, and the first one is three hours long, and the second one is two and a half hours long. I know we went long on USM&T head coaches last week. I'm hopeful we're not going to do five hours on number 10s. No, I don't hate number 10s. I love number 10s because everyone, I'm thinking back to when I played soccer,

like organized soccer as a teenager. Everyone wants to be a number 10, but I got stuck out at right back and centerback. Taylor, I don't think I've ever asked you this. When you played, like in college and stuff, what was your position? Were you a number 10 or did you just want to be a number 10? No, I was a right back. Oh, yes.

That's what I was when I played for like very good teams.

And then for most of my... or did you just want to be a no i was a right back oh yes that's what i that's what i was when

i played for like very good teams and then for most of my playing career i was a right midfielder

and then i moved more centrally uh yeah i think but i think graham it's interesting that you

say that did you want to be a 10 or did you want to be a 9 because i think a lot of people want

to be the goal score the the glory winner, number 10s,

or maybe like what the cool kids want to be.

Yeah, I wanted to be the 10, I think.

See, that's my way of the thing.

I wanted to be the number 9.

I'm pretty sure.

I'm pretty sure that's where I was in this one.

I just wanted to do something that was cool and that mattered. And those things did not happen at right back for me. What happened was I was right back until I had a growth sport one summer. And then they were like, oh, you're tall now? Right, centerback. That's good. It didn't say a lot to my qualities that they thought I was suited to right back. They just shifted me wherever my height lent me. Could you kick a ball? Over here, it's, are you tall, center back or forward? Can you kick the ball hard? Then you're probably a forward. No, not that. I was a bit of a peewee. So that's why I was centerback. But now things have changed. Now it's all changed. Nope, still a peewee. All right, never mind then. But Graham, before we get too far down the rabbit hole of our childhoods and unlock hidden memories, let's go with the very basic thing. What is the number 10 and why is it so revered? Why is it a shirt number that everybody knows? So I consulted the coach's voice for this. And by the way, I would highly recommend the coach's voice

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