Last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson about the burgeoning new sport “footgolf”, his involvement with regional sports drink maker Golazo, the Canadian national team, growing up in Liverpool, and what it’s like to be a captain of a soccer team. Here follows an edited version of that interview.
First off, how did you get involved with this footgolf event?
Golazo set up this sweepstakes for people and I said, “You know, I’d love to play footgolf”. I thought it’d be a cool way to interact with people. They set it up, and it was just a cool way to mix the two things I’m passionate about. Mix some soccer without playing a game where I can get hurt. Thanks to Golazo for setting up an awesome event.
You’d played footgolf before?
Yeah, I’d played footgolf before when I was growing up with my brother. You know we didn’t have a golf course like this, [so] we made up our own holes and stuff, use people’s mailboxes for example. It was just an awesome way to get out in the neighborhood and play with all the kids. So we had a good time with that.
Is this something that had existed before?
I think we were pretty, like, unofficial back in the day. Yeah, we were pretty unofficial. But, you know it’s cool, it takes time and effort and people’s hard work to organize stuff like this and get it all sorted we’re pretty excited that they’ve done that.
Did you feel like your skills translated from soccer to footgolf out there on the course?
Pretty well. Yeah, I mean I strike a good ball so I think footgolf could be something that can really translate well for me. I had a lot of fun hitting those balls.
Lot of touch in there too once you get onto the green.
Especially around the greens, it’s tough … you got to have skill.
On an entirely different subject, Canada seeming to be gunning for the 2026 World Cup after hosting the Under 20s and next year’s Women’s World Cup. What would it take for them to advance out of the group then?
Well by that time, you’d have a couple decades of youth players in Major League Soccer, everything’s based upon Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and their academies right now and what they can produce out of those academies. We need to grow more players within the country. A lot of the players that Canada has on the national team are not players that have developed within Canada. So, in order to Canada to have any success on an international level, they’re going to have to develop better talent than they’re developing right now.
Is there a stumbling block to that? Is it just people going to hockey or is it something else?
Yeah, well, I mean like you have that in the US the best athletes going to basketball and stuff still so, you know you see that, but there’s just such a bigger population in the United States. Canada’s a lot of guys going to hockey and then just the infrastructure not set up with the cold, you know, the cold weather, that you can’t play outside soccer all year long so it’s not as easy. But like I said, those MLS academies coming should really help. Hopefully for all of Canada’s sake and a better national team.
You think it’s cool that you and [Canadian Women’s National Team and member of the Portland Thorns] Christine [Sinclair] are both playing Portland?
It is cool. She’s a big time superstar. It’s cool that we’re both in Portland, for sure.
Right now some English Premier League teams are in the US for some friendlies against MLS sides. For a friendly there’s always the “don’t get hurt line” but does playing one change any of your preparation mentally or does it all say the same like it would for a league match?
No, I think you try to take it as seriously as you can because it’s still a chance to showcase the league, and we’re still trying to grow the fanbase and show the world that this is a very highly competitive league so we have a responsibility to show up and play those games with a good mentality. But obviously as you alluded to, you know, the number one concern is don’t get hurt and you don’t mess things up for the regular season ‘cause that would be a big shame. So, it’s a balance but you do take it a lot more seriously than people think.
And the All-Star game too I guess?
Yeah, I mean it’s the same thing, you know, you don’t want to get hurt, [but] you want to represent your club, you want to represent your league, and you want to represent yourself really well because at the end of it you’ve got a game with your club on the weekend which is more important. You have to balance it and make sure that you put on a good show and represent well without sacrificing your performance the following weekend.
Looking forward to playing against those guys though?
It’ll be a blast! Big names, big time game. But you know, that’s something that I really look forward to. It’ll be a fun, fun opportunity to represent Portland the right way in a big game. It’ll be awesome. [Timbers head coach] Caleb [Porter] will get after it.
You spent some time in England as a kid. Do you feel like—at the time—that was the best opportunity to develop your skills?
Well, it’s just pure luck that we moved to England, you know, parents are British so it was just random that we moved from Canada to England—we didn’t move from here or anything. But I’m sure that helped with my development [more] than if I stayed in Canada. You know like I said, there aren’t a lot of players that make it out of the country; they stay there till their early teens or later so yeah I think that had a big part. Good stroke of luck, growing up in the United Kingdom.
You grew up in Liverpool correct?
Until I was about 10.
How was that?
It was awesome, you know, everyone’s soccer crazy there. So it was perfect for me. The only thing I cared about was playing soccer in Liverpool.
Which side are you—Everton blue or Liverpool red?
Red. Always red.
Was there a personal hero then on Liverpool that you kind of modeled yourself after?
Oh yes, Steven Gerrard, Jaime Redknapp, and Steve McManaman, Michael Owen. Those guys, those four guys were my favorite guys for sure. They had a good team, good players.
Who did you model your captaining style after?
First, you know, Steven Gerrard definitely, captain of Liverpool my favorite team growing up, so I definitely respected him and tried to take things from his game but try to be myself as well. It’s a balancing act for sure.
There was the 7-1 beatdown of Brazil by Germany and 2-2 last gasp draw in the Portugal-USA game. As a leader, what do you say to rally the troops in that situation?
With a 7-1 game there’s nothing you can say, to be honest with you, I mean you just walk in there and say “nobody’s dead”—that’s about as positive as you can be with that kind of game, with that much pressure on the line because so many people are counting on you and you let them down that badly. Words—words are pretty empty at that point.
As far as when you give up a last gasp goal, like the US did, that’s not as big a deal when you tie a team like Portugal with the best player in the world, that’s almost confidence. You know, if you say before the game if they would’ve offered us a point we take it because they’re a very good team. Obviously you’re disappointed to lose the result the way they did but that’s a much different situation where you can rally the troops and be positive and make sure that you look at all the good things you did in that game and bring it to the next one.
But, like I said, 7-1 there’s nothing you can say. Nobody can cure that. It’s terminal.
You had fun today?
Yeah, awesome time! Great to meet you guys.
Thank you, Will.
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