Spotify Sundays: Seth Burkett on a Footballing Life
by Seth Burkett
July 2024
Can England beat Spain in the Euros final? Seth Burkett takes soundings from a personal history of footballing optimism.
PETERBOROUGH
Blur – Song 2
Playing out. Kickabouts. Keepie-uppies. Wembley singles. FIFA. Not home until dark. As a kid anything felt possible. There was a never-ending sense of optimism. We all decided we were going to make it as footballers, our dreams perfectly illustrated by that opening ‘Woohoo!’.
STAMFORD
Tyler the Creator – Yonkers
My own dreams came to an abrupt halt when I was released by my local academy at 16. I’d never really expected to make it, but when the call came it still hurt. I signed for my local semi-pro team. That was a harsh reality check: grown men kicking you about for £50 a game. Head it, kick it, and get rid. Mistakes were punishable by public shaming. After one such incident, Yonkers seemed suitably downbeat, yet comforting.
SALVADOR, BRAZIL
Colbie Collait – Bubbly
Not many football agents work in Ask Italian restaurants. However, this one had an idea. He’d send the local team from his adopted hometown to a tournament in his native Brazil. Only, he didn’t reveal all the details. This wasn’t any old tournament: when we arrived, we discovered that our first game was against Brazil’s Under-18 side. 8,000 turned up to watch our 8-0 defeat! But despite the scoreline, we left with our pride intact. People carried on coming to watch our matches. I loved everything about the experience. As we travelled from stadium to stadium, my teammates played Colbie Collait’s ‘Bubbly’ on repeat. Most of them couldn’t wait to go home; but I never wanted to leave.
SORRISO, BRAZIL
João Bosco & Vinicius – Chora, Me Liga
I got my wish. After the tournament, I was offered a contract with Brazilian team Sorriso Esporte Clube. I began to dream, once again, of life as a professional footballer. When I arrived in Sorriso, though, I very quickly woke up. The club had turned a garage into a three-bedroom house where the entire team lived: there were six in my bedroom, eight in the bedroom next door and fourteen in the bedroom across the hallway. The windows were all barred. The toilets had no doors. The showers were an open block of concrete. It was filthy, disgusting and absolutely stank. Now, it was my home.
CUIABA, BRAZIL
Michael Jackson – Man in the Mirror
My Sorriso Esporte Clube teammates didn’t want to spend much time in our horrible ‘house’, so we spent time exploring the city. Journeys to games were accompanied by constant samba music as players danced down the aisles and banged on drums. And then, suddenly, that all changed. Michael Jackson passed away, and every one of my teammates was devastated. His music was played nonstop, with teammates ditching their samba for attempts to moonwalk. They say that Brazilian creativity comes from their feijoada. Whatever it was, when it came to dance they had it—and I didn’t.
SORRISO, BRAZIL
Exaltasamba – Valeu
Infectious positivity. Permanent smiles. Exaltasamba take me back to long nights chatting with my Brazilian teammates, putting the world to rights, exploring our cultures, spending time in the bars and cafes of the city. As the song implores: enjoy!
LOUGHBOROUGH
Kid Cudi – Day n Nite
Kid Cudi’s debut album dropped the week I returned to the cold of England. It soundtracked much of my next few months as I feverishly wrote up my season’s diary into a book, beginning a new routine of writing and sport. With university life thrown in the mix, this was a chaotic, brilliant time.
LONDON
Daft Punk – Around the World
The Boy in Brazil was read by a few people. It wouldn’t pass for commercial success, but it led to interesting places. None more so than when a Twitter contact who’d read my book got in touch. It turned out there was a Sri Lankan football manager looking for a foreign professional: I’d played in Brazil, could I go and play in South Asia too?
KALUTARA, SRI LANKA
Hiphop Tamizha – Enna Nadanthalum
I didn’t even know they played football in Sri Lanka. I arrived to car horns, cows on the road, market traders calling, mosquitoes, prolonged dehydration, and a constant buzz. It was all so… different. And I loved it. Games on sand and dirt with random bits of concrete. Shovelling up poo before kick-off. Trying not to step on snakes. Three players to a moped. Everywhere I went, people were generous with their time and possessions, always offering up food, making me feel at home, and of course playing me their music.
TRINCOMALEE, SRI LANKA
Shaggy – It Wasn’t Me
The football started well, but rapidly went downhill. The worst came after a 5-0 defeat to Tamil United of Jaffna. Our fans chased us off the pitch, then attacked our changing room for an hour, screaming that we’d brought shame on the city. It was hard to disagree. My teammates were in tears. Later that evening, the first shoots of recovery began with a singalong. Phones came out and TikToks were made. Who knew that Shaggy was so big in Sri Lanka??
Seth Burkett’s Titans of the Teardrop Isle: A Season as a Pro Footballer in Sri Lanka is available now, from Floodlit Dreams.
