Rookie Osei Telesford appeared on the pitch in two of the Chicago Fire's first four games of the season, since then he has been hampered by a left groin strain. The Fire selected the 23-year-old in the second round (21st overall) of the 2007 MLS Supplemental Draft. A native of Trinidad, Telesford already has national team experience with the Trinidad & Tobago playing a full 90 minutes in his first four "caps" in the Caribbean Digicel Cup in January 2007 and earning a fifth "cap" in a Soca Warriors friendly versus Costa Rica on February 4, 2007.
The youth international player earned 2006 Player Development League (PDL) Defender of the Year honors and 2006 PDL First Team selection for helping the Carolina Dynamo to a league-best 14-0-2 regular season record. Telesford started 65 of his 66 appearances at Liberty University and recorded eight goals and eight assists. The 6'1" defender was a three time (2006, 2005, 2003) First Team All-Big South Conference member. Fire Insider recently sat down with Telesford to discuss his recent injury and his career as a soccer player.
Fire Insider: When did you first start playing soccer?
Osei Telesford: "I started playing soccer as far back as I can remember. Maybe at four or five, I started playing with my brothers back home in Trinidad. Then I started taking it seriously around 14 or 15, or around that age, and started playing for a team."
FI: What other sports did you play growing up?
OT: "I ran track."
FI: Why did you choose soccer as opposed to Track & Field?
OT: "Well, I'm still doing both. I'm running and I'm playing soccer. Soccer, which we call fútbol in my country, is a bigger sport and I'm running while I'm playing so it just fell that direction."
FI: Who has most influenced your soccer career?
OT: "Growing up in Trinidad, you see a lot of soccer players like Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, and those guys. You always want to be in their shoes as you watch them play growing up. So I would say Dwight Yorke."
FI: What do you do in your down time?
OT: "I hang out with my girlfriend or if not I'm listening to music-reggae, dancehall, and Soca songs of the Caribbean. I honestly love music from back home [because it helps] to make me feel like I am home."
FI: Do you have any pre-game superstitions or rituals?
OT: "Not really. I just listen to music and try to visualize stuff that I have done good-like good games and try to visualize good stuff and positive stuff before the game."
FI: What advice would you offer to youth soccer players who want to play professionally?
OT: "Practice doesn't make perfect, but it does make permanent. If you keep practicing something and you really want it you can get it. Just work hard and it's going to come."
FI: What is the best soccer-related advice you have ever received?
OT: "I would have to say the same thing-practice. Work on your game everyday putting in an hour or two and practice will make permanent."
FI: You got a quick start with the Fire appearing in two games but have since been injured. How's the injury and how soon do plan to return?
OT: "I tore all the muscles in my left groin and they also found that I had a sports hernia. So I did surgery for the sports hernia and I'm like two weeks shy of coming back. So I'm excited."
FI: How frustrating has this injury been in your first year in the league?
OT: "It was frustrating because I was probably the first rookie to play and then I was coming along and getting better and better. Then eventually I just got hurt right before the Gold Cup when my country requested me to play in the Gold Cup. So for the first couple of weeks it was tough because I missed out of representing my country in one of the biggest tournaments in the CONCACAF region. It was tough just dealing with that, but you've got to be professional about it. Being a professional, those things come. You get injured [but] you have to move on. So I started doing rehab and had my surgery. I'm just excited to play again and to compete for minutes."
FI: What is the most interesting way you have heard your name been pronounced?
OT: "I've heard a couple of interesting ones. I'd have to say, 'O-sé.' My name is pronounced, 'O-say.' A lot of people call me "O.C." for short. I've heard 'Jose' and 'O-sway.' I've heard a lot of names but I don't know which one is the funniest though."
FI: What's it like being a soccer player 24/7?
OT: "It's way different from college. Because in college, you have practice, then have to go to class, and then have to come back to practice. Now, it's just your job. You have to work at it. The intensity is higher. Right now, you just practice and then you have nothing to do all day, so you just watch soccer on television. Now, it's literally 24/7. You're thinking of it. If you're not playing, you're doing rehab. If you're not doing rehab, you're making appearances for the team. So it's a job and you've just got to enjoy it."
FI: Being from Trinidad & Tobago, when did you make your move to the States? Why?
OT: "I made my move to the States when I was 18. I graduated high school when I was 16, so I was out of school for two years. I played semi-pro soccer in Trinidad and I was on the verge of signing a professional contract with Joe Public FC, a top club in Trinidad. And a guy by the name of Anton Cornell, he came back to Trinidad as he was living in the U.S. at the time but was from Trinidad, gave me some advice about scholarship opportunities to come to the U.S. and play. I was 18. It was an adventure for me and I would love to come off the island because I had never been off the island before that except for playing in the Caribbean with the national U-20's. I decided to come out. I liked it. I went to Liberty University and played my four years of college there and then the opportunity came for me to [continue] playing in the U.S. [with the Fire]."
FI: What's it like playing for the T&T National Team?
OT: "Playing for your national team is an honor and a privilege to be chosen as one of the top players in your country to represent your country. It's just a privilege that you can't take for granted. When you play for your country, it's more about pride. It's not about the money. It's like representing the entire country. It's a great feeling and it was one of the happiest days of my life. It was like a dream come true. I was just very privileged to be playing for my country."
FI: How does living in Chicago compare to growing up on an island?
OT: "It's a totally different lifestyle. Chicago is much more developed and has a lot more opportunities. [Chicago] is busier. On the island, everybody is laid back, goes to the beach, will hang out, and go party or whatever. But here [in Chicago], it's business. I live downtown on State Street where people are always shopping. It's a city that never sleeps. I've never been to New York but I hear that New York is worse. Chicago is the biggest city I've been in and I think it's just [always] on the go. It's way different from being home."