Steve Purdy gives back

Born and raised in the United States, Steve Purdy discovered his love for the game of football at an early age of 5. He continued to hone his talents during his high school and college years, where he represented the United States in international competition for the Under-18, Under-20, and Under-23 squad. At 6’4”, Purdy provided a strong presence in the back line during his 4-year tenure as a defender for the California Golden Bears in the NCAA. After his college career, Purdy went on to become a professional football player. He had a 2-year stint with the 2nd division German club, 1860 Munich, before coming back to the US and play in the {MLS}. Earlier this year, he calls California his home once again, playing as a defender for C.D. Chivas USA. Steve Purdy made it clear about his intentions of playing internationally for his mother’s home country of El Salvador, and helping the country reach its full potential, considering the small Central American nation has not been in international football conversations for decades. It has been well documented that the country of El Salvador isn’t a football force to begin with, unlike other Spanish speaking countries like Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, and Spain.

European giant, Spain, has been at the upper echelon of football supremacy for a number of years, thanks to the country’s colossal fan base and the quality of football players produced by their program. Similar to football, another sport that is gradually increasing its popularity and growth is poker. Though Spanish poker players are still in the rear view mirrors of Marvin Rettenmaier, Joseph Cheong, and Phil Helmuth, they have flourishing card sharks in WSOP and WPT multi-titlist, Carlos Mortensen, and the promising Juan Maceiras. In the recent years, Spanish poker enthusiasts are making their presence felt, not just on poker tables, but in the online poker community as well with the impressive ascent of Juan Barrios, more popularly known in the online world as, vietcong01. With online poker sites such as, partypoker.es, Spanish poker players have a practical way of playing, and at the same time developing in a cerebral sport like poker.
A comparison can be made between Spanish poker and Salvadoran football in terms of player development and the potential of discovering a diamond in the rough. While Spain has not yet etched its name among the world’s poker elite, so does El Salvador’s football program. They are fixtures in the upper tier of the FIFA Ranking for quite some time now. But with Steve Purdy somewhat trying to establish himself as a glimmer of hope in a struggling El Salvador national football team, young Salvadorans could finally look up to someone as a worthy role model and engage themselves to dream bigger. With the whole country resting on his back and a bright future in the horizon, Steve Purdy has another opportunity to make his mother proud while playing the sport he is passionate about.