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Austinite and FC Juarez goalkeeper Guillermo Ruiz has been a pro for just a few years. He talks about how Bush’s Chicken almost derailed his pro career, growing up in Austin, his time with Real Madrid, and the reasons he moved back to his home state over the summer to play across the border in Liga MX. Plus, Jimmy and Juan dare to repeatedly mention the P-word for Austin FC.
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The full transcript of this episode of ¡Vamos Verde! is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
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Jimmy Maas [00:00:37] Welcome back to Vamos Verde. I’m Jimmy Moss.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:00:40] And I’m Juan Diego Garcia.
Jimmy Maas [00:00:42] And Juan, it has been a minute.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:00:44] Yes, it has.
Jimmy Maas [00:00:45] Yeah, you and I have not been in the same room chatting on a microphone about Austin FC in a little bit, but summer vacations are over.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:00:54] Yes, they are. And I think you said I was…
Jimmy Maas [00:00:56] Summer’s over. I think I was daddying or something last time. You were, doing dad things. Dad things. Various dad things, just dropped a child off of college. Like the responsible family man you are. Yeah, it also means I’m old. I now have a college kid, yeah.
Speaker 3 [00:01:09] Well, a college kid called me “sir” today, and he was about a foot and a half taller than me. So that was an interesting feeling to have. Well, you know, power comes in small packages.
Jimmy Maas [00:01:19] Sometimes. Speaking of small, there are a small number of games left in this MLS season and your hometown favorites the Austin FC FCers and they are they are in a solid much more solid playoff position than they were a week ago after a pretty big win over San Jose.
Jim Mora clip [00:01:45] Playoffs? Don’t talk about them. Playoff? You kidding me?
Juan Diego Garcia [00:01:49] Yeah, it’s starting to really feel like this could be a playoff year for Austin. And that would be the first time it happened since 2022. We all remember what happened in 2022, right?
Jimmy Maas [00:02:01] It was so long ago.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:02:03] It really was.
Jimmy Maas [00:02:04] There’s so many successes since it’s been really difficult to remember well successes. Oh I meant in my own personal life. Oh gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, you’ve been going from high to high to I just ding ding Ding ring the bell. You know what I’m saying? You know what I’m saying?
Juan Diego Garcia [00:02:18] You’re winning MLS Cup every year.
Jimmy Maas [00:02:19] Yeah, I got that lotto win the other day, I won that bill. Why are you even here? You know, I’m a philanthropist now. Just doing it for the love of the game. Yeah, so Austin FC, legit playoff contenders now, there is some distance between them and the bottom at this point, with just a few, more than a few but…
Juan Diego Garcia [00:02:41] Just some games. A handful. Yes, handful plus. They also have a few games in hand. I think a game in hand to the team in front of them, two games in hands to the teams below them in the table. So it’s, they’re in a good spot. They still have to finish the job, but the job isn’t as big of a job as say the Houston Dynamo flipping their season and trying to make it into the playoff picture.
Jimmy Maas [00:03:07] Sure. And, uh, I think the only team that has as many or as more games in hand is, uh LAFC, which they’re in a different zone as far as what their goals are. So, and one of them is against Austin. Well, that’s true. Yes. That is, one of the reasons why they have so many games in hand, whether back in July, wouldn’t you know, uh one thing I did want to mention San Jose, this is a, I, I am enjoying the, this rivalry. Rivalries obviously are regional, right? For the most part. Sure. Usually. But sometimes things develop that don’t make any sense. Celtics, Lakers, you know, that kind of thing that like you see a lot and you’re like, oh, because of repeated run-ins, they hate each other. Now I am not suggesting that Austin has had the same stakes as Boston, Celtics or LA Lakers. But in the matches that they have played against each other… And this includes the two so far this season. Two wins, two losses.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:04:08] Seven Ties. They’re playing against San Jose again this year, in San Jose, on decision day. These are two teams that are separated by three points in the table. San Jose’s fighting for their own playoff destiny. That decision day match could decide a lot for both of these teams in terms of their playoff futures for this year. I think it’s gonna be exciting. I feel like Austin has more of a…
Jimmy Maas [00:04:35] Natural rival with their California opponents than they do their Texas opponents.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:04:39] There’s definitely like a California versus Texas flavor to those rivalries and they feel organic, right? Yes, they’re both in the Western Conference, but it’s not like you have them in your backyard like with Houston or with Dallas. It just happens to be that the California teams and Austin FC always have these crazy games. They always play up to or down to the opposition no matter where they are on the table.
Jimmy Maas [00:05:07] There’s tension on the field.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:05:10] There have literally been fists that fly in these matches. Yes, and that is something that you may not see in every Copa Tejas game. Oh, absolutely not, yeah. I mean, there’s a rivalry. There’s a contentious feeling between Austin and Dallas or Austin and Houston. We hate those guys. It just feels like there’s no reason for there to be a rivalry with the California teams, and then there is.
Jimmy Maas [00:05:34] But there is. And it’s great. Some way, somehow, it just seems to, the pot is on simmer when they start playing. I wonder if this thing will continue with San Diego. Maybe, we’ll see. Maybe. Well, what I, I have no idea where I’m segueing here with all this, so I’m just gonna make some noises. Do it. Until we do this. Ooh, buh, bub, bup, bih, da, bu, bu.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:06:02] I mean look, San Diego’s no Real Madrid, but they’re pretty good this year.
Jimmy Maas [00:06:08] Right. San Diego. That’s a border town, right? Speaking of border towns. One of these will work. Today’s guest is an Austinite, a professional goalkeeper, a man of the world, a man who almost has, I think he has as many passports as you want. Two? Oh, you only have two? Yeah, oh. Who do you think I am? You’re not that special. Well, you’re not Guy Ruiz, who is our guest today. He is a goalkeeper for FC Juarez three years ago during a gap year when he was trying to decide where they go to West Point and play soccer. There or perhaps Villanova. He had some options, but he was hanging out in his birth country of Spain in Madrid. But anyway, he was playing pickup soccer. And man, what a crazy story happened after that. He is from Austin, grew up here, moved here when he was a baby. And after three years in Spain, he decided he would move back to North America. Here he is, Guillermo Guillen.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:07:17] Love this. Yeah, gotta do it. He’s a Spaniard after all. Yeah.
Jimmy Maas [00:07:22] Tell me a little bit about your early life here in Austin. When did, when did you move to the city or did you, were you born here? How did, how did all that go?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:07:29] So I was actually born in Madrid and then I moved to Austin when I was nine months old. I wish I could say born and raised in Austin, because my heart feels like it was born and raised in Boston, but no, I was just raised there. And always in the same, like we lived like two years in one house, kind of like in the middle area of it, like kind of leaning towards Westlake. And then when I was like three years old, we moved into the house, which we still own today, which is in Northwest Austin, which granted me to go to Cana Vista, Westwood and all those local schools.
Jimmy Maas [00:08:06] Did you spend your whole club life with Lone Star or how did that evolve through the years?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:08:12] Yeah. So I started playing soccer in Cali. We did like, I lived there for one year because my dad did something at Stanford. And so I, when I came back, I started with I9 sports and then I went to like indoor, like soccer zone, Lake line. And then my mom’s doctor, she told her about Lone Star. And when I was eight years old, I joined Lone star. And from when I was eight until I was 17, which is when I left the States. For nine years, I’ve played for Loan Sire. And I did it there. Junior Academy, pre-select, select. I did DA, ECL, I did the entire thing with Loan Sorry. Okay, all right. What do your parents do? My dad is an author and an editor for some personal finance companies. And then my mom is a teacher. She’s a high school teacher. Okay, at Westwood? No, no, no. She just transferred, she just changed schools. She was at Pearson Ranch before, she’d just changed schools, I forgot the name of it.
Jimmy Maas [00:09:13] That’s fine. I was just hoping to find some awkward moments where she, you know, was your teacher, but…
Guillermo Ruiz [00:09:18] Oh no, no, not at all. The awkward moments came from when the co-workers that she had like in the language department had me at Westwood. Like I was, I was a great student but because I was great student I had a lot of free time so I wasn’t exactly loved by most of my teachers.
Jimmy Maas [00:09:37] I see, I see. So did you play much in high school or was high school just, had you just moved beyond high school soccer when you were, you know, at a certain age?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:09:49] Freshman sophomore and junior year when DA was still a thing I Didn’t even think about high school soccer like it was like it’s like I was thinking about DA going D1 all that stuff and like I hate to say it but like I Was a kid like I I thought I was can I cuss or no?
Jimmy Maas [00:10:07] Sure, yeah, yeah.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:10:08] I thought I was the s**t. I was like, I play for DA, I’m from Austin, like, come on, like. And then junior year happened, COVID hit, DA got shut down, and I got put on ECNL because DA or Lowstar wasn’t gonna have MLS. It was like the one year where MLS Next wasn’t a thing and DA wasn’t a thing. And so I played ECNl and that year I was like, well, if I’m gonna play ECN, I may as well play high school soccer because my best friends played for high school. The four of us, like my group of friends, we were all the captains. That’s also somebody who actually, that would be a really cool interview for you to do, Nikola Georgevich. Okay. He’s playing pro at Vancouver Whitecaps right now, came out of, he came from Westwood as well and he was a, he’s my best friend and his story is unbelievable as well.
Jimmy Maas [00:10:54] But at some point, somewhere along the way, when you’ve decided or someone told you, you were the s***, where did this, I don’t know, seed get planted like one day, I’m going to be a pro at goalkeeper or were you just a field player at this point?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:11:07] So when I was told I would go pro, I was 12. Lauren Cameron, who is a coach at Lone Star, he sat me down for our parent-teacher, or if I go parent-coach conference or whatever, and he told my mom, he was like, look, I’m gonna be super honest, Guillermo has the potential to play professional soccer. We see it, I see it. I think he has the potentially to be a pro. Whether he does or not, I don’t wanna put pressure on the kid, and from that moment on when I 12, I was like oh yeah, I am gonna play pro. At 15, I was on trial at Leeds United. They scouted me at a DA showcase. And that was, I 15, 16 at the time. That’s when I was like, okay, yeah, I’m gonna make it. Like I’m going to go big D1. Like this is it. Like this was my moment. Leeds, they were like, hey, we liked you, but we’re not going to sign an international player for what you bring us. I was, like, that’s totally cool. Came back for the Lone Star. And funnily enough, that’s right when everything started going south, back home. And where for two years the idea of playing pro just completely dropped out of my head.
Jimmy Maas [00:12:08] Meaning when south with organization or like you mean like at home home like just your
Guillermo Ruiz [00:12:14] Oh, no, no. I’m coaching. Okay. No, like everything at home was good. I also gained a little bit of weight. I think I was kind of just being like a typical high school kid, which wasn’t what I should have been doing, but like I was going off campus for lunch. I was eating like Bush’s chicken all the time. I was being unhealthy, but I still thought I was playing well enough, but my coach and I had some pretty bad, we had a pretty bad falling out and he just completely lost trust in me. Blamed everything bad that ever happened to him on me, basically, it felt like. And so it kind of put my head in a place of low confidence and as a player, when you have low confidence, if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody’s gonna believe in you and so.
Jimmy Maas [00:12:58] Not a good recipe for success.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:13:01] And for two, three years, I really, really struggled to feel confident in my goalkeeping ability. And I genuinely thought that like it was over. I thought like, no, like, yeah, he’s right. I’m not never going to play pro. I’ve not good enough. Like, there’s no way I’m going to make it happen.
Jimmy Maas [00:13:16] So this is not the same coach you were talking about a second ago. This is a different person.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:13:20] No, it was the same coach for three years.
Jimmy Maas [00:13:23] No, I meant that that said you were gonna go pro earlier
Guillermo Ruiz [00:13:25] Oh, no, no. Lauren Cameron was extremely supportive.
Jimmy Maas [00:13:28] Okay, but we’re not naming the person that was no. Yeah. Okay. All good. I’m just making sure there’s not a confusion there. So
Guillermo Ruiz [00:13:35] Oh yes, no, no. Lauren, I can only speak highly of him. I can only speak high of him, he’s always been an amazing person in my life and so many people at Lone Star, I’m so grateful for everything they did for me as a kid, as a teenager. Even though there was a rough spell in there, I am always going to be very grateful to the club for what they gave me.
Jimmy Maas [00:13:53] So you reach this low point, this is around your 16-ish, and then what pulled you out and really like, I mean, hit the highest of heights?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:14:11] So what pulled me out was my family. I have to be so honest there. My mom and dad were, they are the most supportive people I’ve ever met. I love them to death. My senior year, I gained a bunch of weight. I was like 225. I only had one on college offer, which was Army, and I took it. And the second I took that offer, two months later, my mom was like, look, you can’t be in the army, you’re 17, why don’t you try Gapier in Spain? I have a Spanish passport. And I was like I don’t know, mom, I kind of want to go straight to college, West Point’s not that bad of an idea. And she was like yeah, we’ll just try it, just go to Spain, try and see what’s going on. And if nothing happens in Spain, we’ll fund a Gapyer here where you play another year of ECNL and then we’ll try and get a better D1 school, but you can go to the army. And I was like, all right, we’ll see how that goes. And so that’s when I moved to Spain initially. And personal stuff happened at that time. I lost a lot of weight. Also just like a change in culture. And then I got in shape, all that stuff and then- Now-
Jimmy Maas [00:15:17] So how did you come to the attention of Real Madrid? This is in the time while you’re in Spain.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:15:24] Yes, so what happened was, I’m going to tell this story from the beginning because I actually think this is the most fun part.
Jimmy Maas [00:15:32] You got off a bus and then someone said, you’re the guy.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:15:37] I mean, it’s gonna sound like a movie when I tell you. Okay, let’s go for it. I love it. I was playing pickup with some Moroccan immigrants in Spain, the town that my grandma’s from, at the, like by the river, there’s like a field and I would just go there for fun. And I’m playing there and I’m play as a center back and I was just playing loose, like I’m just having fun. I’m not thinking, oh, I’m being scouted right now. And after that game ends, I’m walking home and this guy taps my shoulder and he’s like, hey, I’ve never seen you around here, who are you? And I told him my story, like I told them who I was and he was like, maybe there’s an opportunity for you here. There’s a local team called Real Murcia that is looking for a goalkeeper for their U-19 team. You fit their description, do you wanna go? I was like well, let me talk to my parents. My mom thought I was gonna get human traffic. She was like Guillermo, this is like not real, this isn’t gonna happen. And I was like, mom, this is an opportunity. Meet the guy. They meet him, all that stuff. I go on trial. They love me. And they tell me, hey, do you want to stay with us for a year? And my parents are like, this your gap year. This is your dream. You’re playing MLS next in Spain. That level, you’re playing against LaLiga Academy. He’s like, well, do the gap year, and then keep doing the college recruitment, all the stuff you want, and we’ll see where this goes. And towards the end of that gap year, I was playing really well, like keeping clean sheets against La Liga academies, making really good saves. And I was aware that teams in Spain were scouting me. I wasn’t aware of the extent to which they were scouting me. Like I knew there was a lot of, La Ligas teams watching me, a lot Second Division teams watching me for their academy. And I had heard Real Madrid somewhere, but I was kind of like why would Real Madrid want a kid from Austin? Like, come on, let’s be so honest. And that summer when I went back for a second gap year that I had considered taking because I wanted to commit to Villanova and I just wanted to take a bit more gap year, Villanovan and I were in contact a lot. All of a sudden Real Madrid calls my agent, tells them that they’re gonna sign me for three years. And in the span of 11 months, I went from not playing in the Nationals for ECNL to signing for Real Madrid in 11 months.
Jimmy Maas [00:17:55] That’s insane. I mean, that kind of, if you told somebody that that would happen, they would all look at you like.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:18:04] That’s the thing that I couldn’t, I could never have planned out what happened to me. And the crazy part was that when I signed, like when I got to Real Madrid, all of a sudden I was like, oh, it’s gonna be Real Madrid but it won’t be that big of a deal. I’m hanging out with like Raul Asensio in our locker room. I hang out with Ferran Ruiz. Like I’m playing with these global superstars. And I’m like, like who are now global superstares, right? At the time they were still pretty big in their academy. And I was thinking like, these guys two years ago were playing UEFA Youth League. They’ve been meant, for this their entire lives. A year ago, I was playing high school soccer. I was stressing out over whether or not I would beat Lake Travis in quarter finals of the 6A state championship in Texas. Like, what are we talking about? Like, these guys are playing against Manchester United.
Jimmy Maas [00:18:49] Uh, yeah, what, what is mentally, what’s the difference there? Is there that much? Yes, a hundred percent, a 100%
Guillermo Ruiz [00:18:57] Just, and not only, not only in like…
Jimmy Maas [00:18:58] The Lake Travis, man!
Guillermo Ruiz [00:19:00] Hey, they don’t know how hard it is to play at Lake Travis. They don’t about that.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:19:05] We’ll be back with more from Guillermo Ruiz… Ruiz? After this break.
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Guillermo Ruiz [00:19:47] But it was actually something I would always talk about with them, their upbringing was so different from mine, that to some people at every team that I’ve been at, most professional athletes or most soccer players, normally they’ve kind of known, or there’s been a time where you’ve been prepared, like most guys that I’m with have been youth national team call-ups, all this stuff, signed contracts, been playing for Academy since they were younger.
Jimmy Maas [00:20:16] Right, you’re on a track that sort of sets you up mentally and physically for the next steps and you get to watch other people progress through those steps as you progress through them a couple of years ahead of you.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:20:28] Exactly, which now like now Austin’s blessed to have with Austin FC’s academy where you have you 14 kids, you 15 kids getting called into national teams and now Austin FC has provided this path for these kids where you used to see kids coming out of Austin that were getting recruited for D1 schools and you’d see like two commits to D1 school, three commits maybe every grad year. And now all of a sudden you’re seeing Austin FC commits, going to all these cool places and all that stuff. And so it’s leading towards a professional lifestyle. I wasn’t leading towards a professional life style at all. At all. And so whenever I got to Real Madrid, that was one of the biggest things that was harder to get accustomed to was dealing with the pressure that comes with playing with that badge on your chest, with the media, with. Going on twitter and being able to see somebody think what they like somebody’s thoughts about how you played are just out there because they feel like it i would like play for westwood nobody cared like respectfully i think like nobody really cared about what was going on
Jimmy Maas [00:21:31] They cared, but in the right amount of caring.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:21:34] Exactly and so it was just a completely different lifestyle and I think I think that as much as maybe I wasn’t used to it I also think that I got a huge kick out of being like well I get to tackle this from a completely a different perspective Nobody’s ever gotten to do what I do and I’m somebody new at this club and although Real Madrid I was only there for two years and I Never think that. I got the opportunity that I could have I deserved to a certain extent. Obviously, I also don’t want to talk badly about a club that took such good care of me at some points. I do also think that a lot of people that I spoke to kind of enjoyed having a different type of presence in the locker room, because I wasn’t a typical player in the lock room. And I think that that led to making very important friendships and very valuable friendships going forward. And as a human, I really the experience of Realm of Dread. Even though athletically and sports-wise maybe it didn’t go as I would have hoped, if that makes sense.
Jimmy Maas [00:22:36] Yeah, certainly. Yeah. I mean, you know, in some ways, professional sports are almost designed to find more players to replace you. Just no one is ever content with whatever they have.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:22:50] Exactly. Now that you’re older, you see it as well with a bunch of friends that I know. As a goalkeeper, being 21, you’re still really young. But I have friends who are 23, 24, and they’re field players and stuff like that. And they feel stressed out because all of a sudden they see some 17-year-old kid coming up that people are more willing to bet on him and stuff. I mean, you don’t feel the pressure, but it is like, yeah, it’s a competitive market. And you always look up and you always look forward to. Wow, I wanna compete with these players. And then you kind of forget to look down and then all of a sudden you’re in the locker room. You’re talking to somebody, you’re like, yeah, wait, what’s your birthday? Oh, oh, eight. I’m 2008, 2007. You’re like wow, and you’re on the field with me? What the hell? Like what’s going on? Just makes you feel old and like. But I think it’s part of like the really enjoyable aspect of soccer is seeing all these generations kind of mixing in a locker room. That’s really fascinating to me and that’s I think one of the coolest things that I get to experience on a day-to-day basis as a professional athlete, especially in soccer because in college and in the NFL, NBA, most athletes are after 22 or like are college grads and all that stuff. In soccer, because you need so many numbers, you need to fill them up from the academy. And training, you can be training next to a 17 year old kid and you can train next to 36 year old man. Yeah. That’s so entertaining.
Jimmy Maas [00:24:08] You’re playing a position, there’s only one slot, right? There’s one shot. You kind of have to build something with the manager or otherwise, is there a way to sort of prove yourself beyond just stopping everything practice?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:24:23] The thing the thing is with the goalkeeping spot is it’s like you said, right? Like as a right back You can not play for two games or be on the bench for two games And all of a sudden they sub they the other guy has a bad game and okay We need to sub them out. Let’s sum out in the 60th minute You get 30 minutes and those 30 minutes you can impress and with those 30 that have been granted to you You can you can start And maybe you get you get looked at as a goalkeeper goalkeepers are pretty fixed positions, and it’s very set from the beginning. Like whenever you sign somewhere or something like that, they normally tell you, like, this is where we want you. Like, this what we think. This is, this, this. This is this. And I think the biggest way to tackle that is just with a positive mindset. Goalkeeping is such a psychological, like I think it’s more psychological than any other position on the field and knowing that it’s so psychological and so much based on your emotions and how you’re handling them. I’ve found that when I’m the most positive, when I am the best person I can be, when I’m supportive, when everything around you just radiates positive energy, it’s hard for people not to trust you. And the goalkeeper, the starting goalkeeper is one that people trust. So I can’t choose when I’ll be given the opportunity. I can choose when they’re going to play me. I can. What I can control is whenever they put you in, make sure that they trust you and make sure you trust yourself and that you’re confident in your ability. So Starting or not starting, in my opinion, I think whether you make it to pro or not, it doesn’t really depend on if you’re playing when you’re younger or not. It always depends on club situations, contract situations, financial situations. It depends on so much. I think that the path is there for you. I think if you trust the process and you just work at it and you’re a professional and mentally you work on your game, I think you can be… Just a lot more relaxed and that makes it a lot easier.
Jimmy Maas [00:26:21] Yeah, it’s a fascinating thing, because even if you were the third best center back on the team, you would still get a fair amount of playing time.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:26:29] You’d still find a way to get rotated in some way somehow.
Jimmy Maas [00:26:32] You know, third goaltender. Anyway, uh, that’s it’s interesting mindset, you know, Brad Stuber here waited a long time to get his shot. It is interesting to talk to goalkeepers and like that mindset, Stefan Cleveland, Matt Turner, they all, all these guys that I’ve chatted with, they also have the same kind of like, I can’t control anything except whether I’m ready when.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:26:55] I get called upon. And I mean, for example, I think a huge example of that, which Austin FC fans are going to be able to relate to a whole bunch is Damien Lass. Damien, Lass, in my opinion, is an unreal goalkeeper. His year at NexPro, his years at Louisville, like what he’s doing, like he’s young, he’s talented, he is hungry. Like I think that, I mean if I was Austin FC’s board, I would love to start him already for the first team. But you got Brad Stuber there. And so Damian Lass could be highly stressed out being like, why do I keep getting sent out on loan? Like, why am I so pissed? When in reality, there’s a reason for it. If he was at some other team with a worse goalkeeper that’s starting over him, maybe they would have given him an opportunity, but I’m no for a fact. I’ve never spoken to him. I admire him, but I’ve ever spoken to them. I’m sure that Damian is completely relaxed because he’s thinking, okay, yeah, but look who’s playing ahead of me. Like this guy is unreal. So it’s also being able to understand situations kind of have that next level type of thinking to just bring yourself always back to home base and just
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Jimmy Maas [00:28:29] Vamos Verde is produced at KUT and KUTxStudios, part of KUT Public Media, home of Austin’s NPR station, and the Austin Music Experience. We are a non-profit media organization. If you feel like this is something worth supporting, set an amount that’s right for you and make a donation at supportthispodcast.org.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:28:56] Welcome back to Bombas Ferre, I’m Jimmy Moss. And I’m Juan Diego Garcia.
Jimmy Maas [00:28:59] And we are in the middle of a conversation with Guillermo Ruiz, Austinite, who has traveled the world, went to Spain to go play with Real Madrid and played a year with Leganes, and now. Now he’s back on home soil-ish. So this summer, you got physically about as close to your home state of Texas, as you could possibly be in the Liga de Mekis. Juarez, just across the border. How did that come about? And what made you take the leap?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:29:31] I think what made me take the leap first off was kind of how I was spoken to and recruited. FC Juarez, from what they told me, they found out that I was Mexican and they were interested in me and knowing that I’m Mexican, that you can sign for me in Liga MX, I’m an American player but I’m also a European player with European experience that you could sign as national player. Which is the same thing that I could do in the U.S. I could sign on to any MLS team as an American player having had experience in Real Madrid’s academy in Europe. And so whenever Juarez found out that I was Mexican, they had been recruiting me and they liked me. They spoke to a lot of people from the clubs that I’d been at and stuff like that. And whenever they truly committed to the idea of signing me, the sporting director called me, Spoke to my family. They flew me out to visit El Paso, to visit Juarez, to see what the city was like. They showed me the sporting facilities and they were super honest from the beginning. And that was something that was really refreshing. Honesty in the world of soccer is kind of a hard thing to come across. And so whenever I was, I knew exactly where I was landing. I knew what they expected of me. I knew, exactly what their plan was. And I spoke to people and they’re like, Yeah, like that, that, like. That figures out, like that figures with what’s going on. I said, you know, this is a perfect opportunity for me. And I’m, I also think I was ready to change my, my like entourage or like where I was at. I think Madrid was an amazing experience. And I think I want to play again in Europe. I just think that for the time being, I didn’t, I don’t think there was a place that I was gonna be performing well at because I don’t think I as happy as I could have been. Um, it’s, it has been really hard to be away from my family at such a young age. And, um, like people don’t see it, but like, from when I, like 18 years old and like, I was, I moved out of the house when I was 17. Um, I’ve been financially independent since I was 18. It’s like it’s I’ve had to mature and grow pretty quickly. Sure. And I’ve missed a lot of moments with my family and a lot of time where, like, I hate to say it, but like you come home and you’re like, I haven’t been home in six months. And now I have to, like I’m home for four weeks and I have the balance seeing my friends doing like appearances for Lone Star, going to help out at clubs and then seeing your parents and stuff like that. And it’s like, well, maybe there’s a part of me that also values my family and my loved ones because soccer should be, Sebastian Jurado, actually the keeper here at Juarez told me that he said, soccer should the biggest little problem you have. Like out of everything that can happen in your life, soccer will always be the biggest like small issue you can have in life. Like there’s so many bigger things that come in soccer, like your family, your loved ones. I mean, my teammates now have kids, like they’ve always told me like, if I had a game but my child needed to be in a hospital without a doubt, I’m leaving the game. Like there is so much more important stuff and I think that as a human, I value other things as well. So yeah, I think that definitely also helped pull me a bit back to Juarez, or back to the western side of the.
Jimmy Maas [00:33:02] Sure, this continent, we’ll say.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:33:04] Yeah, that’s kind of it.
Jimmy Maas [00:33:06] And you’re only maybe a hour and a half to our flight away
Guillermo Ruiz [00:33:11] Exactly. And I mean, if my parents want to come see me, they’ve already come visit me once. I was going to go back, but we ended up getting less days off than I thought I would. Not only that, but I also think I’ll play again in Europe. I know I will at some point. I just think I have to go when the time is right and I have to trust how the process is laid out. And nothing in my life has ever been expected. Three months ago, I didn’t think I’d be playing in Mexico. So… Knowing that everything is so randomized and everything in my life apparently just seems to just be go haywire and I never know what’s going to happen next, I kind of… You just trust to let it go and be like, I know I’ll end up where I need to be.
Jimmy Maas [00:33:52] As is The keeper at waters, he’s the captain, correct? Yes. Yeah, so
Guillermo Ruiz [00:33:58] National team goalkeeper
Jimmy Maas [00:33:59] Yeah, that sort of sets you up in sort of a when they said they were honest with you today. Honestly, you probably knew all this when you were getting what you were getting into when you came.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:34:08] I knew exactly what I was getting into and they told me, look, he’s a national team goalkeeper. We don’t know how long he’s going to stay here because a bunch of teams, I mean, he is a national goalkeeper that generates interest from a lot of clubs.
Jimmy Maas [00:34:19] Sure, Premier League, any number of places. Anywhere, anywhere.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:34:21] Anywhere. Anywhere and he’s so talented and so they told me like that’s that might happen that might not happen How do you see it? And the way I saw it was I get the opportunity to learn every day from somebody who represents their country somebody who has been through some rough time in his life, and he’s managed to bounce back. I think he’s gonna be a great person to learn from. And right now, as of today, and I really hope it, I’m sure it’ll be the same, I can’t say that I’ve ever learned as much from somebody as I am from him. He’s one of, he’s an amazing example of what a goalkeeper should be like as a person and as a human, and I think he’s a amazing captain, and I genuinely feel super blessed to be, to be able to learn from him and to kind of have, be under his wing and and be given his guidance, if that makes sense.
Jimmy Maas [00:35:10] Yeah, sounds like you’re kind of enjoying your time there, even though it’s just been a, you know, the season is just, you know, weeks old.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:35:17] I mean, I look for, obviously like, I think that there’s something you can learn from everything, and when you’re in a scenario like mine where you learn from positive experiences, it’s so much easier than learning from negative experiences. Because I’ve had to learn from negative experience. I’ve gone through rougher stuff in my career, and right now I look at it and I’m not playing for League MX team, but I’m learning from one of the best goalkeepers that I could learn from, and I’ve… I know for a fact there will come a time when an opportunity will be granted and I know for a time I’ll be ready.
Jimmy Maas [00:35:51] Um, where’s the closest Keynes?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:35:54] El Paso it is I actually live in El Passo. Oh, okay I just get that like that not like feeling of being home but it is like I do feel comfortable and all that stuff and I Also think just like financially it was really easy to come back because I had some finances already set up from when I was younger so it was easier to manage than if I just moved straight into Mexico and Had to handle just completely new country in my own and that would have been a bit more complicated
Jimmy Maas [00:36:21] Do your teammates make fun of your Spanish?
Guillermo Ruiz [00:36:23] Oh, all the time. All the time, all of the time it is, it is non-stop. I can’t walk into a locker room without everyone being like, Ostia Dio, Dio! Dio and like they just remind me of it all the time, which to be fair, it’s like completely valid. Like, yeah, my accent is completely different from theirs, but I think I’m, I am really happy and really, I’m loving learning about like Mexican culture and like all these like new nuances, sentences, how people interact, the music that’s played in locker rooms, just everything. I think it’s really enjoyable to see a different type of, it’s a different culture. It’s not super different from Spain, but I mean, I see those little differences I think are really cool to see just as a human and also as an athlete.
Jimmy Maas [00:37:11] Um, you were a referee back in the day.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:37:14] I did not think you were going to know that.
Jimmy Maas [00:37:16] Yeah. And, uh, I cannot find this photo, but you reffed one of my, my youngest daughters when she was in Academy with Lone Star back in the olden times at late teens, you were, you were a ref at her game. Lone star posted when you signed that you are a ref. And I was like, there’s probably a likely, I mean, just because of 1000 Academy games that she played through her life. Um, there’s, probably a photo of you somewhere and I found one, but I cannot find it right now. Uh… To save my life but it’s a tiny country did how many games you rapid town and country
Guillermo Ruiz [00:37:51] Oh my God, that was my job. That was my physical job. Some people go to, some people work different jobs. My weekends I would, I would just ref and I loved it. I mean, town and country, I used to, it was always Slaughter Creek, town in country. Ooh, what else, what other fields would I do? I did Williamson County a couple of times. Town and country was definitely the best one to ref though. I always liked refing there. Slaughter creek was horrible. Slaughter creak was so bad. It was like a 40 minute drive from my house. Uncomfortable is I just don’t like it
Jimmy Maas [00:38:23] and you kicked it to the woods, you just… Oh my God.
Guillermo Ruiz [00:38:26] Take forever to get them. Every time a ball would be kicked into the woods, it was so funny because I would look at the stands and you would see a dad just shaking his head and I was like, yep, that was his ball, he’s got to go buy another one now. It was so fun, I loved that and that’s the type of stuff that… Most athletes that are professionals, I don’t think have gotten to, I’ve lived those types of things. I don’t think they’ve done that. And I think it’s really cool that I kind of got to live like a typical high schooler life, while also now I’m blessed to be a professional athlete.
Jimmy Maas [00:39:00] Well, you’ve been a pleasure to talk to. I really appreciate you doing this. Of course. Of course, thank you guys for having me. Super nice guy. So glad, uh, he managed, I’m, I really wish he was able to come in town in person, but, uh it was kind of cool to, um, catch him. It sounds like he has a lot of free time on his hands. Hey, we made it work, right? It’s a whole lot of Fortnite in his future. Uh, also shout out to Nikola Georgievich, who, uh also from Austin, who is on Vancouver’s Whitecaps FC2 team. I don’t know if that’s exactly their name, but we’ll call it that. WFC2, the second team. The bunny slopes. Djordjevic went to SMU, played for a few years, and then has made his way into MLS Next Pro.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:39:50] You know, that’s a cool enough story as it is, but it’s no I grew up in Austin, was playing pickup soccer in Spain, and then got signed by Real freaking Madrid.
Jimmy Maas [00:40:01] I mean, that is about as wild as it gets. If you wrote that in a script, people would be like, nah, never gonna happen. But you got the movie rights, right Jimmy? You negotiated that? I have, we’re in talks. We’re having a meeting at Kane’s later. It’s good chicken. Big thanks for everyone who helped on this program. Juan and I wrestled bears to get this to happen. Pretty much. It was a strenuous match, but the bears lost, clearly. We have been victorious. You’re still hearing our voices, so we couldn’t have ended up that bad. Exactly. Big thanks to everyone here at KET and KETX Studios, Elizabeth McQueen and Tanu Thomas, also big thanks to everyone at Austin FC who helps with our Austin FC player interviews, Cameron Kubek, Ryan Madden, Gwen Hernandez, all the video guys, Alex Daly-Hill, Roberto Colon, Ainsley Beers and Jacob Stedler. Also, big thanks to the man, the myth, the legend, Jaron Marshall, who is making the, who has made the music you are listening to right here, right now. El Mero Mero. And also, big things to you. Thanks for listening and thanks for being a part of this as we are almost, we’re only just a handful of episodes left here in season two.
Juan Diego Garcia [00:41:22] Careful, Jimmy. They’re in good position for the playoffs. They are. We’ll continue as long as they are, that’s for sure. Probably going to be extending our season more than maybe we anticipated. And then we’ll have a bonus episode and tell you all about the Bear Wrestling. Yes, absolutely. Man, there are some stories. You think Guiruiz’s story is impressive? No. Wait till you hear about the way Jimmy got onto, like, a Bear’s back and, like pulled him off of me while I’m currently just grappling with another bear, full-blown just jiu-jitsu fur in my hands, who knew the sleeper hog worked on a bear? I didn’t. Neither did I. That’s why I didn t try it. Maybe that’s why we were losing for a while. It came in handy, that’s for sure.
Austin FC Ad [00:42:07] The Zebra Fire Department, what’s the emergency?
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This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
