Demba Ba, international soccer star and guiding light of San Diego’s NASL expansion team, chats with Katy Temple and SoccerNation’s Dike Anyiwo in Voice of San Diego’s podcast studio. He goes in depth about what sparked his life project and the close knit friend group behind it all. 

Demba illustrates for listeners what his upbringing looked like, shares his values and how he plans to infuse the new club in San Diego with a culture that truly reflects both the founders and the community.

“I know that down the road you want to develop an Academy and complete this passion project – not only build a team but develop these players,” Temple says to Ba. “What is it that you would like them most to know about soccer and passion?”

“We are going to build the Academy down the road. It’s going to take a few years probably, but we don’t have a problem with that. We’re going to be here for a long time,” Ba says. “And what we want to develop, what we want to give them is – before they are football players, they are men. They need to grow and they need to have values…We want to teach them how to play soccer, for sure, but how to be a good man as well. This is one of the most important things, at least for me and for the group of guys who are behind me, because football is 15, 20 years. Andyour life is way longer than that.”

 The announcement was just the beginning. Stay tuned, San Diego.

1904FC