When Peter Vermes was 7 or 8 years old, he made a deal with his father.
If young Peter scored 50 goals over the course of the soccer season, his dad would buy him a television for his bedroom. For a family of modest means, this was no small wager.
Nine games into the season, Peter had scored 41 goals. Before taking the field for the 10th and final match, he asked his dad a question.
“Dad, do you have money?”
“What for?” Michael Vermes replied.
“I want to buy that TV today after the game.”
Sure enough, Peter bagged 11 goals in the final game of the season to hit 52. Michael was a man of his word and purchased a TV for his son to have all to himself. This was also the first time it dawned on both of them that Peter just might be destined to make soccer his livelihood.
Anecdotes like these engulf a must-listen podcast between Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes and local sports figure Danny Clinkscale, which debuted Friday on dannyclinkscale.com.
The first part of a two-part podcast serves as a captivating American success story, with Vermes talking openly about his upbringing in the home of first-generation parents who fled oppression to build a life for their family.
Indeed, Vermes was a soccer prodigy with a deep passion for the game, and that comes
across clearly through the manager’s storytelling, humor and honesty. Over the course of 45 minutes, he shares the backstory of his parents leaving communist Hungary, meeting his wife in high school, his mother passing away from cancer while Vermes was at Rutgers University, and the special relationships he shared with each of his immediate family members.
Listen to the full podcast below.
Vermes’ conversation with Clinkscale is the newest edition of Kansas City Profiles presented by Easton Roofing on the Reasonably Irreverent Podcast. Part two will be released in the near term.
