Ex-Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe was tricked into pondering a name from rapper Drake was a joke from a team-mate.
The former England worldwide moved from Tottenham to Toronto FC in the direction of the top of his profession and he acquired a stunning cellphone name from the music star, which he initially thought was a wind-up by a team-mate.
Defoe left Spurs for Major League Soccer in 2014, departing North London after his enjoying alternatives had been lower quick below Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood.
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He joined Ryan Nelsen, one other former Tottenham participant, in Canada who was managing the formidable MLS staff, after gamers like Julio Cesar and Michael Bradley had made the transfer to BMO Field.
The build-up to the swap concerned some wooing, with Tim Lieweke – who performed a big position in bringing David Beckham to LA Galaxy years earlier than – contributing. But when Drake reached out, it appeared virtually too good to be true.
Defoe informed The Mirror: “I remember being out for dinner with my cousin and got a phone call, said ‘hello, who’s this’, and he said ‘It’s Drake’, Yeah, good one – I thought he was winding me up!
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(Image: Kaleidoscope Entertainment)
“I actually thought it was Aaron Lennon, I thought ‘Wow your Canadian accent is unbelievable’. But no, it was Drake.
“We had a dialog and I keep in mind he spoke about Toronto the town, what it is like, the folks, the soccer membership, and that was it. I made a decision to signal and I beloved it.”
A documentary about Defoe’s football career, from his early days at the youth team Senrab through to his final matches with Rangers in the 2021-22 season and beyond, is being released later this month.
(Image: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
Defoe explains how Lieweke, CEO of Toronto house owners Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, helped with persuade him to hitch Toronto along with his steering and confidence enjoying a significant position.
However, the transfer would not have been attainable with out the approval of Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, who felt a change of surroundings would profit Defoe.
It wasn’t all clean crusing for Defoe throughout his stint in Canada. He confronted tumultuous occasions privately with the lack of his brother in 2009 at simply 26 years of age adopted by his father’s most cancers demise on the eve of Euro 2012.
(Image: Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock)
Recalling his entry to Toronto, Defoe shared: “I remember getting a call from Ryan Nelsen who was the manager, I played with Ryan at Tottenham towards the back end of his career, and obviously he got the Toronto job and we spoke about the opportunity of going there.”
He additional added: “At the time I stated I do not assume it may occur, as a result of I used to be at Tottenham and I used to be settled and did not actually assume I used to be going to depart.
(Image: Toronto Star by way of Getty Images)
Luke Littler darts followers can again ‘The Nuke’ in Premier League along with his enjoying shirt
Luke Littler followers can now purchase the 17-year-old’s enjoying shirt to assist him as he continues to display his expertise within the Premier League.
The darts sensation was solely 16 when he wowed Alexandra Palace on the World Darts Championship (WDC), regardless of a ultimate loss to Luke Humphries.
The Nuke will proceed enjoying in opposition to seven of one of the best dart gamers on this planet — Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Rob Cross and Peter Wright — in a mini-tournament in a special metropolis each Thursday till the ultimate in May.
“I met Tim Lieweke in London, he was just confident it was going to happen. Then obviously it got back to Tottenham and I had a conversation with Daniel, he sort of spoke about everything I’d achieved in England and at Tottenham and didn’t feel I had anything else to prove.
“He thought it could be good for me and my household to have a brand new problem, a change, not simply soccer however life-style as properly, and that was it.”
(Image: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire)
Drake’s position within the transfer was talked up in Canada on the time. However, he too insisted Lieweke – beforehand of LA Galaxy house owners AEG – was the brains of the operation.
“I don’t know if I had an influence on him coming here. I think that all I did was give him the necessary information about a city he didn’t know much about,” the musician stated in 2014. “I told him how great it’s been to me, and how great I assumed it would be to him.
“We had an awesome dialog. We constructed up a private relationship. I’m excited to see him start his profession right here. I simply do what I can. [Leiweke] is the boss. It’s all Tim, actually. I used to be only a piece of the puzzle, I suppose.”