Remaining Active and Shooting Goals While Living Culturally Mobile

Photo Courtesy of Glenn Gallagher 2020.

Growing Up with A Goal:

Glenn Gallagher was born as an Asian-American US citizen on April 22, 2003. His father grew up in Britain and his mother lived in China for most of their lives. Gallagher grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado and lived in America during his early childhood. Little did he know, he would spend the rest of his developmental years living in Italy and Spain all before he learns how to drive.

At an extremely early age, Gallagher found he had a special talent for soccer. He has played ever since he learned to walk. In America, he participated in different clubs and training camps to improve his skills. He found a passion that literally took him places he would never have imagined.

Gallagher moved to a small town in Italy to try his hand at a more professional shot at a future soccer career. He learned to speak, eat, and become a member of society in Italy. He was 13 years old when he moved away from everything he has ever known. He recalls that playing in Italy “was laid-backed and they didn’t really ask too much of us.” He found a sense of belonging learning the language and becoming an active member on his team.

After that, his family moved to Spain where he would continue practicing and training to improve his unique skills. In Spain, he had to start over from square one. He learned Catalan and traditional Spanish and was enrolled in a private school to help him stay on top of his education. He now resides in Camden, England, right outside London seeking his next team and career opportunity.

The Struggles of Being a Culturally Mobile Child:

“In Italy, I was never able to complete a full year’s worth of school because of the changing in schools that I went through so often. In Spain, I adapted to the private school, but it was focused on the British system which was helpful given my American background.”

Gallagher has spent countless hours on the field and in schools which became a challenge for him and quite the roadblock in his journey. He had to adapt to three different educational systems in a short amount of time.

On top of the educational barrier, Gallagher had to work to keep up with language. Although, language seemed to come just as easy as soccer, he still had to figure out two to three different languages. Catalan shares similar origins to Spanish but comes from a totally different branch of Spanish and includes French. Gallagher says, “the terminologies for similar words were very different to understand I had to get used to that.”

Gallagher also adapted to the culture but explained that in Italy the “people were more accepting and relaxed” while the people he met in Spain were “a lot more racist especially towards Asian Americans which is why I left one of my teams there.”

With cultural differences, Gallagher has adapted and learned a lot about what’s popular and what isn’t. He connected with music and popular culture which also helped strengthen his language. “I had to keep up with their culture to fit in. Music helped push learning language because I didn’t want to be the only kid in class who didn’t know the newest songs or language,” he said.

Overall, Gallagher has lived an impressive life with a bunch of moving around and learning. To be able to be almost 18 years old and speak three languages is not something very impressive. Currently, Gallagher is working on training to make it to the big leagues someday with the dream to play professionally. He resides in Camden, England currently for his training. He has a current website at https://glenn.odoo.com/ where he has been using as a resource to help find more opportunities. He uploads recent footage and uses it as a visual resume of his work as a soccer player.