Carmelina Moscato on Soccer Leadership

Carmelina Moscato is a Canadian soccer player and Olympic bronze-medalist. Today, she’s a coach. She played as a Center Back in professional soccer in the US and all over the world. She is someone who thinks deeply about leadership, soccer and how you can leverage leadership in soccer. She’s incredibly thoughtful and will share her mindset on what it was like playing for the Canadian National Team and how she thinks about coaching and the future of women’s soccer.

In this episode, we discuss the origins of her name (5:07), how she’s similar to her dad (5:50), where she grew up (6:37), what life was like for her growing up (6:55), some of the lessons she took away from her childhood, specifically what she learned from her brother and parents (8:05), what pride has meant to her throughout her life, specifically with her parents being immigrants (11:21), if soccer was something that her parents were passionate about (13:05), what drove her internally as a soccer player growing up (14:28), what her path would’ve been without soccer (16:42), why she decided to go to school in the US (Penn State) (18:12), what her soccer journey was like and what her ultimate dream with soccer was (20:00), what her response was to being told that she couldn’t play at a certain level (22:00), how hard of a decision it was to leave her job with the Louisville Athletic Department to go back to pursuing a career as a player (28:25), the differences between her mindset in preparation as a player and as a coach (29:50) and the differences between her mindset in performance as a player and as a coach (31:50), her relationship with John Herdman (33:00), some things that she noticed with the Canadian National Team with regards to good leadership and communication (37:20), “grow” culture (40:15), what her gameday routine looked like and her relationship with spirituality (43:50), how nervous she was for the 3 World Cups she participated in and what she noticed with regards to how she evolved and approached those games over the years (48:00), sportsmanship (50:00), her experiences as a coach and if her coaching style has evolved over time (53:35), “four corners” and what she learned as a coach in Australia (56:24), her vision for herself going forward and women’s soccer (58:45), if she would rather be the commissioner of a Professional Canadian Soccer League or the head coach of the Canadian National Team (1:00:30), if she misses playing (1:02:15), and what it will take to get a Professional Canadian Soccer League up and running and what that league would look like (1:03:15).

You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @CMoscato4.

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian