In 2014, former Seattle Sounders defender Patrick Ianni retired after a solid nine-year career in MLS.
A few years later, though, Ianni kept wondering what kept him from being even better. He was one of the top collegiate players in the country at UCLA, a top 10 MLS SuperDraft selection and a mainstay with the U.S. U-20 national team, but never reached the professional ceiling he had hoped.
“I recognized how much anxiety I was experiencing in my playing career,” Ianni said in a phone interview. “If I had the ability to experience the game differently, where things weren’t such a threat, and I wasn’t so blocked by internal traumas, then I would most certainly would have been a more consistent player and I would have been able to grow a lot more.