Guest: Tony Sanneh — Former U.S. National Team soccer player, 2002 World Cup veteran, 2026 National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, and founder of the Sanneh Foundation
Episode Description
There's a version of Tony Sanneh's story that ends with the World Cup. Boy from St. Paul makes it to soccer's biggest stage, wins, lives well. The end.
That's not his story.
In this conversation, Tony and Jasna talk about what happens after the trophy — the fifteen years he spent building a free youth foundation that's now a ten-million-dollar organization, the moment fame nearly disconnected him from who he actually was, and the fear he carried for decades that he was finally ready to name out loud.
This one is personal for Jasna. Her own kids learned to play soccer on a field Tony built, years before she knew the full story behind it.
What We Cover
Growing up in St. Paul and the moment his mother told him he could be anything
The 2002 World Cup, and the strange, full-circle nature of his career in Germany
What fame does to a person — and the friend who refused to let it change him
Starting the Sanneh Foundation while he was still a professional athlete
Building a $10 million, 130,000-square-foot dome that funders told him was impossible
The Bush Foundation Fellowship and the fear he finally confronted at 30+ years in
Why most professional sports organizations get philanthropy wrong — and what real partnership looks like instead
What he wants his son to understand about him, and why it has nothing to do with the Hall of Fame
Quotes Worth Sitting With
"I'm more concerned about the world around him than I am with him."
"Athletes don't change. The people around us change — and sometimes that changes us."
"If someone's going to say no, I'm going to say why. My job is to make you understand it."
"We didn't say we're going to come and fix you. We said: we have these resources, how can we work together to make your life better?"
Tony built more than a soccer dome — the foundation now runs free youth camps, after-school mentoring, a food security program, a community center on St. Paul’s East Side, and job training for young adults entering the workforce.
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