When he was sitting on the Yeovil Town team bus heading to Carlisle United away, Sam Surridge probably didn’t believe his journey would take him to flying around the United States, being chased by Lionel Messi for the MLS Golden Boot.
Yet as Surridge swept in his 21st goal of the season against Cincinnati on Sunday, the commentator hailed Nashville’s No. 9 as “the man that cannot miss.” Surridge leads Messi by a goal.
“Being in a race with Messi is special for me,” Surridge tells me via Zoom from Nashville. “It is a bit surreal.”
Surridge vs Messi
Surridge’s side has four games left in the regular season, while Inter Miami has seven following their Club World Cup distraction.
“Messi could end up scoring however many goals in a game, and I can’t control that,” Surridge continues. “I focus on what I can do. It's also great that he's doing well because it's almost like me against him in a way, but there's still some others in the race to get the Golden Boot.”
LAFC’s Denis Bouanga is currently in third place with 18 goals. Adding to the race narrative, Nashville hosts Inter Miami on the last day of the regular season, October 18.
Surridge, who signed from Nottingham Forest for a reported £5 million fee in 2023, smiles at the thought of being up against, well, probably the greatest player of all time?
“Yes, he is, 100%. Him and (Cristiano) Ronaldo. Messi is not just doing it in MLS, he’s still doing it internationally.
"It’s only a couple of years ago, he won the Ballon d’Or whilst playing in Miami. It's great for the league that he's here."
Surridge, 27, got a close-up of Messi’s quality, and also of Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets, ranked at no.33 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest players of all time, when Nashville played (and lost) in Miami in July.
“They’re winners. They just have that cutting edge.
“There was a free-kick on the edge of the box, and I just knew that Messi was going to score, and he did.
“It was pretty crazy. He can make something out of nothing.”
Surridge sees the phenomenal support for the Argentinian world champion.
“Messi's got his massive following not just over here in America. It's everywhere.
“I get a few messages from back home and it's nice. I've still got a good following from Forest.”
He enjoyed sharing a field with Suarez, too.
“I've always looked up to him. Suarez is a great player, someone I always would watch on YouTube, watch his movement, watch how he can create chances for himself.
“He doesn't move as well as he used to, but these players, they always try and find an extra yard. He's still got that fire.”
Busquets posed a particular positional challenge for the hard-working Surridge.
“I'm always dropping in on the (opposition) 6s. Busquets would either come in to make a back-five or go up higher, and I'd have to run back and get him.
“He’s not as mobile as he used to be, but he's still just as comfortable on the ball.”
“They keep the ball really well, and it’s not easy when you're running around, especially in this heat.
“They’ve got great individual players, but I still feel there are better teams in the league than them.
Nashville's quite unique in that we haven't got loads of big players. We're a great team, and I relish that we've got everyone working and looking out for each other.”
“Some teams in MLS have a lot of great individuals, and when you've got Messi, it helps! But there's not a lot of players that can do what he does.
Big players are signing. (Heung-min) Son’s come in (at LAFC). There will be more to come, especially with the World Cup coming up.”
Talking from an air-conditioned room in Nashville amidst 30°C heat outside on Monday, Surridge mentions the challenges for those coming to the World Cup next summer.
“It's difficult. It's going to be a completely different style of football. You watched the Club World Cup. It’s slower because the heat’s really intense.”
Chelsea managed a remarkable intensity against PSG in the final, but overall the tournament was inhibited by the heat.
“It's not easy to play at the same intensity,” Surridge continued. “It will just be a lot more ‘you have the ball, we have the ball’ rather than transition.”
He also highlighted another obvious issue. “For the fans, there will be a lot of travelling.
“Teams will struggle with that because America's such a big country and you're travelling four and a half hours on a plane sometimes to games, and it's crazy.
“Probably Vancouver would be our longest. And Portland. It's so hard to win on the road because you're flying everywhere.”
“Everyone flies private in the league, which does make it easier. It's not like you're waiting in the terminal. You're just straight on the plane.”
Four and a half hours is still a long haul.
“It took longer than that bussing up from Yeovil to Carlisle the day before a game!” Surridge laughs.
Life is rather different from eight years ago when he was being toughened up by Bournemouth on loan at Yeovil in League Two.
Surridge also played on loan at Weymouth and Poole Town in non-League and Oldham in League Two.
“Eddie Howe wanted me to go and earn my stripes. It wasn't easy, and that's where I learned my art in how to use my body and win my headers.
“Anyone from a young age should play men's football as soon as you can. 21s football is good because you're close to the first team, but it hasn't got that competitive edge I wanted.”
He encountered a fight for survival at Oldham. “They had a lot of money problems. Some of the lads weren’t even getting paid. You definitely see the darker side of football when you drop down into those lower leagues.
“It gives you that feeling of how important it is to win. I’ve always tried to carry that feeling with me and that intensity.”
“You had to win, you just had to. If you don’t, managers are under pressure quickly. If managers are under pressure, they need to change the team, and when you're a younger player, you probably get the brunt of it more.
“That's where my career took off – at Oldham. I was scoring my goals (12 in 21) under pressure.
“That's where I learned to be the player I am. It wasn't easy. The darker side is something you've got to experience at a young age, and you come out better.”
He had a useful spell under Steve Cooper at Swansea City in 2019 and got a call from England Under-21s to travel for a game in Slovenia.
“Phil Foden and Callum Hudson-Odoi stood out at that age. Hudson-Odoi was really sharp, a really good player.
“Technically, you can tell how Foden is different to a lot of English players, how he controls the ball, how he moves with it, how he creates. He’s special.”
Eventually, back at Bournemouth, Surridge was given a chance by Howe. “He started playing me more towards the end (of 19/20) because lads weren't performing. I felt I played well.”
“His training sessions were brilliant. He drilled professionalism and intensity to train into me from a young age. He brings that intensity to all players.
“You can see it in Newcastle and how they play. He just brings that work ethic to every player, off the pitch, day to day.”
Bournemouth sold Surridge to Stoke City in 2021, but within five months, Surridge left for Cooper’s Forest.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I enjoyed my football. I wanted to feel loved. Steve’s a great manager and great guy as well, tactically very good.
“On the Thursdays and Fridays, that's when he definitely put his foot down and he told you exactly what he wanted defensively and off the ball and in transition.
“On the ball it was quite free. You do what you need to do in that structure. Steve was great for me in the Championship and we got promoted.”
“I loved my time at Forest. Great fanbase. The loudest I heard the City Ground was our (May 2022 play-off) second leg against Sheffield United.
“Even in the Premier League games, at home against Liverpool, we beat them 1-0, and that was loud. When the crowd gets going at the City Ground, it's special.
“That (atmosphere) helped the club stay in the Premier League that season.”
Surridge was a substitute in all but one of his 26 Premier League games for Forest.
“I felt I could have played a bit more there, but I had no regrets, I put everything into it. Steve probably had 100 other players that wanted to be playing.
“It was hard for him because of the amount of signings he had. I still look out for Forest. But I wanted to go and challenge myself somewhere else.”
When I came here I didn’t know how people lived with the thought of a tornado coming, but now I’m used to it.
Nashville beckoned, Music City, Tennessee. “There's so much beauty in Tennessee, there's so much to do. When I have family over, they're all down Broadway, all down experiencing America!”
He’s experiencing loads. “When I came here I didn’t know how people lived with the thought of a tornado coming, but now I’m used to it.
“A couple of times the siren goes off, crazy, and then you get a notification on your phone. I’ve not had any catastrophic tornadoes yet.”
One event off the field has certainly changed him. His wife, Laura, gave birth to a boy in December, and Surridge has thrown himself into fatherhood.
“You're up in the middle of the night! Learning to play on not much sleep!
“They've obviously been massive for me. It's really special. Having him, it's been another part of me doing well this season.
“I've grown up a lot over here. I’m 27 now. It’s almost like I’ve become a different person.”
So what of the future? “It's a hard one,” Surridge reflects.
“Everyone's been great with me here at Nashville. I'm really enjoying it, and it would take a lot for me to come back to Europe. But at the same time, I do want to play at the highest level.
“MLS has got a lot better even since I've been here the past two and a half years. There's no real easy games.
“But I've got aspirations, I want to keep doing well. And then see where it takes me.”
And wherever he goes, Sam Surridge will always have the memory of his duel across America with the great Lionel Messi.
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