Providence, R.I. native Ryan Maduro was one of the many players on board with the Red Bulls during the preseason. His hard work and desire to continuously improve were just a few factors that came into play when the team announced his signing on Mar. 19.
During last week's Media Day, Maduro sat with NewYorkRedBulls.com to talk a bit about the preseason, the feedback he received from coaches and his work off the pitch.
You were with the team in Mexico and Arizona, put in your reps and hard work and just received a contract with the club. Has to feel pretty good to be where you wanted to be all along.
Yeah, definitely. I spoke with Coach Hans and the coaching staff after Mexico and while we were in Mexico. They just had very positive things to say about my play and that I have a lot to do to earn it but they wanted to see that same effort and same type of play in Arizona. And then that happened and the chances I got with the training and the games, so when we came back we just kind of settled things out.
There have been some great stories surfacing recently about some of your stints at various clubs, but there’s also been some talk about your time spent working construction as well. Where does that come into play?
My dad owns a construction company, has owned it since we were little. Since we moved from Portugal over to the US. It’s something that I can always get just to help. He’s always telling me, “You can’t just play, you have to help me too.” And then after school it transitioned from helping him on the side to helping him full time because I couldn’t really get breaks from the stints I’ve been at, but I definitely did that and I’m not shy to tell anyone because everyone’s background is different and it made me strong as a person.
Maybe you could team up with Stephen Keel too. He has a history of flipping houses.
Now that you mention that, it is pretty good that it’s with Keel because I am going to be rooming with Keel. So we have a little one-two punch there and maybe we can go into business on the side and become corporate millionaires (laughs).
In terms of getting to know some of the other guys, how has that been?
It feels great. Since day one I’ve been received with open arms. I really have. At first I came in and I was like, “It’s a big organization, a big city, big team, big players, name-wise as well, but I’ll tell you from one to the last guy, it’s been really good.
