Brief introduction of my today´s interview partner:
At 24 years of age he was the youngest host of a sport show on television in Australia, which was on SPS-TV, the home of football! He truly can be named as one of the pioneers, when it comes to football commentatorship in Australia.
Radio is where it sort of began for him. And one may translate it into life, when he says “wether you are commentating to 10 people or wether you are commentating to 10 Mio. people, it doesn´t matter, you have to deliver the same outcomes!”
You get goose bumps listening to him, when he is talking about his newest challenge in India, where he has been reaching out to 400 Mio. people from the first two seasons.
Barcelona against Real Madrid at the Nou Camp, to be there with close to 100,000 people, broadcasting on FOX Sports live as the first Australian was simply significant for him as well as the chance to meet Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson and interviewing them one to one. He just feels blessed and he truly can!
He´s behaving as a fan, and not being conservative, when commentating. Rather being natural than pretending to be something or not, that´s his credo.
For him the passion of the fans makes it so outstanding, he loves the passion of the supporters whatever the competition is. And with every word of him one can feel that this is not just a verbal formula, he lives it as he is saying it. A wonderful interview partner and an absolute sport expert, who loves his profession through and through.
Profile interview partner
Name: Andrew Paschalidis
Age: 55
Place of birth: Balmaine, Sydney/ Australia
Residence: Sydney/ Australia
Marital status: Married
Professional education: Came straight after school to football journalism, has been working for SPS and FOX Sports.
Current Profession: Sports commentator, these days he is even working in India as one of the main football commentators
Interests, hobbies: Heavy metal music
„Live for today and not for tomorrow!“
(Andrew Paschalidis)
„No-no“ that he is unwilling to tolerate at all: People who don´t set value on trust and loyalty
Professional career
He calls himself as the “black sheep” of the family, because he went straight from school to earn money and didn´t go to university. He learned his craft from the scratch, there was no manual or instruction of how to become a football commentator, when he started his career. And he took every opportunity he could grab, the doors did not open for him automatically, he had to open them.
And on top of that, his father was not as enthusiastic as he was, when he signed his first contract as a sports commentator … 😉
At the age of 9 years, the choice was between playing football or going to Greek school on a Saturday. And it speaks for itself, when Andy is mentioning what he said one day to his dad: “Ah, dad, if you didn´t allow me to play at that age, may be I wouldn´t have developed a passion, that is let me to do what I do and have been doing for a long time.” As he states, you have to have your dreams and Andy has been having always dreams. Today one may say: A big THANK YOU to his dad on behalf of the Aussie football community!
And we all may be excited what´s coming next, and there is still a lot in the pipeline of this wonderful character! He is really a living firework of ideas and creativity… 😉
Interview content part 1
In part 1 of this interview (26:03 min.) you will hear amongst others about …
- which very valuable lesson he learned in 2018.
- why one is living in radio on diabolic soil
- what inspired an Aussie with Greek roots to moving to India?
- his most outstanding sport events and encounters
- his comparison of the top football leagues in Europe
- why things work for him in India
- what he loves about commentating and why you can´t beat it!
Further links
His charity organisation: http://heartbeatoffootball.com.au/
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Unabridged original version of the interview
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