Maarten Paes is a talented netminder who plays for FC Dallas and for the Indonesian National Team. He has a busy lifestyle, and he took the time to answer some burning questions  

Russ: What’s it like to be a goalie? I cover hockey and I know what hockey goalies are like. It’s a different kind of mentality. What’s it like for soccer? 

Maarten: I think it’s probably a little bit the same. I actually had good contact with two of the Stars goalies. Especially with one, Scott Wedgwood, who used to play for the Dallas Stars. And, yeah, I think we always got a little bit crazy because we were we block shots from a hundred miles per hour, sometimes at our head, stuff like that. I had a ball hit my head last Friday very hard from close contact. But yeah, we love, we love to do it. We are always, a little bit, eccentric or funny, but that’s great. I think if we all were the same, it was kind of boring, right? I love it. I think we are perfectionists – – very detail focused. You know, every detail matters if you want to block a shot because small margins can decide if a ball goes in or not. I think there’s a lot of pride into that. 

Russ: So how do you decide what the shooter’s going to do, where they’re going to go for? Because at some point, you have to commit. Now, I imagine there’s a point in your mind where you’re like, all right, I think this is what he’s going to do, and I’m going to go try and stop that.  

Maarten: Yeah, well, we of course, study opponents, study, especially the strikers. 

But there’s also a lot of intuition part into it. I was a striker until it was 15, for example. So, I can read certain body languages or body movements. And then sometimes it’s also not to go too early and just wait for your instincts and trust your teammates to block one corner, for example. That’s also what we do a lot. So, there’s a lot that goes into it. So yeah, if your teammates got the right side, you got the left side, that kind of thing. Yeah, so for example, when a striker comes, let’s say a striker’s left footed and he comes from the right wing, like, it’s always like a golden rule that the defender needs to have the short corner, and you have the long corner. And then, but sometimes it can change during the action, so that’s why communication is key into that. 

Russ: Now, you just recently had your 100th start. What does that mean to you? I’m very proud of that, to be honest. It shows consistency. Yeah, I really value how much I’m getting better valued here at FC Dallas. I have a very big role also in terms of responsibility and I’m one of the captains of the team. And it’s crazy like how I’m here three and half years and now one of the most tenured players of the team because there’s so many rotations nowadays. I’m a loyal person and I never take that for granted. Being valued. And, of course, yeah, being able to be myself within and without the pitch, that’s key for me here. So yeah, it’s been a fun ride so far. 

Russ: Do you feel like the fan bases between like you and the stars are split? 

Maarten: Yeah, I think Dallas needs to share with a lot with the Cowboys.  

Then the Mavs, yesterday got the first pick in the NBA draft. And then actually, I’m going To Game 4. I got invited by the Stars. I’m sitting on the glass. I’m getting mic’ up. So, it’s going to be interesting.  

Russ: Have you ever sat on the glass before? 

Maarten: No, I’ve sat on the court. 

Russ: You’re going to see the speed of it. 

Maarten: The speed of it’s great. Yeah, after that game seven from last round, it’s going to be super fun. So yeah, I’m excited. But back to your question, I think. Because we’re a little bit more north in Frisco, we probably get a little bit different crowd because they get more. I used to live two years next to the American Airline Center Bedas. I know the drive up is sometimes a little bit of a headache. So, we probably get more of the Frisco, Plano, uh, yeah, North Dallas, and then they get more of the everyone. 

Russ: What about dealing with the Dallas Heat? 

Maarten: I think it’s starting this week to be honest. Yeah, Tomorrow’s my birthday. Yeah, and it’s going to be triple digits. So yeah, and especially because we’re an outdoor sport playing outdoors, it’s definitely a challenge. It’s a challenge for us, but also a challenge for traveling teams to come here. We want to make it our advantage too. But yeah, especially now when we play nine games this month. You must be disciplined in that way and yeah, and hydrate well, use sunscreen. And we practice quite early now so we don’t get affected. 

Russ: I understand that you’ve invested in certain things businesswise. Give me an idea what that’s like?  

Maarten: Yeah, so I started, I think, three years ago in this in this group called Apex, which is a FC fund, basically built around athletes with all the F1 athletes with, yeah, very big Premier League players, tennis players, etcetera. Some are very big athletes, but if we can combine each other’s platform and each other’s network and each other’s credibility, we can really move the needles similar to a LeBron for example. He’s at Fenway sports group where he’s part of Liverpool, etcetera. So, then a good example in an investment was TGL, the Golf League, where Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy founded it. And then, yeah, basically, through that fund, I invested with some co investments too, outside of the fund and I’m doing some stuff on my own too. I’m a very big fan of the sport Padell. I don’t know if you heard it about it. 

Russ: Oh, I know it. I know it because I’ve interviewed enough European hockey players and they all play it. And I know it’s played in Florida, too. I don’t know if it’s played in the Dallas area, so I do know about it.  

Maarten: Yeah, especially in Miami and New York right now is popping off. And I just invested in a venture together with Andrea Agassi, Sloan Stevens, Kim Clijsters. So, yeah, alongside them, I invested in a facility in Philadelphia, but they are planning on to expand through throughout the whole U.S.  

Russ: Where is this location? 

Maarten: It’s an old power plant right in the middle of Philly. It is a combination between, I would say, sports technology and CPG, where we, I believe, as athletes can add the most value to, because, yeah, we can use our platforms. And I’m a huge believer in in equity over endorsements. 

Russ: I have an idea what the thinking is behind that, equity over endorsement. I’ve not heard that phrase.  

So, I’m a big believer in being a brand ambassador with skin in the game because, yeah, you can actively push it within your network. For example, I have two and a half million followers on Instagram. 

Russ: Yeah, it’s a few more than me. 

Maarten: Yeah, and on TikTok too. So yeah, if you can show to the world what kind of beautiful products you were invested in or have skin in the game with. I think, yeah, that’s, that’s a major key in that’s something beautiful to do. And it’s also, yeah, a form of personal branding. 

Russ: So how do you get fans who are opposed to FC Dallas to enjoy what you do as far as post and what you invest in and maybe, you know, take your advice. How do you get them to cross over? I mean, I imagine when game is on, they’re booing you, but after the game, how do you work that?  

Maarten: Well, my own fans hopefully don’t boo me. And most of time that goes well. So, the first few years here, I did my homework about the NFL draft, I did my homework about NFL fantasy. I’m now making my own fantasy groups within the NFL. Basically, if you come from Europe to the NFL American sports are kind of new. But I kind of dove into it straight away. I went to NASCAR. It was an interesting experience. Fort Worth stockyards, you know, really want to integrate you into American culture there. I do that with every single adventure that I go on. I want to learn from the cultures. See if I can amplify my own life in a certain way. And I feel that the people sense that that I’ve become one of them, basically. 

Russ: What do you think the difference is between American sports and European sports, just on a broad scale?  

Maarten: I think a big difference is they allow it to be a show here. It flies here because there’s a half time, there’s all these events going on in every single break. There are all these events going on. In the Champions League, for example, in European football, then if there’s a half-time show or pre-time show, it doesn’t get accepted as much. And here, it’s the biggest part of the whole event. If you look at the business side, the marketability of the Super Bowl, for example, if you look at all the commercials, it’s insane. And I think that’s where Europe can learn a lot from it. 

Russ:  If you look at, for example, salary cap situations here where Do you like salary cap or do you not like salary cap?  

Maarten: From a business perspective, I think is genius. From a player’s perspective, from a fans perspective, sometimes you would think, for example, promotion relegation is not here in the U.S., in soccer, but in England, that makes it like really, really exciting until the last moment. I think the salary cap is really fair because basically every team has similar chances to win a championship. It gives more parody, right? 

Russ: It gives more parody. Fans feel like, hey, even if I live in, let’s say, Cleveland, they can compete with a team in New York. That’s why I’ve always felt about it too.But what about baseball? Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap. Have you ventured into like looking at baseball and seeing what that’s like? 

Maarten: Yeah, well, I’ve been lucky enough to throw out the first pitch twice. Yeah, I’ve also been lucky enough to throw a strike?  

Russ: That’s a big thing in this country. If you do well, nobody cares, right? If you don’t do well, then it gets headlines. 

Maarten: Just before you throw it, you get like, you see all these Sportscenter bloopers and you you’re getting like so nervous. if you’re in an arena and you’re not doing something that you daily do, then you get really nervous. But the first time I did it alone, the second time I did it together with a teammate and both of the times it was a good. But I think I’ve also been lucky enough that the Texas Rangers won the championship. That was super fun. And I think that year they invested heavily because they were like a win now team with. I think the pitchers are really important always and they invested some good pitchers. Like Max Scherzer. And yeah, you see it now with Dodgers, with Ohtani. I think that was a super cool series last year with Freddie Freeman. I think baseball, before the pitch clock was there, for me, it was a little bit slow, to be honest. But I think I think that was a really good adjustment and now it goes faster. And like, if you have a good group and you go to baseball and you sing the seventh inning stretch, that’s always fun, but it makes the game more exciting, I believe now. Once it becomes World Series, that’s when it gets really exciting for me. And then all the other sports are, yeah, are super fun. I hope the Cowboys now this year, uh, getting a little bit better, but we’ll see about it. 

Russ: My buddy used to be the guy that ranked NHL players for EA sports, and I looked up your EA sports ranking, and you’re a 71. How do you feel about that?  

Maarten: I think it’s pretty good. I think I’ve been around that rating for a while now. Yeah, it’s decent. Yeah, just consistency, right? That’s the key sometimes right around at 70. My goal is to become above 75 one day. Because then you get a gold card instead of a silver card You as a professional player want to see if you could achieve that in a video game. Yeah, well, that’s one of the things that I know from the video game. I’m not the biggest gamer in the world. When I’m in my downtime, I do something a little bit more chill for my brain. But once I play, I get very competitive. And yeah, I when I was younger, I did the ultimate teams and then you come across it and you know 75 is like the border for becoming gold, so that’s definitely a goal for me. 

Maarten has a bright future in sports and in business.