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By the way, I helped to create this newsletter with Wispr Flow. They've just become a partner of the overseas athlete, and I thought I'd share the link. It's been a big, big help this week for me.
Good morning,
Before the next chapter starts, a look back at three of the people who built this one.
All three play the same sport. None of them played it in the same place.
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Nine Countries, One Frozen Card
Jori Davis. Thirteen years as a professional basketballer. Nine countries.
She landed in Israel at 21 with no local bank account. Her American card was frozen the day she arrived. No one had told her it would be, and no one had set up an alternative.
That is the moment that explains the whole episode. A professional athlete, a real contract, and a first week defined not by basketball but by not being able to access her own money.
She went on to play across nine countries and eventually built a platform to fix the exact gaps in athlete support that nobody filled for her.
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Egypt. In Africa. Who Knew.
Bridie Kennedy-Hopoate. Brisbane kid. Hip surgery at sixteen. Signed her first professional contract in Egypt without realising Egypt was in Africa.
It is a funny line. It is also the whole point. Nobody prepares a young athlete for what signing overseas actually means. The geography, the cash contracts, the life logistics. You find out on arrival.
Bridie's episode is the honest version of what professional basketball looks like when the highlight reel stops.
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A Job Because Kobe's Dad Said No
Travis McAvene. Twenty-six years coaching. Eight countries.
He got his first overseas head coaching job in Taiwan because Kobe Bryant's father pulled out at the last minute. That is how thin the line is between the career you build and the one that never starts.
Travis is the long view. Decades of contracts in multiple currencies, the real pay numbers nobody publishes, and what staying in the game for that long actually costs and pays.
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One Australian player. One American player. One American coach.
Thirty countries between them.
That is what this podcast has always been. Real people, real careers, and the parts nobody warns you about.
And on Sunday, the next chapter begins.
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What I Actually Do
While we look back at the podcast, here is the other side of my week.
Four people reached out to me. Four completely different situations.
A footballer moving to Vietnam.
A property developer in the UK who buys and sells in Dubai.
A China to Dubai property deal.
A footballer with money stuck in a sanctioned country.
Different countries. Different currencies. Different problems. Not one of them a simple transfer from A to B.
That is what has changed. People do not just come to me to move money. They come because the situation is complicated and they need someone who will go and find the answer, or point them to the person who has it.
That is the work. Not the easy ones. The ones nobody else wants to untangle.
I went deeper on one currency pair this week. The GBP to AED move, and what it means if you are earning in one and spending in the other.
[Read the full breakdown here]
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Before you go
If you have a cross-border money problem that does not have an obvious answer, that is exactly the kind of thing I want to hear about.
New episodes launch this Sunday, May 24.
Thanks for reading.
Chris