Sam Surridge comes into his own with Nashville SC | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

Sam Surridge is a fairly laid-back sort and not known as a big talker. One of Nashville SC’s team-building exercises at the start of the year required the English striker to deviate from that norm, however – the reasons for which are rather revealing.

"You got to ask this guy how many different clubs he's played for,” his teammate Alex Muyl noted this week.

“We do a thing in preseason where we talk about our journey, and he spent the first five minutes just listing clubs that he's been at.”

Well-traveled pathway

Surridge rose through the academy at his hometown side, AFC Bournemouth, as the Cherries soared from lower-division obscurity into Premier League overachievers. The club’s explosive growth complicated his path to first-team minutes, and he always craved match action and the lessons it offered.

So off he went on a series of loan stints that would make him the player he is, starting when he was still a schoolboy.

"I came through [at Bournemouth], they produced me and gave me my Premier League debut, and for that, I'll always be obviously thankful,” Surridge explained in a one-on-one conversation with MLSsoccer.com. “But I'd say a lot of my footballing knowledge that I've learned has come from the lower leagues, from going out on loan.”

His first ventures plunked him into the humble setting of ‘non-league football’ at Weymouth and Poole Town, nearby teams competing at the seventh tier of the English soccer pyramid, where the country’s rough-and-tumble traditions live on, testing a teenager’s body and mind alike.

"I built myself up," he said. “I went to the Conference [League], but I scored my goals there. I went to League Two twice, built myself up again, then went to the Championship, just constantly trying to score goals at each level to try and prove yourself, that you can be playing for Bournemouth.

"It was almost like, you play a few games, get sent out again. Play a few games, get sent out again. But at the same time, I wanted to do that, because I wanted to go play football. I didn't want to just be happy sitting, not playing. I think that's important for any player.

"If you're not playing, I think you need to be out there playing and showing what you can do … It doesn't matter what level.”

As he developed, he moved along to higher levels, roaming further and further from his family’s home along the south coast: Yeovil Town, then Oldham Athletic, where his goals in EFL League Two (fourth division) earned him a recall to Bournemouth and his EPL debut at age 20. Finally, a spell at Welsh outfit Swansea City in the English Championship (second division) earned him another recall, proving to him, AFCB and other clubs alike that he was ready for prime time.

"When you play against men in, say, League Two, and it's not easiest when you're going away and you're 19, 20 and you've got to try and grind out a win, and it's wet and it's rainy,” said Surridge. “I think that was important for me, where I learned that from a young age, and it hopefully shows now where I've got that experience of trying to grind out wins, and it just comes more natural.

"It's definitely a different pathway, I'd say, to what a lot of other players do. But it's one that I think has put me in good stead now, because I've experienced loads of different types of football.”

From England to MLS elite

It’s quite a long way from that decidedly unglamorous tour of English soccer’s heartland to the top of the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race, and Saturday’s primetime visit to Lionel Messi and star-studded Inter Miami CF (7:45 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+; FS1, FOX Deportes).

After knocking off the Philadelphia Union, 1-0, last week to nudge ahead of them in the table, Surridge and Nashville travel to Chase Stadium with ambitions of banking a second straight statement win.

"It's definitely a bigger game,” said Surridge. “Philly on Saturday was a massive game. I think that was probably our biggest game this season, and we've come away winners of it, and I think we can definitely now take that into Miami.

"Since I've been at the club, we haven't beaten Miami. So hopefully next Saturday now we can carry on.”

Beyond league results, IMCF edged NSH on penalties in the Leagues Cup 2023 final just a few weeks after Surridge’s arrival, then knocked them off again in last year’s Concacaf Champions Cup. Though Messi and the Herons have four games in hand on Nashville and the other four teams ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings, thanks to their involvement in the Club World Cup, it’s Surridge, not the GOAT, who currently leads MLS in scoring with 16 goals.

Ten of those were scored in Nashville’s last seven matches, a torrid run that’s also powered the Coyotes into trophy contender status amid an ongoing 15-game unbeaten streak across all competitions. NSH sit just one point back of Supporters’ Shield leaders FC Cincinnati in the overall table and surged into the semifinals of the US Open Cup via Wednesday night’s 5-2 comeback win over D.C. United, paced by a brace from Surridge.

Sam Surridge: Most underrated striker in MLS?!

Star level unlocked

After a slow burn to start his time in MLS, the 6-foot-2 forward has well and truly caught fire, striking up the prolific partnership with playmaker Hany Mukhtar that Nashville’s leadership envisioned when they paid a reported $6.5 million fee to sign him from Nottingham Forest two years ago.

"Sam is someone who works on his game a ton,” NSH head coach B.J. Callaghan said this week. “That's a really important attribute to him. Him scoring goals is a byproduct of how much he works at scoring goals and learning how to position himself, and make runs in the penalty boxes and read spaces and the defense.

"He's got a really good level of self-awareness about himself as to where he prefers to score from, and then collectively as a group, the group has responded in setting him up and setting Hany up.”

It’s night and day from last season, when the Coyotes slumped to a 13th-place finish (36 points, 9W-16L-9D), four points out of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs places, and Callaghan is a chief reason why. The former US men’s national team assistant has overseen a drastic stylistic shift from his predecessor Gary Smith’s defense-first approach since taking the reins a year ago, producing proactive soccer that’s been effective and easy on the eyes.

It seems to be drawing the best out of their No. 9.

"The way we’re being asked to play, it's very different from when I first joined,” he said. “It’s what I wanted to come over and do, play in this sort of free-flowing football which we're playing at the moment. Obviously, I'm really enjoying it, and I just want to keep that going, really.

"Anyone who can watch us sees just a completely different team from when I first joined.”

That slow, methodical climb through England’s lower divisions taught Surridge how to persist; enduring Nashville’s poor 2024 before reaching his current prosperity must’ve been straightforward by comparison.

"I think that's made him strong mentally,” said Muyl. “This is probably the longest he's been in one place since he’s been a pro, and you can see that he's becoming more comfortable and more calm, just more steady within the group. And I think that's probably where you're seeing a lot of the dividends.

"He's had time to really get comfortable here and to figure it out.”

Planting roots

How did Surridge wind up deep in the American South, though?

Reaching the rarified air of the EPL is a lifelong dream for millions around the world. Yet after so much hard work to get there – Surridge helped Forest end a 23-year exile from the top flight via the 2022 Championship playoffs – a year later, he decided to try something completely different: becoming a Designated Player at one of MLS’s youngest clubs.

"I came off a season where I wasn't playing that much, but I still got the 20 to 30 appearances in the Premier League,” said Surridge, who was still just 24 at the time. “I could have stayed in England, maybe go somewhere else in Europe. But I think coming to MLS, I saw that Messi had just joined the league. It was still a growing league, you see lots of big players come in to sign there, and definitely after the World Cup, I think there'll be more and more big players joining.

"I wanted to be a part of that … I'm definitely pleased that I did.”

By most cultural and lifestyle measures, Tennessee’s capital city is a drastic shift from England, and Surridge’s MLS learning curve was made steeper by his midseason arrival. Yet he and his partner, Laura, have made Music City their home: He popped the question last summer, and in December they welcomed their first child, Noah Phillip Surridge, into the world.

"It was definitely a culture shock or change, or whatever you want to call it. It's definitely different from what I was used to, but it's a nice different,” said Surridge. “I’ve created a family here, my partner's enjoying it, and I think we're just enjoying kind of embracing everything that's been thrown at us. And it is obviously a lot to take on. We're still a young family, and it's not easy changing countries. But I think, yeah, we've taken it all in our stride and now, I think it's just showing on the pitch as well. Because I think when you're happy off it, you're happy on the pitch.”

The city’s steadily grown more comfortable for them and their loved ones; both sides of the family enjoy visiting from across the pond to help out with the new baby. And it’s worth noting, perhaps, that in 2023 Surridge was named one of “Nashville’s Most Beautiful People” by a local publication.

"It's pretty boring, to be fair. I can't lie. We're not the most exciting, preferably just getting home and going for coffees,” said Surridge, whose daily go-to is a flat white. “We're not partiers. I know Nashville and Broadway is known for that, but we're not that type of couple.

"Just kind of getting into a routine of your daily life out here and what it's going to look like, it's been a massive part for me. Just having that stability, because I think with Nashville now this is the longest I've been at a club," he added. "It's definitely having that stability and that confidence from the club that they put in you, and I think hopefully I'm giving that back to them as well."

Surridge’s blistering form has drawn attention back in Britain, which sooner or later tends to spark chatter on the transfer marketplace. It would take something special to turn his head in that direction, though. Especially as NSH edge further towards hoisting hardware, which, as Callaghan and his staff have pointed out to the squad, would make them the first pro sports team in Tennessee to win a major honor.

"I'm definitely happy at the moment in Nashville," said Surridge. “I’m settled, and it's going to take a lot for me to change that, because this is what I've wanted in my career. I've wanted that faith from a club, and so it'll take a lot for me to give that up.

"I just want to keep doing well with the team, and I want to win something with Nashville. I think that's the main thing. Since I've come here, I've wanted, [and] our goal, is to win as a club. … This season, we've definitely got the tools to do it."

Nashville SC: Sam Surridge surges into Golden Boot lead