Golden Boy - Louis Rees-Zammit

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people, so when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over one billion professionals, including 130 million decision makers, and that's where it stands apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company, role, seniority, skills, company revenue, so you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. It's why LinkedIn ads generate the highest B2B return on ad spend of major ad networks. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash broadcast. That's LinkedIn.com slash broadcast. Terms and conditions apply. This podcast is sponsored by Pocket Hose. I got to tell you, being a homeowner, there's so many things you have to think about all the time. For example, I have to replace my hoses every single year, because they're weak, they get tangled, and there's kinks. Then I found the Pocket Hose Ballistic.

1:02This is the upgrade I've been looking for for a long time, man. It's reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bullet profess. You know what that means? No kinks, it's not going to get tangled. It also comes with this pocket pivot, which gives you total freedom of movement, and the spigot has like a 360 degree rotation, which is pretty cool. There's also this upgraded UV coating they added for free, so your hose basically looks brand new all the time. Right now, when you get the new Pocket Hose Ballistic, you'll get a free 360 degree rotating pocket pivot, and a free thumb drive nozzle. Go to pockethose.com slash podcast. That's pockethose.com slash podcast. For your two free gifts with purchase, pockethose.com slash P-O-D-C-A-S-T. Hello, I hope you're enjoying this podcast. Before we get back into it, here's another BBC Sound Series you might like. It's called Golden Boy, Lewis Resummit. It starts with a global rugby star, leaving the game to chase an NFL dream, but this story becomes something much, much bigger.

2:04It's a look at celebrity in modern sport, the pull of America, and what Lewis Resummit's decision says about Wales and rugby right now. Here's a quick tease for you. There was a time when proud Welsh people finished our day's work. Pulled on their boots. And ran through walls for their village. They were local heroes. You could still chop for them down the pub. But this is 2026. Gen Z, they don't pub. Life is online, and our beloved sport struggles to get the grips with this new age. There is though one man who was made for this moment. Lewis Resummit! Oh yes! He's 25, scarily fast, a social media sensation. He's not just a golden boy. He could have been Welsh rugby's golden goose.

3:05Then, he quit the game to chase a very different kind of egg. The Wales that we hear, Lewis Resummit, is leaving rugby union with immediate event to play American football in the United States. Yes, the golden boy was gone. Until, the political sun returned. And what a time to come back. We knew all along that the success of the world's side of the last decade or two has paper over cracks. As the NFL plans world domination. So the NFL has made some distance to the number one sport in the US. Is our national sport in its final quarter? Honestly, I find rugby a bit boring sometimes though. And if it is, our players with star power like Lewis Resummit, the hail Mary it needs to survive and even thrive. When I entered this lift, I was off to pitch a podcast about Vincent Tan and I was pumped.

4:06Mixed reactions from Cardiff City fans as the bluebirds go red to get into the black. But then the big wigs blow my idea out of the water. They didn't want to part about Tan. They wanted to part about the most exciting player in well-struck B. Resummit over the line scoring again. And the only Tan in this pod, the one Lewis picked up in Florida. When the fans heard about this new project, they were full of encouragement. I don't need to listen to anything about Louis Resummit because I already know everything about it. But you know me, I love the challenge. So I set off on a quest. I've got nothing to say. To try and understand not only what makes Lewis Resummit tick. But also what his rise, departure and return mean within the context of well-struck B. And more than that, what if anything does his personal journey tell us about culture and the place of Wales

5:08in a globalised world? Of course, you might just end up being about a quick bloke who's good at rugby. I've got a sneaky suspicion. It's way more important than that. Last golden boy, Louis Resummit, listen to the full series now on BBC Sounds. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. So when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, including 130 million decision makers. And that's where it stands apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company, role, seniority, skills, company revenue. So you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. It's why LinkedIn ads generate the highest B2B return on ad spend of major ad networks. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get $250 credit for the next one.

6:08Just go to LinkedIn.com slash broadcast. That's LinkedIn.com slash broadcast. Terms and conditions apply.