In 2024, Eli Goldman hung up his boots after a glittering collegiate career at the University of New Hampshire and five seasons with Minneapolis City where we won two NPSL North Conference championships, an NPSL regular season national championship, and led the Crows into USL League Two. He’s the second all-time leading scorer in club history, a club captain, and a fan favorite.
But, eventually, every player’s career comes to a close.
It’s never easy. Especially not for Eli, whose mother had passed away that spring.
“I felt lost. Stuck. I was just 24 years old…”
“I kept trying to put one foot in front of the other” Eli said about that time. “I kept trying to move-and move with people.”
“One of my best friends would pick me up and we’d work out together. Most days, I didn’t want to. A few days, I did. But every day, we moved. And chatted. Most about nothing important. Sometimes about my Mom. Moving together gave us a space to talk.”
And that’s how Eli Goldman started writing the first chapter of his life after soccer.
What started casually had grown to a space in his parents’ garage where more people could gather and move together. A space where it was about more than just the workouts, where it was about the people in the room and the words shared. That had grown too. Eli moved to New York City without a job or a plan; with only a gut feeling that he needed to keep this journey of movement with people going.
He started recording himself in his apartment basement every morning, setting a 30-day movement goal for himself.
That was a good start, but not quite it. He needed to connect with people, he wanted to keep them moving on even their toughest days, and he got people from all over to join in and move together. That was better. But still. Something was missing. It was the conversations, and that is what he does now. He now conducts interviews with people from all walks of life, while they move together, which he documents on his Instagram called, rallywitheli.
It is a way of carrying his Mom’s legacy with him. She was special in how she was able to bring out everyone’s stories, whether her best friends or a cab driver she just met. She brought those stories out in people. Now Eli is carrying that torch.
“There is power in movement. And even more so, there’s power in moving with people” said Eli. “Sometimes we need to be heard. Sometimes we need to listen. Rally is a chance to do both, while we move.”
Rally is something to do together. Like Eli and Rory O’Driscoll, teammates with Eli at Minneapolis City and University of New Hampshire. Rory has spent the past two seasons with Minnesota United 2 and has started his own 30-day challenge to write every day in a Substack newsletter called Rally Words.
“Rally is about space” said Eli. “Space to move, space to talk, space to be vulnerable. For Rory, Rally Words is a space to write and work creative muscles, almost as a white board for exploring his creativity. Already it’s impacted so many people.”
Make sure to follow Eli and Rally.
Subscribe to Rally Words.
And if you’re in New York City, check out the Rally Run Club that meets every Saturday at 11:30 for a run up the West Side Highway.
