From Preston to America’s premier league, the journey of Luke Mulholland.

In 2007 David Beckham shocked the world when he decided to leave the comfort of European soccer and accept an offer with the LA Galaxy. Not far behind him that year was another tattooed midfielder with strong links to north west England, Real Salt Lake’s Luke Mulholland.

“A poor man’s David Beckham, I’ll take that ,” Mulholland says laughing. Unfortunately the similarities between their trajectories end at a shared passion for ink and soccer in the United States. While Beckham made millions and immersed himself inside the LA lifestyle of celebrity parties and Rodeo Drive, Mulholland settled into life in North Carolina at Wingate University.

There he was a member of the men’s soccer team. He had left the comfort of Preston - where Beckham started his career on loan from Manchester United - his friends and family, to search out a life in professional football. “The reason I chose Wingate was because they offered me a 100% scholarship,” Mulholland explains.

The son of a single mum, he’s eager to acknowledge her role in not just his career but fostering the passion of her three football mad boys. “She was the typical Sunday League football mum. She’d be at every game when she didn’t have work. Me and my older brother were close in age so one of us would probably kick off at 11am and the other had a 2pm kick off and she was always there juggling the games. If we kicked off at the same time she’d watch the first half at one match then the second half at another.”

Despite early exposure to the game his talent never saw him at a professional club’s academy. Lancaster City in the Conference North was as high as he reached on England’s football’s pyramid. Juggling school with play, he began saving for a car. “It was a Fiat Punto,” he says laughing as he reminisces about his one-time dream car. “One of my buddies had one and so I think I just wanted to get the same one as him and they were listed for around about £1000 at the time.”

That car budget was quickly transferred to fund his move across the Atlantic. The American Dream was still some distance away with students only permitted to work on campus due to student visa restrictions. That meant options for Mulholland were limited but after noting his team’s need for a kit man he approached his coach and was given the job. That meant every day after training he would finish his session and begin washing the shirts, shorts and socks before neatly hanging them up.

“I was making the big bucks, seven dollars an hour,” he says with a laugh. “I’d come from a hard working background and when I was going to college in Preston I was also working at an indoor and outdoor five-a-side place. I’ve not had anything handed to me on a silver platter.”

Graduating from Wingate into the United Soccer League – America’s third tier - Mulholland began his steady rise up through the system with Wilmington Hammerheads (the one time home of Bournemouth’s Glenn Murray). He then pitched up at NSC Minnesota Stars (now Minnesota United) and again impressed. He was a professional soccer player. Any celebration was cast alongside the uncertainty of the profession. One year contracts are an industry standard in the United States and that can make it impossible to put down roots.

“Not one player I played with on the Wilmington [Hammerheads] team or the Tampa Bay [Rowdies] team had actually bought a house or settled down there just because of the job insecurity,“ Mulholland explains. “The USL is a six month season and you have to be careful with your money as you’ve got to make your money last for the six months you’re not playing. Even going from USL to NASL I was only offered a one-year contract with a one year option based on how I did there [at Minnesota United].”

It can often mean that a player’s post-season is spent working. Coaching is the obvious choice, with Mulholland also using his free time to train and maintain sharpness, taking in spells with Wrexham and the New England Revolution. “I told my agent I’d like to train with a club every time I come home just to keep ticking over and get a feel for what level that I’m at,” he explains.

Mulholland recently bit the bullet and purchased a house in Salt Lake City as he tries to build a future off the field. Mulholland joined RSL from the the Floridian club in 2014 after two impressive seasons that saw him collect his second NASL title and named in the league’s team of the year two years running. Thriving in Tampa he could have easily invested in real estate with the contract offer that was on the table.

“Tampa offered me a contract to stay there, a three-year guaranteed contract with a fourth year option,” he says. “They were offering me six figures to stay there and it was very tempting to go from forty thousand dollars a year to that but I wasn’t playing at the highest level in America and that was always my goal.”

With England’s game against Lithuania on in the background it’s clear Mulholland adores the sport he plays professionally. His love for football began at Cubs and Scouts, where he admits he would sleep in his kit the night before games in case anything went wrong and they were late on the morning of the game. Unfortunately the tradition has not carried over to his RSL kit.

However, his inner-child does come to the fore when he plays against those he grew up watching in the Premier League. He has Robbie Keane’s LA Galaxy shirt signed in his house and he’s still pursuing another midfielder with connections to the north west: “I did ask Steven Gerrard for his shirt the last time we played them,” he says. “Unfortunately he said he promised it to someone else.”

However the laughing stops when the 27 year old reflects on the season. It’s been a tough one for RSL; a side that historically have been play-off certainties. Needing some favours from fellow teams to jump from 9th to 6th, there remains a six point gap between RSL and the Portland Timbers side that beat them on Wednesday night, “It’s been a tough season we’ve not been able to put together more than two wins in a row,” Mulholland says. “We’ve not been able to find that form that we’ve been so used to. Also the Western Conference that we play in has been notoriously stronger than the Eastern Conference. If you look at the table 10 points separates the team at the top and us and we’re second from bottom.”

With his eye firmly focused on the end of the season, Mulholland knows his future is in Salt Lake City, Utah. If the purchase of a house was not hint enough, he is now looking to discuss an extension with the club in the off-season. “I feel happy and settled here and that’s important to me,” he says before joking he will spend this off-season in the weight room bulking up.

He may need that should he ever challenge for a header with a goal-post again. A clip that gained Mulholland considerably internet fame, his full on jump into the goal frame also showed something else. “I think it shows I’m a very committed player to the team,” he says chuckling.

It took Beckham five years to win his first MLS Cup with LA Galaxy. Despite taking a less glamorous route to success in America than Beckham, the hard-working and humble midfielder from Preston now has a chance to see their two stories intertwine once more, some 3,800 miles away from Preston where both men’s careers began.