Syed Rashid | The Invincibles Shirt, Arteta's Arsenal and the Technology Giving Blind Patients Their Sight Back cover art

Syed Rashid | The Invincibles Shirt, Arteta's Arsenal and the Technology Giving Blind Patients Their Sight Back

Syed Rashid | The Invincibles Shirt, Arteta's Arsenal and the Technology Giving Blind Patients Their Sight Back

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Syed Rashid brought an Arsenal shirt to the table. The O2 home kit from the 2003-04 Invincibles season - the last time Arsenal were champions of England. He hasn't worn it since 15th May 2004. That conversation was filmed before Arsenal reached the Champions League final and went top of the Premier League with two games to play.

Syed is Vice President of Worldwide Market Access and Government Affairs at Samsara Vision, working to bring a groundbreaking implantable telescope to patients with late stage age-related macular degeneration. His job is to convince health authorities around the world to fund technology that gives blind people their sight back. Faces. Words. Hobbies they gave up years ago. The world, coming back into focus.

In episode four of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits down with Syed to talk about Arsenal, leadership and what the game teaches you about bringing people with you.

They start in 1979. Syed grew up two miles from Wembley watching the FA Cup final on a black and white TV. Alan Sunderland scores in the fifth minute of injury time and a guy with a big afro becomes the reason Syed follows Arsenal for the next 45 years.

In the second half he talks about influencing without authority - getting people to cross the line of their own free will when you're not their line manager. About leading global teams at Sanofi, Abbott and Johnson and Johnson. About what Wenger's transformation of Arsenal tells you about building culture, and what Arteta's journey tells you about backing a vision when everyone around you is losing patience.

Jim reveals he owns a Freddie Ljungberg away shirt from the same Invincibles season, signed by the entire squad, that he wore under his jacket to feel invincible in meetings. They might be the only two people on the planet who understand exactly what the other means.

The result neither of them will ever get over? Barcelona 2006. Turns out it's Jim's too.

Football for Breakfast is presented by OSS Security.

Cafes. Clubs. Communities. Culture.

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