Editorial – After what seemed like a ridiculously long wait for visa paperwork, Colorado Rapids fans should see Rob Holding’s debut in Burgundy (or arctic night onyx) this weekend in Kansas City as the Pids take on Sporting KC.
Rob joins Paxten Aaronson, Rafael Santos, and even Daouda Amadou in an influx of new Rapids as of late. That unfamiliarity with key additions could give Colorado a leg up heading into the playoff stretch, says Holding. “There’s three players that haven’t played so they don’t know how they’re going to play. It’s going to be interesting to see and hopefully we can catch some teams by surprise.”
He likes what he sees from his new teammates now that he’s been involved in full trainings and not running around mannequins and stuck on the Teqball table off to the side.
“What they’ve achieved so far with such a young group, with a few little pieces added with Paxten added, myself, a little bit older and experienced, and you’ve got the young lads here who can learn from that. The enthusiasm is there and once you’ve got the enthusiasm you can channel a lot into the right areas. The fact that the lads want to learn means that we can do good things.”
When Rob was a youngster himself in Manchester, he remembers always having a football around to kick with his dad, grandad, or friends from a very young age. “From as early as I can remember, I was out in the back garden playing football, just kicking the ball to each other. It was just always what we were doing.”
“We’d go shopping to the supermarket and I’d take a football with me. I’d be dribbling it behind my mum, who was pushing the trolley in and out of the aisles, I just always had a football with me.”
“I remember when I was 15, 16 and I was leaving high school, and it was what I was going to get paid to do and thought, ‘oh my gosh, it’s actually not just a hobby anymore. I’m actually earning money for this’. So that’s when I started to realize this could be my career. I never knew what heights I’d get to. I always aspired to great things, but I’m definitely happy with how my career’s gone so far and what I’ve achieved.”
As well he should be looking at his CV so far in the England. Three years in the senior team at Bolton Wanderers after being in their academy from the age of 7, 8 years at the highest levels in London winning FA Cups, Community Shields, and European experience at Arsenal, and most recently a stint with Crystal Palace on loan with Sheffield United and a promotion battle.
All of this experience has shaped Rob into a bit of a leader on the pitch and in the training room, as well as a solid teammate at every level he’s been. “It’s just kind of come to me, even when I was a kid at Bolton in the younger groups that, ‘you’re the leader, you’re the captain of the team’, was always just thrown upon me. I’m never going to say I don’t want to do it, it’s just natural. I’m not going to shy away from it. If anything, it gives you more confidence.”
Watch him play or train, and you’ll usually see a calmness or smile on Rob’s face indicating he really does love to play the game. “It’s all I’ve ever known being around a team environment,” he tells Burgundy Wave. “I grew up in an all-boys school that was just sport-oriented so it was just every day with a group of lads having laughter and banter, joking.”
“I just love going in seeing the guys, having a laugh here and there, doing the work, being serious at the right times. If someone’s not doing it, I think I have that relationship with players where because we’re good friends, I can say ‘you need to do this on the football pitch’ and them not be offended by it because they know I’ll be going into the canteen later and we’ll be cracking jokes and laughing and it’s not that we won’t be speaking to each other all day because I said ‘you did a bad pass on the pitch’. I generate these relationships where you can have that sort of interactions and it’ll be ok.”
As far as what Rob brings to the Rapids as a defender, he explains he’s probably closer to a true centre back, however don’t let that fool you. He can thread a through ball or start a counter attack with the best of them.
“Defensively, my reputation is being an old-school defender defending the box and puts his body on the line, blocks shots – a true centre back – clears headers, just like a real protector of the goal. But also, I like to have vision and find passes, split the lines, make the team start the attack.”
His journey to Commerce City may seem an odd one to MLS critics, or Premier League purists, but Holding has had an affinity for life in the USA for a while now. The opportunity opened up, but he says it was his conversations with Rapids President Pádraig Smith and Head Coach Chris Armas that really showed him Colorado was the destination right now.
“It was definitely from the very first Zoom call I had with the club and the gaffer (Armas). I just liked the enthusiasm the coach has, and his intensity, I really liked it straightaway. How him and Pádraig talked about me and how they see me coming into the team made me feel like I was in a place where I’d be really wanted.”
“The way the gaffer spoke, it was a conversation with me and him, and I thought I could definitely come play for this gaffer. Everything he’s saying, I’m on board with. That leads to everyone involved in it, it brings the standards up in training, everyone is switched on because it’s so intense. That’s something that we’ll take in the long run.”
Rob also admits he had some influence from friends already in the league who spoke highly enough that he didn’t hesitate heading Stateside to continue his playing career. “My friend Johathan Bond played on the (LA) Galaxy and now he plays for Houston Dynamo. He’s a good friend of mine. We’d always go and have lads holidays in the summer where it was him and a group of my mates. He always knows I loved
American and always wanted to come out here to play. He was just like, ‘you’ll love it’.”
Rob is settling into his new home pretty well, he says, after an initial trip to Red Rocks a couple years back really left an impact on him. “For me, it’s a lot better than it was in England. The weather is great, I know you have different seasons here, which is going to be nice. I’m looking forward to Fall.”
“Everyone’s very outdoorsy and wants to go out and socialize, it’s something I’m looking forward to. I went up to Evergreen with my Dad, because he came out for about a week helping me with furniture. We went around the lake, and had a day there, it was beautiful. There’s a nice little golf course there so I’ll be sure to get that in.”
Rob has also taken to the city of Denver since his arrival a few weeks ago, enjoying exploring the downtown area as well as a bit of time away from the spotlight of a Premier League player in London.
“I’ve done the Rockies a few times now. Nice evening – I’d just sit at home but all my mates are asleep back home, middle of the night – so I’ll just go down to the game, walk around and get some food, have a beer depending when training is. I’m looking forward to going to a Broncos game, Nuggets game, Avalanche game, they’re the three I’ve got to do.”
Expanding his golf game is something Holding has made a goal of his as he finds things to keep him busy off the pitch. There’s a pretty good group of Rapids teammates that hit the links often enough that he should be able to find a round easy enough.
“My dad brought my clubs out last week. A few of the boys play, Keegan (Rosenberry), Ollie (Larraz), Noah (Cobb) played yesterday, Zach (Steffen) played, Nico (Hansen) played. I’m think I’m more on the level of Zach and Nico, the way they were talking because they said they weren’t doing that great, so I’ll play with them.”
Music is another of Rob’s interests away from the football pitch. In addition to teaching himself guitar recently, he also took up a bit on the piano while he was with Arsenal even taking to entertaining his squad on one occasion. “During Covid, I bought a piano just to do something different and I learned ‘Someone You Loved’ by Lewis Capaldi,” he proudly explains. “Then we won the FA Cup and we had a little private bubble party at the hotel in London. We had a piano in there so I went on and did it, but it wasn’t the best performance, we’d had a few beers by then,” he laughed.
Granted, Holding’s contract only runs through the 2026 season, but with some success, patience, and maybe some nice Colorado weather, who knows? However long that stint, Rob has been a part of club resurgences, notably at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, and knows that the positive build is more of a long-distance thing rather than a spring, and one the Rapids are on in his eyes. “Everyone wants it in an instant, you go on your phone and order anything, but something take a bit longer. When you’re managing 24 personalities on a football pitch it doesn’t happen overnight.”
“I’ve seen that first hand at Arsenal when Arteta came in. The first 2-3 years we won a trophy (2020 FA Cup over Chelsea with Rob starting) during the Covid season and then it took a while. We had a bit of a down year, but we started to build the team with his plan and the last three years have been challenging for the title.”
As the Rapids head into their last six regular-season matches, they sit in 7th out West, and this playoff push will not be easy. However, Holding has been involved that kind of pressure as of late and can hopefully help keep the team emotion in check while also playing with a bit of an edge.
“Last summer with Sheffield United we got to the final of the playoffs and lost. Again, we talk about experience and going through that, it’s high stakes, the richest game in football, so that’s something.”
With three games at home, three away from Colorado, the Rapids need to call on all of that experience in navigating above the playoff line and then it’s a whole new tournament.
Photo Credit: Visionhaus/Getty Images
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Matt Pollard 
Spencer Baldwin 