'Super Sam' - the Englishman battling Messi for Golden Boot

In the end it wasn't the Grizzlies, the Titans or the Predators who clinched the first professional sports championship for a team from the state of Tennessee, but Nashville Soccer Club and the Englishman affectionately dubbed 'Super Sam'.

Sam Surridge's winning goal in US Open Cup final earlier this month was just one of 29 he has scored in all competitions this season.

On Sunday, the 27-year-old will continue his quest to deliver further success in a city more renowned for its country music than sporting prowess.

Surridge is currently third in Major League Soccer's (MLS) top scorer race with 23 goals, battling it out for the Golden Boot with Inter Miami's Lionel Messi (26) and LAFC's Denis Bouanga (24).

Argentina legend Messi - and a Miami squad also including Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Rodrigo de Paul - visit Nashville in the final regular season game as both jostle for their seeding in the MLS Cup play-offs.

"Midway into the season I was leading it and Messi caught up," says a smiling Surridge, whose family and friends in the UK have kept a keen eye on the Golden Boot tussle. "He had a good spell where he scored five doubles in five games.

"It is great because he has an unbelievable goalscoring record. It has been nice to go toe-to-toe with him, and you have Denis Bouanga as well. It's nice to have that three-horse race now. We are all putting in really good seasons.

"It might come down to the final game, which will be interesting for everyone. At the same time, I have got my head switched on for what I need to do and I am not thinking about that too much."

With NBA's Memphis Grizzlies a three-hour drive away, the sporting culture in Nashville has tended to revolve around American football and ice hockey.

The city is home to NFL team Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators of the NHL, who Surridge enjoys watching.

"It is pretty intense," he explains, having been to several games. "The way they play, they're a different kind of humans - these big guys that will smash each other."

But buoyed by their US Open Cup success, Surridge says Nashville is also becoming a "soccer city".

The football club - whose chief executive officer Ian Ayre previously held the same role at Liverpool - was only founded nine years ago, joining MLS in 2020. Their purpose-built Geodis Park holds just over 30,000 fans - Miami's visit on Sunday will be one of the season's most sought-after tickets.

"A lot of people like their sports in general," says Surridge. "They will go watch the NFL, NHL and soccer. They love it here. I have seen it grow and the Lionel Messi-effect definitely helps.

"It is a lot more of an occasion in America. They want to be entertained, which is great because at the end of the day that's what we do.

"We are fortunate to get a lot of fans at our stadium, but a lot of clubs change stadiums when Inter Miami come. It is a massive occasion for the football club."

Surridge expects next summer's World Cup in North America will boost football's profile in the USA further, but he is concerned about the heat - Nashville often train at 8am before it gets too hot.

"It's going to be really difficult for players to adjust to the heat," he adds. "You saw it in the Club World Cup, where teams couldn't even train because it was so hot and it is not easy.

"I cannot imagine what playing at 3pm in the middle of the day will be like. You get your water breaks, but that just doesn't help at all.

"It is going to be a lot slower. You don't want to lose the ball and be running around for half an hour trying to get it back in the heat."

Surridge's journey has taken him on a rather different path to that of the 38-year-old icon he is trying to track down.

Messi had just won a fourth Champions League and the fifth of his eight Ballon d'Or prizes when Surridge was sent out on loan by Bournemouth to Weymouth in the Southern League as a 17-year-old.

He continued to learn his trade with loan spells at Poole, Yeovil, Oldham and then Swansea City before breaking through with the Cherries in the Championship in 2020-21, moving to Stoke City and then Nottingham Forest in January 2022.

The striker scored seven times as Steve Cooper's side earned promotion to the Premier League that season, but only one of his 20 top-flight appearances the following term came as a start.

"I look at coming from Weymouth, then Poole Town, Yeovil, Oldham and all these clubs that I played for when I was younger - they all gave me that grounding," adds Surridge, who joined Nashville in July 2023.

"I learned a lot there. It put me in good stead for playing in America because they have probably not experienced the way I played. Even though it was hard going out on loan when I was younger, it has stood me in good stead now."

On competing with Messi, he says: "It is amazing. At the same time, I want to keep the journey going. I know I'm not at my peak yet. I have got so much that I need to keep learning.

"Since I have been in America, I have learned a lot about my game and what I want to improve on."

Surridge's Forest exit came during a summer in which the Premier League outfit brought in 14 players. Nashville presented a fresh opportunity and paid around £5m to make him one of their designated players.

"I wanted to go and play. I wanted to try something different," he explains. "I felt like I wanted a different challenge. Nashville gave me that opportunity when they said, 'here is the number nine shirt, you come do the business for us'.

"I feel like I have repaid their faith. That is what I've wanted from a team. I had it in spells in my career, but for this amount of time I've not really experienced that.

"Now I have got it, it will take a lot to want to move on from that. So I'm very happy."

Surridge has found confidence and calmness in Nashville, a place he enjoys calling home with his fiancee, young son and their dog.

That has transcended into the most prolific season of his career, with 29 goals in 36 games - almost double his previous best of 15 in 32 appearances last term.

"Experience and age helps," he explains. "I've carried on working hard. As you get older you get more experience and when in front of goal you are a lot more calm.

"That security of having the backing of a club that want to play me every week definitely helps as well. I know what I need, and I know what I want from a club and players now."

You won't find him on Broadway or in the city's famous honky-tonk music bars. "Definitely not my cup of tea," he says with a laugh. But Surridge would recommend the Nashville area to anyone considering a move to MLS.

"I love it and it is perfect. Nashville as a place is brilliant for us as a family," says the Slough-born forward.

"We have enjoyed travelling and seeing different parts of America. We are fortunate to live here in a good city, it's definitely made that easier."