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Former Portland Timbers player Troy Ready pens "We're PTFC" ballad

Troy Ready last suited up for the Portland Timbers in 2008. Now, Ready is back in uniform, only this time with a guitar in hand.


Ready's ballad, “We're PTFC,” is a tribute to the people – players, coaches, administrators – that helped carry this 2015 Timbers squad into the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs.


After Ready hung up his boots and returned from his years of relief and development work in Tajikistan in Central Asia, he began devoting himself to one of his oldest passions: music.


“I've always been involved in music,” Ready explained. “This is the most official it's ever been as of today. But even when playing, all [my] teammates called me “The Reverend” and at times, leading the warm-ups, I'd sing as we made our way around the field.”


This song, Ready says, is a marriage of his twin passions for music and soccer and a chance to do something creative that could combine the things he learned from his years of playing professional soccer and his love for performing.


“I [recognized] I could potentially put down some creative, sophisticated footballing lyrics in terms of the nuances of who the players are and what they do.”


So on the eve of the Timbers' home playoff match against Sporting Kansas City, give Ready's song a listen and see if you too aren't inspired to chant and sing for your Portland Timbers.


“Who are we?” Ready asks in the song.


“We're PTFC.”