Ten years ago, the Icelandic midfielder was 21, playing for the New York Red Bulls, living across the Hudson from the temptations of Manhattan.
“I probably spent more time in the nightclub than on the pitch,” he said in an interview Thursday, two days before his probable D.C. debut at New England. “Every day was Saturday [night], if I wanted it to be. Soccer was number two; lifestyle was number one.”
Predisposed to addiction because of his family history — both parents had alcohol and drug problems, he said, and his mother died of an overdose two years ago at age 47 — Palsson almost threw away a career that promised to take off upon joining Liverpool FC in 2009.