Young
Soccer Stars are an Old Story
by
Roger Allaway
In February, Josy Altidore became
the youngest player ever to score a goal for
the United States national
team, when he headed the ball into the net against
Mexico exactly three months after his 18th birthday.
Altidore was not the only 18-year-old in the United
States lineup that night, as he was joined by Freddy
Adu, five months his senior. Very young stars have
become something of a theme in American soccer
in recent years. Besides Altidore and Adu, Landon
Donovan,
DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey all have made
their national-team debuts before their 20th birthday.
Other teenagers playing for MLS teams have included
Eddie Gaven, Mike Magee and Eddie Johnson.
It
would be easy to believe that this trend is something
new in American soccer, that it is a result of
the growth of the sport and the fact that more young
Americans are taking an interest in soccer than
ever before. While that growth and that interest are real,
it nevertheless is true that American soccer prodigies
are not a new phenomenon. Here are some earlier
ones, in reverse chronological order.
Claudio Reyna: In 1991, when he was 18 years and
one month old, Reyna was a member of the United
States team that won the Pan-American Games title in Cuba.
A year later, after playing for the United States
in the Olympics in Spain, he was offered a contract
by the famous Barcelona club, but decided to
stay at the University of Virginia.
Chris Henderson: The future MLS star was 19 years
and six months old when he was a member of the
United States team at the 1990 World Cup, two months after
making his national-team debut in a friendly
against Iceland.
Kasey Keller: The longtime national-team goalkeeper
was 19 years and 10 months old when he won the
1989 most valuable player award in the Western Soccer
League, a predecessor of the A-League and one
of the two top leagues in the country at the time.
Mike Windischmann: The man
who captained the United States at the 1990 World
Cup saw his soccer
career
ended by injuries soon afterward. However, it
had begun early, too. Windischmann was a week
short of his 19th birthday when he made his national-team
debut against Ecuador in Hempstead, N.Y., on
Nov. 30, 1984.
Tab Ramos: The future national-team star was 17
when he was drafted by the New York Cosmos of the
NASL
in 1984. He opted to go to college instead and
never played for the Cosmos, who folded the following year.
Hugo Perez: The midfielder got an early start
on the pro career that took him to clubs in North
America, Europe, Asia and Central America, as well as 10 years
in the U.S. national team. When Perez made his
debut for the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL in 1982, he
was 18 years and five months old.
Rick Davis: The captain of the U.S. national
team through most of the 1980s made his national-team
debut on Sept. 15, 1977 against El Salvador and
scored a goal in that game. He was 18 years and 10 months
old, and in his freshman year at Santa Clara.
He
played only one season at Santa Clara before
turning pro with the New York Cosmos in 1978.
Miro Rys: A forgotten man now, but once the great
future hope of American soccer. Rys, who was
born in Czecholsovkia but grew up in Chicago, made
his
debut for the Chicago Sting of the NASL in 1976,
when he was 18 years and nine months old. Six
months later, he scored a goal for the United States
in
a World Cup qualifier against Canada. In 1977,
he signed with Hertha Berlin and was set to become the
first American to play in the first division
in West Germany. However, on his second day in
Germany, he
was killed in a car accident.
Ringo Cantillo: A pro soccer career wasn't part
of the plan when Julio "Ringo" Cantillo
came to Cincinnati from Costa Rica in 1970 as a
high school
exchange student. That quickly changed. He was
only 16 years old in 1972 when, playing for the
Cincinnati
Comets of the American Soccer League, he won the
first of his three ASL most valuable player awards.
He went on to play seven seasons in the NASL and,
after he became an American citizen, played 11
games for the U.S. national team.
Walter Bahr: The most famous of Philadelphia
players has had a long and varied career in American
soccer, including
a World Cup, six American Soccer League titles
and decades of high school and college coaching
success.
It all started quite young. When Bahr made his
ASL debut with the Philadelphia Nationals on Dec.
5,
1943, he was 16 years and eight months old. He
played as an amateur with the semi-pro Nationals
for the
next five years, while also playing for Northeast
High School and Temple, before finally turning
pro after the 1948 Olympic Games.
Billy Gonsalves: The biggest star of the first
two American World Cup teams not only was one of
the
most famous of American soccer players, he also
was one of the longest lasting. He was 19 plus a few
months when he made his debut in the American
Soccer League with the Boston Wonder Workers in
the fall
of 1927, and his career actually had begun a
year before when he joined Lusitania Recreation
of Cambridge,
Mass., a leading amateur club. That career lasted
until he was 43.
Archie Stark: Possibly the greatest goalscorer
American soccer has ever produced was born in Scotland
in
1897 and came to the United States when he
was 12. He was 17 years and three months old, playing
for
the Kearny (N.J.) Scots-Americans of his adopted
hometown when he scored the winning goal of
the 1915 American Football Association Cup, a decade
before
his peak years as the star of the Bethlehem
Steel team. |
