The North American Soccer League NASL (1968-1984) is often portrayed as a circus of elderly people who have run away from home, especially in the British media, who have always scoffed at NASL.
According to Kinalia's biography, the former Italian national team member who grew up in Wales, who won the Serie A Golden Boot and led Lazio to a Serie A victory and also represented Italy in the World Cup, joined NASL at the age of 29 and scored 193 goals in the following 8 years to become the all-time top scorer in NASL.
He once said: "The world's superstars are stepping into the United States, they are wearing fancy jerseys and playing on artificial turf, they are actually deceiving themselves, they are just enriching their pensions." ”
Yes, many of NASL's playing fields used artificial turf, so when we open the historical photos, we will find that many players wore football shoes with broken nails during the game. But NASL's jerseys only looked a little "avant-garde" at the time, and they already look very conservative today. They're even higher than European standards: NASL has never advertised on the chest of their jerseys.
What's more, it's not rigorous to say that those stars are here for retirement, and if you pay attention to the history of NASL, you'll find that there are a lot of young players who have come to North America to play and have achieved their career development. Ugo Sanchez, the best striker in Mexican history who went on to beat Real Madrid, joined California's San Diego Slammers at the age of 21, scoring 13 goals and assisting nine times in 19 appearances in two seasons. Paraguayan geminis Roberto Cabanñas and Julio Cesar Romero joined the New York Universe, 19 and 20 years younger, and they went on to become one of South America's greatest stars.
Not only in the Americas, but also in England, many stars came to the United States to play at a young age. In 1978, Trevor Francis, the first star in England history to transfer to a million pounds, used the offseason to play for Detroit briefly at the age of 23, and this year League One forward and hot-tempered Mike Flanagan also came to North America, this season the former scored 22 goals and assisted 10 times in 19 games, the latter scored 30 goals and assisted 8 times in 28 games, I don't know if they will be embarrassed by such Puskash-like personal data. In addition, the later Liverpool star Beardsley (similar in style and status to the current Sanchez) also came to NASL at the age of 20 because he needed more income after marriage.
In addition, Liverpool signed 23-year-old South African goalkeeper Bruce Groberard from NASL's Vancouver White Hat for £250,000 in 1981, who later became a Legend of Liverpool. England striker Mark Hartley even came to North America at the age of 19.
Pele, 34, Gad Mueller, 33, Cruyff and Rodney Marsh (one of England's strongest strikers in the 1970s), have also been here, with Pele 34, Gaude Muller 33. Cruyff returned to Europe after three seasons at NASL while continuing to play at Ajiks and Feyenoord, with Beckenbauer winning Euro Player of the Year when he joined the New York Universe in 1977, and returning to the Bundesliga three years later to help Hamburg win the Bundesliga title and UEFA Cup runner-up.
Beckenbauer once wrote in his autobiography: "We have players from 14 countries in the New York Universe, but we are not a circus, we have a strong technical level and competitiveness, we have beaten the strong European teams like Hamburg, Lazio and Atletico. ”
If you're lucky enough to catch George Best on the pitch, you'll most likely see one of nasl's 54 goals. After all, when Best was still in Europe, he was already addicted to the lights and did not want to play properly, and the San Jose Earthquakes should be very fortunate that Best played more than 100 games for them.
Clive Toye, who was an executive at NASL for many years, brought Pele, Beckenbauer and Kinalia to the New York Universe and is now a columnist for the Daily Express, said: "The British media was almost blind to football in other parts of the world, until capable foreign players invaded the English league en masse and they realized the world was not what they thought it was. He added, "Their understanding of the rest of the known world is very abstract, so it's not surprising that NASL is garbage in their eyes." ”
"Don't forget, Steve Hunt is still playing for England after leaving the New York Universe, and when I worked at Toronto, I had to let Mole play for Sweden and Nicole to play Inter Milan for Northern Ireland, and we also rejected Juventus' $750,000 transfer offer to South African player Jomosono. The level of competition here is not only high, but also exciting, full of players with superb skills and personal charm that the British media simply cannot know. ”
Horst Bertl, who joined NASL's Houston Hurricanes in 1979 after helping Hamburg win the Bundesliga title, once had a theory: After the Hurricanes scored, the music at The AstroDome Stadium sounded, the scoreboards lit, cheered and performed in sexy cheerleaders. In such an entertaining environment, he also encountered good football matches. "The music and the pompous cheerleaders make it easier for foreign media to laugh at the league, but they don't represent the level of football competition," Bertel said. ”
For NASL fans, it's so easy to look down on the sexy cheerleaders in beach underwear. And more importantly, we witnessed a grand gathering of international football heroes in the history of football.
(Elephant Tomb: Legend has it that every elephant who has a premonition that his life is coming to an end will go deep into the jungle in the last few days of his limited life and follow the elephant road to the legendary home, the elephant tomb.) An elephant mound is a place where elephants of one race are buried. ）
(Compiler: Supine Braces/Qiu Yixi)