Posted in News on May 12, 2003.
Carlos Alberto, captain of the Brazilian team that won the 1970 World Cup, and Ahmet Ertegun, one of the founders of the world famous New York Cosmos, were selected for the Induction Class of 2003 into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
The National Soccer Hall of Fame, located in Oneonta, NY, opened a new 40,000 sq.ft., state-of-the-art museum in 1999. The new Hall of Fame tells the story of soccer in America via exhibits, videos and an extensive interactive, youth oriented Kicks Zone where visitors have fun kicking, heading and playing computer soccer games.
Biographies
Patrick "Ace" Ntsoelengoe: South African midfielder-forward who was one of the leading stars of the North American Soccer League.
Ntsoelengoe played 11 seasons in the NASL, from 1973 to 1984 (missing only 1974) and was among the league's all-time leaders in both appearances and goals. He played in 271 NASL games (244 regular-season and 27 playoff), the fourth highest total, and scored 94 NASL goals, the seventh best. He was named a first-team NASL all-star in 1979 and '82, and an honorable mention selection in 1977, '78 and '80.
Most of Ntsoelengoe's NASL career was spent with the Minnesota Kicks, for whom he played from 1976 through '81, and the Toronto Blizzard, for whom played from 1982 through '84. He had played for the Miami Toros in 1973 and the Denver Dynamo in 1975. Although he was consistently with good teams, making the playoffs in nine consecutive years, he never won an NASL championship. He was on the losing side in the NASL finals three times, for Minnesota in 1976 and Toronto in 1983 and '84.
Because South Africa was banned from international soccer during Ntsoelengoe's career, he never had a chance to play for his national team. However, he continued during his NASL years to play for local giants Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa during the NASL offseason.
Carlos Alberto: A Brazilian defender who played six seasons in the North American Soccer League and won three NASL titles.
Carlos Alberto, whose full name is Carlos Alberto Torres, was captain of the Brazil team that won the World Cup in 1970 and is rated by some as the greatest team in the history of soccer. That was Carlos Alberto's only World Cup, and he was well under 30 when he last played in the Brazilian national team. He was only 33 when he joined his former Brazil and Santos teammate Pele with the New York Cosmos in the middle of the 1977 season.
With Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer in the lineup, the Cosmos became the first soccer team ever to feature the captains of the previous two World Cup-winning teams.
Carlos Alberto played a total of 119 NASL regular-season games and 26 NASL playoff games, and scored eight goals. He was with the Cosmos from 1977 to 1980, playing in the NASL champion teams in 1977 and 1978. After playing for the California Surf in the 1981 season, he returned to the Cosmos in 1982 and won another NASL title. He was an NASL all-star five times, including first-team selections in 1978, '79 and '80.
Paul Child: One of the North American Soccer League's top all-time goalscorers.
Child scored 102 goals in 245 games during his 10-season NASL career, placing him fifth on the NASL career goalscoring list. He was named a first-team NASL all-star twice, in 1972, when he was with the Atlanta Chiefs, and 1974, when he was with the San Jose Earthquakes. He led the league in scoring in 1974, when he had 15 goals in the regular season and another in the playoffs.
Child, who played 239 NASL regular-season games and six NASL playoff games, appeared twice in the United States national team in 1972.
Child, who was born and raised in England, broke into the NASL with Atlanta in 1972 and played for the same team, renamed the Atlanta Apollos, in 1973. He then played for San Jose from 1974 through '79, the Memphis Rogues in 1980 and the new Atlanta Chiefs in 1981.
Karl-Heinz Granitza: Forward who starred in the North American Soccer League for seven seasons, all of them with the Chicago Sting. Granitza was one of the NASL's most consistent goalscorers, with at least 15 goals in each of his NASL seasons. He appeared in 199 NASL regular-season games and 26 NASL playoff games, and scored 141 goals, putting him third among all-time NASL goalscorers.
Granitza, who is German, was somewhat unusual among the foreign players who starred in the NASL in that he had not been a major star in his native country. He blossomed after the Sting purchased him from Hertha Berlin before the 1978 NASL season. He scored 20 goals that season, the first of five seasons in which he scored 20 or more. He hit his goalscoring peak in 1981 with 26, and was a star of the Chicago teams that won NASL titles in 1981 and '84.
Granitza was second in the NASL in scoring behind Giorgio Chinaglia in three consecutive years, 1980, '81 and '82, and also was a second team NASL all-star in each of those years as well as 1979. He was a first-team all-star in 1984 and an honorable mention selection in 1978. He played four seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League.
Bob Lenarduzzi: Canadian defender-midfielder who played more games in the North American Soccer League than any other man, 312, including 288 in the regular season and 24 in the playoffs. In the course of this achievement, playing in a league dominated by United States-based teams, he probably had more influence on American soccer than any other player ever who wasn't an American citizen and never played for an outdoor American club.
Lenarduzzi's entire 11-season NASL career, from 1974 to 1984. was spent in his hometown with the Vancouver Whitecaps. He played in 35 games in the Whitecaps' championship season of 1979 and more than 30 in five other seasons. Although primarily a defensive player, he did score 33 NASL goals. Lenarduzzi was an NASL North American all-star in 1978, '79, '81, '82 and '84.
Lenarduzzi won 47 full international caps for Canada. He played for Canada in both the 1984 Olympic Games and the 1986 World Cup finals, and was Canada's national-team coach from 1992 to '97. He played two seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League.
Arnie Mausser: Goalkeeper who played 10 seasons in the North American Soccer League and was the US national team's first-choice keeper for much of that time.
Mausser began his NASL career with the Hartford Bicentennials in 1975, after having led the Rhode Island Oceaneers to the American Soccer League championship the year before. He then played for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1976, the Vancouver Whitecaps in 1977, the Colorado Caribous in 1978, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 1979 and part of 1980, the New England Tea Men in part of 1980, the Jacksonville Tea Men in 1981 and '82, Team America in 1983 and Tampa Bay again in 1984.
Mausser was the NASL's leading goalkeeper in 1981, when he was with Jacksonville, and was a first team NASL all-star in 1976, when he was with Tampa Bay. In the course of his NASL career, he played in 224 regular-season games and eight playoff games. He was the only American player named a first-team NASL all-star during the league's final nine seasons. He was an NASL North American all-star in 1981.
Mausser, born in Brooklyn, NY, played for the United States national team 35 times over a 10-year period, which was a record for US national-team appearances at the time. He played his first game for the United States against Poland in 1975 and his last against England in 1985. During that time, he was the United States goalkeeper in the qualifying rounds of the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, as well as on many other occasions.
Mausser played one season in the Major Indoor Soccer League and one season in the American Indoor Soccer Association.
Alan Willey: English forward who played nine seasons in the North American Soccer League and finished as the league's number-two all-time goalscorer.
Willey scored 142 goals in his 264 NASL games, which included 238 regular-season games and 26 playoff games. He played for the Minnesota Kicks from 1976 through part of '81, the Montreal Manic in part of 1981 and all of '82 and '83, and the Minnesota Strikers in 1984. He had joined the Kicks on loan from Middlesborough of the English league.
Willey's best season was 1978, when he scored 28 goals in 34 games for a Minnesota team that reached the playoff quarterfinals. Five of those goals came in a playoff game against the New York Cosmos. Willey played five seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League after the end of the NASL.
Bruce Wilson: A Canadian defender for several North American Soccer League teams who was one of the best North American players in the NASL's history.
Wilson was a stay-at-home style of defender. Although his 299 games (276 regular season and 23 playoff) rank him second only to fellow Canadian Bob Lenarduzzi in NASL appearances, he scored only eight NASL goals. He played 11 seasons in the NASL, 1974-77 with the Vancouver Whitecaps, 1978 and '79 with the Chicago Sting, 1980 with the New York Cosmos and 1981-84 with the Toronto Blizzard. He played at least 20 games in each of those seasons.
Wilson was an NASL all-star six times. Three of those were first-team selections, in 1977, when he was with Vancouver, 1979, when he was with Chicago, and 1984, when he was with Toronto. He also was an NASL North American all-star in 1979, '82, '83 and '84. He was a member of the squad when New York won the NASL championship in 1980, and was runner-up in both 1983 and '84 with Toronto.
Wilson was one of the best players Canada has ever produced and was capped 51 times. He played for Canada in the 1984 Olympic Games and the 1986 World Cup, in which he captained the Canadian team. In 1998, he was the lone Canadian player elected to a CONCACAF "team of the century."
