10/18/2004 Add a comment

The Times has a great piece on old South American soccer superstars who blew all their money during their careers and have been lured to NYC with the offer of a plane ticket, an apartment, and a job (working construction). What does the generous benefactor ask in return? That they play on his Queens league over-40 soccer team.

Great story. They aren't busters either, these guys are soccer legends; they've played on teams with Pele and Maradona. How cool would it be to be a Paraguayan or Chilean living in NY and have a national soccer hero work with you at your construction job? It's like hiring Ryne Sandberg to work in your office or something. I suppose it's kind of sad that none of these guys were able to put away enough money for retirement, but the author makes it sound like they're having a blast living in New York, playing in the over-40 league and drinking a few Coronas afterwards. It'd be fun to check out one of their games. ben

Comments

  1. Anonymous Anonymous: I know it's I'm late, i found this article while i was searching for goals of Romerito, a legend that scored a bicycle kick against brazil in brazil for that matter for the Copa America championship, any it's really said that he has to resort to construction abor I mean that's how hopeless it is in my country(paraguay). I think the lesson here is invest your money don't squander it all away, this isn't the first case. If you know soccer you might know about Garrincha, He won 3 world Cups and was the brains of the Brazilian squad that had an inspired Pele anyway he also died in poverty and it's a real shame that these legends have to go like that. My dad actually played in that paraguayan over 40 squad they refer to as "veterano" in flushing meadow park and it hurt him to see his hero someone he looked up to have a job in the construction field working off the books. 2/10/2006