World Cup Cult Heroes w/Musa Okwonga & Carlos Queiroz w/Eric Krakauer - Ep 9. First Touch Weekly

A bit of a hot take, I feel like Campos is to Mexico what Bad Bunny is the Puerto Rico,

right?

Like, exported your culture.

But also redefined it, Bad Bunny redefined reggaeton, right?

He came into this genre that was established and redefined it, and I think Campos came

into goalkeeping and redefined it.

Hello everyone and welcome to First Touch Weekly, a new World Cup focus podcast from Kickback

Soccer media.

I'm David Goss today.

We're talking about the people who make the World Cup special, the heroes, the big personalities,

journeyman coaches, unsung players who make the tournament incredible every four years.

We'll start with some news.

Matt Crocker has departed as sporting director of US Soccer to take a similar role in Saudi

Arabia just two months before the World Cup.

The reaction has been largely negative with many questioning the timing of the move.

This was a man who was hired from Southampton to come to the United States and help build the

program further.

And in less than three years, he did well, hiring Emma Hayes and Maria Stilpochettino.

He leaves.

And he leaves on the verge of the biggest moment.

You'd have to say in the Federation's maybe history and the biggest moment in the sport

that we will see for a long time.

So I think there is a lot of frustration for people who hired him, for the people who

sort of invested in him, as well as people around US Soccer, where it feels like they

just cannot get ahead as they try to prepare to grow the game and make these teams even

more competitive.

We're getting down to the point where World Cup roster spots are one and lost.

And if you're looking for a fun month to track, go down under where 2022 Australian hero

Craig Goodwin is in a race to claim an unlikely spot on the soccer rules 2026 roster.

The 34-year-old winger who scored the opening goal for Australia at the 2022 World Cup

suffered a groin injury in February, which was thought to put him out of the running for

a roster spot.

But he's built up his fitness and his eyeing a return to his club team at the late United

later this month.

And finally, Carlos Cueroche has been named as Ghana's head coach.

73-year-old has managed at Manchester United as an assistant, re-almoderate, and eight

other national teams before joining Ghana.

He is a legend of the game, and this will be his fifth consecutive World Cup appearance.

So he knows the thing or two about the tournament, but in order to get a better sense of the

man, the myth, the legend, brought on one of my favorites, Eric Crackauer.

Well, as I said, no one knows Carlos Cueroche, no one's going to pronounce his name better

on this show than Eric Crackauer, one of our favorites.

So Eric, let's just get started with you have followed this man's career for a long time.

He has meant a lot to the soccer that you engage with.

And someone asks you, and I'll be the one to do it, who is Carlos Cueroche?

What is this guy's identity?

It's hard to pin down Carlos Cueroche because he's such a complicated character.

And when I think of him, I think of the story of what might have been.

I don't mean that in terms of his bank account because this is a guy who has made a lot of

money coaching a lot of different teams.

And he is a bit of a tragic character, lowercase T, in the world of football because there was

another path that he could have taken, where he could have led some of the biggest national

teams, some of the biggest clubs in world football.

And he did for a short period of time because of course he was the head coach or the manager,

if you will, of Real Madrid at the height of Los Galacticos.

But we'll get into that in a little bit because this story really starts with Portugal.

All right, so take us into how he starts and sort of what he's known for in the game.

So unbeknownst to a lot of people is the fact that he's actually not born in Portugal,

but he's born in Musambique.

He goes to Portugal, gets his degree in physical education, becomes a teacher, starts

coaching studio under the management of Mario Wilson, who is actually the grandfather

of a former San Jose Quake, Bruno Wilson, who is now departed the league.

And then he transitions and becomes the technical director of the Portuguese national team,

youth ranks.

If you ask most Portuguese what he will go down for in terms of being known for, they

will respond that he was the man who birthed, or perhaps the better term is reared, Portugal's

original golden generation.

This is a guy who was responsible for developing the likes of Vitor Bahia, the goalkeeper of

Porto in Barcelona, Fernando Coto, Palusos, Rui Costa, Luis Figo, João Vieira, Pinto.

And there are a lot of other names that you can add to that list.

Even until Portugal won the Euro in 2016, he was the man who accomplished Portugal's

two greatest football and feats, winning two under 20 World Cups in 1989, in Riyadh and

Saudi Arabia, and perhaps more famously beating Brazil in 1991 in Portugal.

We talked about this when we did our Portugal Biopack, you talked a bit about how he helps

revolutionize Portuguese soccer.

Now they are over the last 30 years, top five in the world, top 10 in the world, consistent

players at all these tournaments, final semi-finals, and of course the 2016 victory.

But then as an individual, he goes on to Manchester United, which I think is what a lot of people

associate with him and his work with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Yeah, and it's interesting because after he coaches the youth ranks, the under 20s, the

under 21s, he's actually given the job to bleed these guys into the national team.

His story with the Portuguese national team, the senior team, is one of generational transition.

So the Figos and the Rikostas don't immediately bleed over.

He fails to qualify the team to the 94 World Cup, leaves.

And after that, he takes over sporting.

And there he comes to the United States, and his responsibility there is to coach the

matchers, which he didn't do particularly well, and also create the blueprint for the

next generation of American players, Project Q, which you would know better than me, whether

or not that came to fruition.

He does go to Manchester United, and there he becomes a very important first-team coach

for Alex Ferguson.

He does incredibly well at Manchester United.

And that opens the door to Real Madrid.

And this was, as I mentioned earlier, the height of the Galactico era.

But the problem with Real Madrid at that time is that they have sold Claude Makelele,

who is the Golucante of the early odds that people tend to forget about.

And it becomes a very imbalanced team.

So Carlos Kierage has to guide this imbalanced team, and he gets sacked at the end of the season,

finishing fourth, not accomplishing anything except winning a Spanish Super Cup, goes back

to Manchester United, where he's tasked with modernizing the way they play, going from

a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3, and it is without 4-3-3 with Cristina Ronaldo involved, that they won

the Champions League in 0-8.

Then Carlos Kierage has this fascinating now, MO.

I think the move to the Metro Star is probably the first example of it.

He spent some time in Japan as well, where he has now become the guy you bring into these

nontraditional powers, where they believe there's more in there than what they're getting,

and he stabilizes.

So the list of countries he's managed, Iran, Colombia, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, and now he takes

over Ghana with two months to go to the World Cup.

It's like he's good at it.

How did he become this person and what makes him good now at this thing?

So how did he become this person is a really interesting question, because by 2007, Alex

Ferguson is saying, behind closed doors, that Carlos Kierage is his heir apparent.

But at the same time as that's happening, Portugal opens the door once again to Carlos Kierage

to come in in 2008, an opportunity that is too good to turn down, because the 2010 World

Cup is just around the corner, Cristina Ronaldo, the star of that team, 2010 does not go well.

Had it gone well, Portugal losing around of 16 to Spain, after playing very insipid football

in the group stage, he gets into a conflict with Cristina Ronaldo.

In fact, at the end of that Spain game, when the Portuguese media is asking Ronaldo, what

went wrong?

He goes, ask Carlos Kierage, because they were too defensive.

And that sets the path towards other teams, the lesser national teams.

By that point, he's now developed a reputation for not having delivered in the biggest stage

with Real Madrid and with Portugal and being thought of as the number two guy at a club

like Manchester United.

He tries to shake that off by taking over the reins at these other national teams, where

he not only is responsible for getting them into World Cups, but also ushering in a new

generation of players.

But he seems to connect to it in a way, right?

The fans of these countries that he has just no connection to, most of the time doesn't

speak the language.

He now seems to be really good at connecting, finding like the DNA of those teams and cultures,

and then helping them put that on the global stage.

Yes, I think the understanding of the importance of culture, adapting to that culture, and then

highlighting the strength of a culture to the outside world, and there's no better example

of that than what happened when they faced United States in the group stage.

And he kept being asked about what was happening in Iran with the women's revolution.

His players were as well.

And his response was, look, there's a lot about Iran that's wonderful that you should focus

on.

But why aren't you asking American players, for example, about racism in the United States?

And that's what leads to that question that was leveled at Adams, Tyler Adams, if you

remember, about racism in the United States.

Most of all, you say you support the Iranian people, but you're pronouncing our country's

name wrong.

Our country is named Iran, not Iran.

Please once and for all, let's get this clear.

Second of all, are you okay to be representing a country that has so much discrimination

against black people in its own borders?

Biopologies on the mispronunciation of your country.

Yeah, that being said, you know, there's discrimination everywhere.

You go, you know, one thing that I've learned, especially from living abroad in the past

years and having to fit in in different cultures and kind of assimilate into different cultures,

is that in the U.S., we're continuing to make progress every single day.

Like you just educated me now on the pronunciation of your country.

So yeah, it's a process, I think, as long as you see progress, that's the most important

thing.

His success there then leads other jobs, right?

That's Colombia, which ended in disaster before the end of the qualifiers for the 2022 World

Cup.

He goes to Egypt, get some napkin, final with Muhammad Salah, loses to Senegal, and who's

the man there?

Sadio Mane scores the winning penalty.

Then for the 2022 World Cup, I know that 2022 World Cup is coming up a lot.

He fails to qualify Egypt, gets him to the last point, and they lose to Senegal penalty

kicks.

Mane, once again, influential there, returns to Iran and takes him to that World Cup.

So his relative success with Egypt, getting them very close, his success with Iran, makes

him a very attractive proposition to a plethora of other nations that have ambitions to get

to the World Cup.

And he's going to be tasked with it once again with Ghana.

Short-term brought on, as you said, it's going to start with defensive solidity.

It's going to start with setting a culture.

And that's probably as much as he's capable of doing at this point, but fascinating character

in the World's game.

I know one that you are very knowledgeable and passionate about, so I'm glad we could

have you come on and chat with us about it.

Pleasure.

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where glad you're here.

Well, now we get to dig in talking about the World Cup as we are less than two months away.

A lot of interesting news going on, of course, we talked about Carlos Cueros taking over

the Ghana national team trying to do something special and trying to help that team become

a team that we all remember because World Cups, I think, are about memories and to talk

about it a little bit, talk about some of the heroes that we've seen in the past.

We have one of our favorites in Musa, Kwanga, joining us from Stadio.

You joined us before the playoffs.

We talked about the majesty and the excitement around that and now Musa, we're into the

big show.

Yes.

My goodness.

Great to be back.

And looking forward to talking about World Cup with you.

So what we wanted to talk about in this segment was what we called World Cup Colt Heroes.

And we wanted to talk a little bit about sort of what makes them and then some of the names

that we landed on and why.

And I think to me, that's the exciting part about what's going to happen is someone that

no one's talking about right now in four months is going to be someone that you're sitting

around in 30 years and someone's like, remember so and so.

Or remember this moment from this player.

So let's start with what makes a Colt Hero and then we'll start with some of the names

we have.

And as you thought about this prompt, where did your mind go?

I feel like so for Colt Hero, it's a footballer who has a sense of inevitability whenever

they intervene.

So you might have like Gory Kachee and Golf, Argentina, like 94 Cup or in the same World

Cup, Toto Scalach, if you've been to someone who, when are there in front of

goal or in goal, they're going to make a decisive save or get a decisive goal.

And it's normally somebody who hasn't really been interstellar yet.

They may have achieved some level of stardom, but not like a super stardom, or when the spotlight

is cast upon them early in their career, they don't quite step into it.

So I think it's someone who emerges and that's kind of thing with the Colt Hero.

The Colt Hero is someone of whom greatness is not expected and because no one else is stepping

up and holding, like taking the sword from the stone, the Colt Hero steps forward and

goes, it's my moment.

That is what makes it so thrilling, I think.

So there were the two first things that came to my mind when we brought up this topic.

So the first one was the people that I find synonymous with the World Cup.

That is both, if you bring up the World Cup to me and you just say start naming players,

these are going to be some of the first I name because that's what I connect them to,

but also, most likely as you talk about that player, the first thing you're going to bring

up is their World Cup performance, their World Cups, where I think there's a decent chunk

of players who have done great things at a World Cup, who have also done great things outside

of a World Cup.

So I wouldn't, while you talk about Michael Bollock and a World Cup, I think you also

talk about what he did at club level.

Totally.

Obviously, I have Germany in the head, so there's going to be a decent German coming

out for me.

But the second is the peaks of their career were the World Cup.

These guys that this moment meant everything and is sort of the first line of their bio,

even though they may have accomplished great things at other times.

Yes, that's absolutely right.

And I think, you look at the peak of these players.

I think that, mostly the 22 World Cup, I've said this to many friends.

He was arguably a player of the match, every single game apart from the defeat to Saudi.

And even for the first half of that game, he was lights out.

It's incredible what he achieved in his closing years.

But yeah, I think I want to get back to that point of the cold player, the World Cup being

a peak.

I think that's what makes it so iconic, I think.

Yeah.

So let's get into some of these things, because I think we'll talk about this as we go through

it.

Why don't you get us started?

Who was the first name you had on your list?

Roger Miller was the first for me.

Roger Miller, five goals of two World Cups scored four goals at the 1990 World Cup at

the age of 38 for Cameroon, then scored record breaking fifth.

The oldest player to score at World Cup, I think, at that point, fourth to two years old,

when he scored against Russia, I think they got cooked by Russia in 94.

And it's funny, because he got voted in 2007, he got the greatest, the greatest African

football of the last 50 years, which feels wild when you look at what George Ware achieved.

But then you look back at Roger Miller's catalog, and you're like, no, that's actually

not a bad show.

That is one where it does feel like the World Cup.

The magnitude of it is emboldened, which is like, drug was one champion's leagues.

Right.

Torre was the best player on Man City for years, and you mentioned way of winning a ball

on door.

But it feels like the love and respect of that Cameroon run, and it coming out at a moment

when everyone was ready for an African team to put together that performance.

It probably elevates him to a space that maybe he wouldn't be in.

Like without Michael Jordan, maybe there's no like Supermax contracts, right?

Because Michael Jordan just broke open NBA as his commercial proposition.

It's not there wasn't greatness before Jordan, it's just that I think Jordan transcended

basketball in a way that even magical bird didn't, right?

And I feel like Roger Miller, like the style they played in the celebrations, the exuberance,

all of it, like the tactical cany-ness, the guts, like it was like African nations looked

at Cameroon going like, that is how it should be done, like, yeah, he's one where as I learned

the game, it was like he's a known entity.

And so it's fascinating to me to talk to people where he emerged in their lifetime, right?

Because for me, it's like when you, when you learn about the game and you learn about

these staples and these statues and we talk about Mount Rushmore and icons, whatever phrase

you want to use, he's been in there.

The whole time in my lifetime, right, right, for other people, he entered that during their

lifetime.

And to do that at 38 years old is like a part that I don't fully understand or comprehend.

It's so weird.

It's like, how do you explain it?

It's like a theatre actor suddenly hitting the big time when there's 60 and there finally

get that first role.

Yeah, that's a great one.

And I think again, one where when you think the world cup, you think about him, when you

think about him, you think about the world cup first.

So for me, the first thing that popped up was Murosov Closa.

He's an auspiring from Balax.

And there he is!

That's it!

And Murosov Closa.

Left him.

He's no good.

I love that.

He only won one golden boot in a league season.

And yet he won a golden boot at a world cup.

He scored five goals at multiple world cups and then at a late age hangs on for the 2014

world cup and ends up starting in the final.

For a team that was struggling for that center forward, but Closa was one of those where

it didn't matter what happened for three or four years.

You knew he'd be at a world cup.

You knew he would deliver.

And for a team that always contends at world cups, but had this angst of coming to 06, what

were they?

And that was his truly best run.

And the national team is really like where he made his name.

It's so weird because he was such good finisher, but he didn't really necessarily score huge

follow him even for Bayern, like Bayern, he scored like one in three, which is more like

a winger statistics.

And I think it's a good example of that Germany team was built in such a specific way, like

it's no coincidence that he and Mario Gomez thrived in that Germany set up because they

needed a very specific type of center forward.

One of my favourite things about him at his cult status is that he was Rihanna's favourite

German player.

I love this so much.

I wouldn't.

Rihanna was hanging out with a Germany team.

She's like, yeah, no Closa is my favourite, which I just thought was like the most.

He seems the most opposite of what someone would be.

No, but I saw that and thought to myself, you know what, she's a woman of taste.

I think that Closa is like the connoisseur's choice.

But when I saw that, I thought, you know what, Rihanna knows ball.

He scores five goals in 2002, five again in 06, ends up winning the Golden Booth, four in

2010.

And then he comes back around for 2014 and wasn't scoring a lot, and obviously wasn't at

the peak of his powers.

But it almost felt like he was a necessary presence for that young team to believe they

could get over the line and his, as his role shifted somewhat, and it came to the reality

of like, you're not going to a World Cup as the German national team without him at this

point.

So, okay.

So we've got two goalscores at the top of the list.

What do you have next?

George Campos, Mexico keeper.

Well over 100 caps from Mexico, it's funny, it felt like he would change team almost every

season.

Sometimes he played for like two teams in a season or two positions in a game.

That fascinating player started out as a striker, not the tallest player, not always the

most commanding in terms of a goal-line presence.

And maybe a bit of an activism now, in age of like set piece dominance, a guy like that

would get completely bullied at corners.

But also you might argue was the forerunner of a lot of the modern goalkeeper where you're

sweeping, you're involved in build up play, you're incredible with your feet, he was very

good with his feet.

And someone who just maximized his talent and was always a decisive figure.

Growing up around a lot of people who were Mexican-American who maybe weren't diehard soccer

fans, Jorge Campos is like the one name that they know.

So it was the colorful jersey which was iconic and had this connection I think to the culture

that people connected to and then connected through him.

And then it's not Otani where it's like oh my god I can't believe he does these two things.

But it is sort of the like he played as a striker, he played as a goalkeeper.

If he's this good, like you know, to be good enough to do either of those things at

a pro level as wild, I've been around him a couple times in his post-playing career.

He only wears flip flops.

So like he will show up in a Lamborghini to a black tie event in flip flops.

And it's just the continuation of he does things differently and he doesn't care and you

love him.

A bit of a hot take.

I feel like Campos is to Mexico what Bad Bunny is the Puerto Rico, right?

Like export age or culture but also redefined it.

Bad Bunny redefined reggaeton, right?

He came into this genre that was established and like redefined it and I think Campos came

into goalkeeping and redefined it like there's the iconic how many people can say they have

an iconic way of rolling the ball out.

Like when Campos came to football, this is the cult status.

The number of people playing could pick up football that would roll the ball out quickly

in front of them and start a counter.

Campos began that.

No one was doing that before.

Campos initiated that.

An amazing one.

I love that one and I'm glad you got a goalkeeper in there because I felt like I was going

to say Kailer Namas and I was like I don't really want to and I'm glad you went goalkeeper.

Love for Kaila Navas.

So much love for like this is the Kaila Navas Appreciation Society, never selling my stocks

in Navas.

I think at this point you don't have to.

The fact that he's still performing at the age he's at.

Okay.

This one for me is probably the one that's maybe least connected to this, but I went with

Aaron Robin.

Robin is that.

I am Robin.

A surely wanted to buy a music to continue his great personal record here at Wembley.

Oh, fascinating.

The 2010 and 2014 runs don't happen without him and I think this is one where the team

wasn't fully there.

And if there's one or two other pieces in the team which, okay, it's the Netherlands

not the biggest country in the world.

You're not always going to have 15 legitimate starters and all of that.

He wins a World Cup.

He wins a ball and door.

He goes down on a list that he probably is not on.

Now he had success at the club level.

So it's hard to say making a World Cup final and a World Cup semi-final is the peak for

him, but it felt like he elevated in those big moments.

I love you mentioned Robin because that World Cup 2010 is interesting because Robin

and Percy never really got his rhythm.

It was so strange.

It was like he never really ran hot.

Robin's most iconic World Cup moment unfortunately is the save from Casseas which everyone

judges him for, right?

Right.

But if you watch that again and I've watched it many times, it's an astonishing piece of

goalkeeping.

Like, it's genuinely one of the greatest pieces of individual, like one-on-one action,

where you have an elite goal scorer and a elite goalkeeper head-to-head and they're

watching each other.

It's like, it is like one of those like old school like cowboy shootouts.

And if you see it, Robin is so patient, so good through on goal, does everything right,

chooses the right corner, fakes Casseas to one corner and puts it in the opposite corner.

And if you look at the last minute, Casseas is looking across desperately his left ankle

and throws out his left foot and deflects it narrowly wide.

It goes down as like a bad Robin Miss.

It's not.

It's one of the greatest pieces of goalkeeping of all time.

But Robin didn't fail in that World Cup.

As you say, your name is a cult figure because he dragged them there.

Twice.

I'm a loser.

I say it very quickly.

I'm a match just an experiment.

My teams don't win.

So, like, I struggle with the mentality of like, you know, it's happening right now.

Like, Arteta is a bad manager.

For all it is, let's be real.

He's good at what he does.

He's good at what he does.

He's brilliant to what he does.

Right.

So, I end up on that line.

The other thing is, I look at the World Cup final in 2010, Robin is the only one you

could argue could start for that spain team.

That's an amazing show.

And the fact that you are in that game and you're close and you've made it to that point,

to me is the accomplishment.

Okay.

Who's your next?

My final one, George Haji.

The first few.

Alex down the left.

Look, they concentrate.

Listen.

What a stunning blow.

Back on his.

And George Haji proves his work yet again.

One will listen to this and be like, oh no, but Haji was amazing for Storibu Kress, and

I know that.

And he was amazing.

He had a task for it.

Yes.

But what I mean by him being a cult figure is he went above and beyond for a mania.

For a mania was a holy terror.

Was a holy terror, particularly was very good at the 90 World Cup, the 94 World Cup.

That Romania team, with a little bit more luck, and they had a lot of luck that Maradona

was out against them.

I'll say that.

I still won the best games I've ever seen.

And Haji and the entire tournament was spell binding.

Yeah.

Takes the game on their shoulders, and similar to the Robinson, I'm the best player

on the field.

I belong with everyone, and so I can carry us there.

I think people come out of 94, and it's Bajion and Haji that people talk about.

The build up to the world cup, I think it's sad that the world cup finalists are boring.

Romania Argentina, for those who haven't watched it, Romania 3 Argentina 2, it's a

work-up classic.

Haji just looked like a film character, looked like something from, you know about 1970s

run when Al Pacino is like young Al Pacino is on that run.

He looked like that.

More like a theatre actor than a footballer, I think.

So yeah, that's my hero.

I think that's a great one.

I'll finish this off with, I think, probably a cliché one, but Asamo Agian.

It's fighting dangerously, God, I have opened the scoring, and it's Asamo Agian who

arrived on marks at the near post, who's headed home.

Elevated every four years, again, didn't have the club resume when he stepped on a

World Cup field for people outside to say like, oh, he's the best player on the field,

but he believed he was every single time.

And I think there was an element that his team did as well, and again going back to the

loser stuff of like, yes, he messes the penalty against Uruguay, that changes the course

of African football and his history and the team's history, and all that type of stuff.

The work he did in 06, I think is forgotten.

He captains in 2014, but you knew he was going to be there for Ghana.

51 goals and 109 caps.

So basically a goal, every other game for that team.

And that's not like, oh, easy qualifiers, Afghan qualifiers.

Like he was doing them in the World Cups as a US fan who had to be on the other side

of him for three straight World Cups.

You kind of like understand the fear that he can strike into a team where he's

floating, he's waiting, and then it's just so smooth and silky.

The moment he gets around the box and decides what he's going to do, and he's dispatches.

So to me, he is like the ultimate I associate with the World Cup.

This is his, like even now every four years, you're like,

Osmo Giants got to be doing interviews.

Who's talking to him?

Like, what is he thinking about this?

Because this is his time.

Giants is one of those players.

You get that with quite a few teams or players where they're kind of homesick.

They only really perform for like one club.

So like the daily departed Jose Antonio Reyes truly was at his best self when he played

for Sevilla.

I think Gian Fagana is like the unique set of circumstances where you feel so hyped

that you're fearless and he put the Ghana shirt on and he was like a different level.

I don't judge him for the penalty because without him they don't get to that game in

the first place.

And they almost beat a fantastic Uruguay team.

So in my book, yeah, absolutely cult hero all the way.

We still got a few more weeks, still the World Cup.

So we're going to keep talking about this stuff.

We're going to do so with Moosa.

We've got some other great segments on the line for you as well, but Moosa always a pleasure.

Oh, my God.

Pledge is mine.

Pledge is mine.

And finally in an episode where we talk about Colt Heroes, we couldn't end without

talking about one of the coolest individuals to ever play in a World Cup.

Uruguay's Jose Leandro Andrade, Andrade's story is both heroic and tragic.

He rose to the highest heights of the game, an enormous feat for a black player in the

1920s, but his fall was just as sweet.

Born in Uruguayan City of Salto, which would go on to produce Luis Suarez and Edison

Cavani, Andrade began his career with Montevideo's side Bella Vista.

In 1924, he became the first black player to play in the Olympics, where he was a star

performer leading them to the gold medal.

Andrade enjoyed his fame in Paris, leading a lavish lifestyle full of partying around

that Olympics.

He remained a part of the Uruguayan squad that won the 1928 Olympics and eventually the

1930 World Cup.

However, in ensuing years, Andrade's fortunes took a turn for the worst.

In the 1950s, he slipped into alcoholism and ill hell.

The German journalist tracked him down in Montevideo in 1956 and what he found was bleak.

In a spartanly furnished room, I found Andrade a total alcoholic blind in one eye, a

consequence of the injury.

He could no longer follow my questions, which were answered by his beautiful wife, the

sister of one of the former Olympic champions.

Less than a year later, Andrade would be dead, dying essentially penniless.

But he stands alone as the first black international soccer superstar and maybe the first international

soccer star at all.

To come from South America, to star at the Olympics in France and become the bell of the

ball across Europe for the weeks and months after that, he has a unique place in history

and he is one of the great players maybe at times forgotten, but that's why we're here

on First Touch.

So that's it for today.

Thank you so much to Eric and Moosef for joining us.

Thank you so much for listening.

We hope you found this fun and informative and make sure you follow us at First Touch KSM

and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.