Roy is a South African who trialed with Manchester United before deciding to play at the University of South Florida in 1982. In those days, the 1st NASL was not far past it’s heydey, with players like Giorgio Chinaglia at New York and Karl Heinz Granitza at Chicago. Roy’s older brothers Geoff and Steve had both come from South Africa through Feyenoord to the NASL in the 70’s. In what proved to be the last year of that league’s existence, Roy Wegerle was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1984, where he scored 9 goals in 21 games and was named NASL’s last-ever Rookie of the Year.
After the NASL folded, Roy played indoor in the United States for a couple of years with the Tacoma Stars before heading back to try England once more, using his USF contacts and relationship with his Tampa Bay manager Rodney Marsh, to eventually sign with Chelsea in 1986 after Gerry Francis and QPR took a pass. Roy never broke into the first team at Chelsea and would go on loan at Swindon, but became the leading scorer for Luton after signing for them in 1988.
Roy Wegerle scores twice for Luton Town in 1988
In 1989, QPR would pay their highest ever transfer fee to that date for Roy, a player they had passed on two years previously. Roy’s QPR years from 1989-1992 would prove to be the zenith of his club career; playing in front of Ray Wilkins, he would go on to score 29 goals in 69 appearances for the SuperHoops before being sold to Blackburn. He ended his English club career in 1995 at Coventry with 9 goals from 53 games over three seasons, suffering a serious knee injury that would never completely heal.
Roy’s ITV Goal of the Season for QPR in 1990
The man has had a great club career. But that’s not the whole story of why he’s an American legend to me. 1991 was Wegerle’s best year statistically on the club level, but it was also the year he became eligible to play for the United States, through marriage.
This was a period of great change within US Soccer. FIFA had in 1988 named the United States as host for the 1994 World Cup. At the time the US had a collection of semi-pro leagues like the sputtering ASL, the beginnings of the USISL, and the Indoor leagues led by the MISL (source ASHA), leagues that were trying to rebuild after the demise of the NASL. The USA lacked the luxury of a top flight league to develop it’s players, and were as yet without a large number of players playing in professional leagues in other countries. US Soccer had a real challenge on it’s hands, but thanks to Paul Caligiuri’s “Shot Heard Round the World” managed to qualify for Italy ‘90, the first World Cup finals appearance for the USA since Brazil in 1950. The World Cup final tournament in Italy, however, seemed to convince the federation of just how far we had to go; that the collection of college players sprinkled with the occasional pro was not going to be good enough for the hosts in 1994.
Roy scores for the USA against arch-rival Mexico in qualifying in 1998, sequence starts at 0:54
Tags: English Leagues, Major League Soccer, NASL (1st), World Cup, Yanks Abroad
