LIONEL MESSI will be introduced to his new Inter Miami fans in a glamorous unveiling party in Florida on Sunday.
But the world’s greatest footballer has no idea he owes his lucrative move, at least in part, to WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS!
In fairness to the Argentina legend, few Molineux fans realise the huge part their club played in introducing professional football to the USA.
Or the fact that the first ever North American Soccer championship was won by Wolves- or Los Angeles Wolves as they became known in the States!
Now a soon-to-be-released documentary will tell the incredible story of how the Midlands club blazed a trail for football across the pond.
A decade before superstars such as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, George Best and Rodney Marsh made soccer sexy Stateside – and 30 years before the formation of the MLS, Messi is now part of!
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The untold story of how Wolves wooed America is about to be brought to life by a new documentary from Wolves Studios – 1967: When Wolves Conquered the USA.
The film focuses on the summer of ’67 when LA Wolves won the first-ever United Soccer Association (USA) league title – exactly 56 years ago today.
England’s World Cup triumph in 1966 was the catalyst as it was the first World Cup to be beamed by satellite to the United States.
It proved so popular a decision was taken to form North America’s first professional league – which proved to be the birth of the beautiful game in the USA.
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Without players of their own, the USA League imported entire teams from Europe and South America for the inaugural season, giving them time to build their own squads for the following campaign.
Wolves had just won promotion to the old First Division and players such as Phil Parkes, Mike Bailey, Derek Dougan, Gerry Taylor and Terry Wharton headed to the ‘City of Angels’ as LA’s chosen team.
They played in a Western Division consisting of clubs such as San Francisco Golden Gate Gales (ADO Den Haag), Vancouver Royal Canadians (Sunderland) and Houston Stars (Bangu AC from Brazil).
Former Wolves goalie Phil Parkes told SunSport: “Our manager Ronnie Allen called a team meeting and said we’d been offered this tour to Los Angeles for nine weeks, who wants to go?
“I’d never been out of England, I’d never even been to Wales, so yeah I was up for it!
“We didn’t have a clue what we were getting into – but what an experience.
“We stayed in a lovely hotel with a pool for nine weeks, we were given $30 a day spending money and had the time of our lives.
“Every game involved a flight and we went to Washington, San Francisco, Dallas and the like.
“The game in Dallas was played in 100 degree heat and they had to put giant fans in the dressing-rooms so we didn’t pass out.
“On the 4th of July the sponsors entertained us with a barbecue at the beach and the lads got pissed but I was only 19 and you had to be 21 to drink out there.
“Dave Burnside was about 34 and BALD yet even he was being asked for ID so I had no chance!”
Wolves made it to the play-off final against Eastern Division champs Washington Whips (Aberdeen) in the 100,000 capacity LA Coliseum in front of a crowd of 18,000 – and served up a classic.
Parkes and his pals lifted the inaugural Presidents Cup beating the Whips 6-5 in an epic final which produced 11 goals, two hat-tricks, three penalty kicks, last minute equalisers in normal and extra-time, a red card, punch-ups, and a golden goal winner!
The beautiful game had officially arrived in the USA.
Parkes said: “The final was a marathon which went on forever in the heat of LA. We played the 90 minutes, 30 minutes of extra time and then kept playing for a golden goal.
“Aberdeen only had 10 men after Jim Smith was sent off early on so when Ally Shewin scored a ‘golden’ own goal we loved him for it – and so did the Aberdeen boys because everybody was knackered!
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“We each got a little trophy as the first champions of America and I’m proud of what we achieved as LA Wolves.
“Lionel Messi might never have made it to the MLS if it hadn’t been for us introducing the professional game to the States.”
No monkeying around
NO-ONE could accuse Wolves of monkeying around as they stormed to the first ever North American Soccer League title.
Off the pitch however, it was a very different story as Ronnie Allen’s trailblazers lived it up in LA at the height of the swinging 60’s.
That led to them forming an unlikely bond with one of the most iconic pop bands of the era – as Wolves got into the groove, partying with chart-topping heart-throbs The Monkees!
Phil Parkes revealed: “David Jones the singer from The Monkees went to school with Waggy (Dave Wagstaff) in Manchester.
“He read in the papers that we were there and he came to our hotel to see Waggy.
“He was a great little fellow and he told Waggy to invite us all to the TV studios to see them film an episode of their TV show which was huge at the time.
“We didn’t believe him at first but then a fleet of limousines turned up at the hotel to take us to the studios!
“In fact Dave Jones did me a massive favour which saved me a club fine.
“I’d gone to the beach with Paddy Buckley and I fell asleep and got badly sunburned.
“Ronnie Allen had warned us anyone who got sunburned and couldn’t train would get fined a week’s wages.
“Dave took one look at me and told me to go to the pharmacy and ask for a can of solar cream.
“In fact, looking at you, you’d better ask for TWO cans!
“But it worked and took the sting out of the burns so I managed to get through training.
“So Dave was a great lad as far as I was concerned.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
