Meola Does It All
…including detective work.
Two years ago I was on a quest to find out who was behind the Soccer Madness catalog.
Tony Meola, America’s finest Goalkeeper, has been leading our National Team since the last World Cup in Italy. His glove, the Meola International by Reusch has been our best seller for the last three seasons. He is picture here after a serious work out in the Orange Bowl wearing his Soccer Madness tee shirt.
The Soccer Madness catalog featured a spokesman…a spokesman who appeared, in cartoon form, all throughout the catalog. The character even made his way onto merchandise…the guy got around. The spokesman wore a mask…and rightly so…as his true identity is still a mystery.
A 1993 Soccer Madness catalog offered some clues to his identity.
Hello there. I am the spokesman for Soccer Madness. You’ve probably seen me before on clothing but actually I’m a real person.
As a young man, I mastered the game of soccer and become Europe’s most exciting player. I starred on six European Cup Championship teams and played in 234 full internationals.
Now that my playing days are over, I dedicate myself to conducting private training sessions for many of the top players around the world. Many of these players seek my advice on all aspects of the game including which equipment to buy, and of course they call me at Soccer Madness.
I want to take this time to thank all our customers for your continued patronage. I also want to thank my friends Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Tony Meola, Klaus Augenthaler and John Harkes for helping me with our catalogs. I want to congratulate our women’s World Cup Team for that excellent effort as well.
I hope everyone has a healthy and wonderful year.
This is where the former US #1 comes into the play.
@soccercatalog Don’t believe the description given. The owner was not an international player… Was American as far as I know— Tony Meola (@TMeola1) August 22, 2012
@soccercatalog Thanks. Catalog was owned by 2 brothers from Miami. Did many photo shoots in a studio they created. Got too expensive— Tony Meola (@TMeola1) August 22, 2012
Grateful for Tony’s help, I try to repay him.
This obsession with soccer started shortly after I saw my first World Cup matches in 1990. After Italia 90…I was hooked. I wanted to consume everything I could find about the beautiful game. Newspaper clippings, articles,…catalogs…everything. I would often times watch a show called “The Wacky World of Sports” hoping that they would air a 20 second clip of a game from Brazil or Argentina. (They usually only showed fights and riots.)
My grandparents lived in Joisey. We would visit every summer…and every summer I would scour the Daily News and the New York Post for any soccer related articles I could find. I then did what any soon to be teenager would do…I put them in my scrap book.
One of my favorite articles, “Meola Does It All”, centered around Tony, his accomplishments, and what it was like for his Italian father watching his baby boy keep the Italians at bay during the United States 0-1 loss to the Azzuri.
Thanks for your help Tony!
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