Swag level: Cobi Jones

Cobi Jones looks at you…and your pants come off…at least they did during a shoot for the 1994 Soccer Madness catalog.

Swag Level: Cobi Jones

So many great things about this. Cobi’s hair, the fact that Admiral’s trying to sex it up, the two former United States Men’s National Team member who are on the opposite page…looking envious of the former Vasco de Gama, Coventry City, and LA Galaxy midfielder.

Reveal the identities of the USMNTers

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 - Soccer Madness

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.

Tony Meola helps, I try to help him

Baby faced Brad Friedel

I found some nice shots of Brad Friedel while flipping through the Winter 94/Spring 95 Soccer Madness Catalog. Brad would have been playing in either Denmark with Brondby or in Turkey with Galatasaray when he posed for these photos.

More photos of a young Brad Friedel

Who was behind Soccer Madness?

Soccer Madness produced colorful, glossy catalogs that paid as much detail to art direction as it did to soccer. The Soccer Madness catalogs always felt more like a magazine than a catalog. The pages were glossy, in full color and always contained great action shots. The catalog set itself apart from other catalogs I was receiving at the time in the sense that it had high profile stars wearing Soccer Madness products. John Harkes, Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Tony Meola and Roberto Baggio were just a handful of footballers pitching the Soccer Madness brand.

I always wondered how the Florida based company managed to land such high profile stars to hawk their gear. From what I can gather, the company does not appear to be in existence anymore…or…if they are in existence they’re not doing anything with the soccermadness.com url…aside from redirecting to starstruck.com. How was it that Soccer Madness was able to snap a photo of a young Paulo Maldini wearing a Soccer Madness cap? How were they able to get Marco Van Basten to don a Soccer Madness sweatshirt for a few pics? The biggest soccer catalog, Eurosport, never featured professionals wearing Eurosport branded t-shirts.

Who was the brains behind the Soccer Madness machine?