| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1964-03-19)March 19, 1964 (age 61) | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Pretoria, South Africa | |||||||||||||
| Position(s) | ||||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||
| 1980–1981 | Arcadia Shepherds | |||||||||||||
| College career | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1982–1983 | South Florida Bulls | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1984 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 21 | (9) | |||||||||||
| 1984 | Arcadia Shepherds | |||||||||||||
| 1984–1986 | Tacoma Stars (indoor) | 59 | (36) | |||||||||||
| 1986–1988 | Chelsea | 15 | (3) | |||||||||||
| 1988 | →Swindon Town (loan) | 7 | (1) | |||||||||||
| 1988–1989 | Luton Town | 45 | (10) | |||||||||||
| 1989–1992 | Queens Park Rangers | 65 | (29) | |||||||||||
| 1992–1993 | Blackburn Rovers | 11 | (4) | |||||||||||
| 1993–1995 | Coventry City | 53 | (9) | |||||||||||
| 1996–1997 | Colorado Rapids | 36 | (4) | |||||||||||
| 1997–1998 | D.C. United | 24 | (7) | |||||||||||
| 1998 | Tampa Bay Mutiny | 12 | (1) | |||||||||||
| Total | 394 | (114) | ||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1992–1998 | United States | 41 | (7) | |||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||
| 1996 | Colorado Rapids (interim) | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Roy Wegerle (born March 19, 1964) is a former professionalsoccer and golf player.
Wegerle was aUnited States international player who appeared for the national team 41 times between 1992 and 1998. Born and raised in South Africa, he wasnaturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991. Since retiring from soccer he has become a professionalgolfer.[1]
As a soccer player, Wegerle was astriker from 1984 until 1998. He notably played in the EnglishPremier League forQueens Park Rangers,Blackburn Rovers andCoventry City, and in the EnglishFootball League forChelsea,Swindon Town andLuton Town. He made appearances in the United States forTampa Bay Rowdies,Tacoma Stars,Colorado Rapids,D.C. United andTampa Bay Mutiny, and was a member of the United States squad at the1994 and1998World Cups. Wegerle is one of two players who played in both theNASL andMLS; the other isHugo Sánchez.
Born inPretoria, Wegerle's soccer career began at the city's Waterkloof Primary School. Surrounded by teammates Clifford Rostowsky, Deon Stein and David Kroser, Wegerle's talents developed rapidly. He soon earned an invitation to join the local adult clubArcadia Shepherds, where his brothers had enjoyed long, successful careers.
Following an unsuccessful trial withManchester United in 1980,[2] Wegerle chose to playcollege soccer in the United States. He spent two seasons with theUniversity of South Florida's team, theSouth Florida Bulls, in 1982 and 1983 and holds the school's single season scoring record with 21 goals. TheTampa Bay Rowdies of theNorth American Soccer League drafted Wegerle in the first round of the 1984 NASL college draft. He would play 21 games and score 9 goals, adding 17 assists, during thelast year of the NASL's existence in 1984, being named league's Rookie of the Year. More significantly,Rodney Marsh coached him at Tampa Bay. This association would be integral to Wegerle's future move to England. When the league folded, Wegerle moved indoors with theTacoma Stars of theMajor Indoor Soccer League for two seasons. At the University of South Florida, Wegerle came under the professional instruction of ex-Chelsea striker andEuropean Cup Winners' Cup winnerDerek Smethurst, who grounded him and got him ready for his professional career.
In 1986, Marsh, a formerQueens Park Rangers star, worked his contacts in England to get Wegerle a tryout. While QPR passed on Wegerle at the time,Chelsea were sufficiently impressed to offer Wegerle a contract. However, Wegerle never played consistently for the Chelsea first team and on March 24, 1988, Chelsea loaned Wegerle toSwindon Town for the last seven games of the season.[3]
At the end of the season, Chelsea sold Wegerle toLuton Town. In his time with Luton, Wegerle became the team's leading scorer and was sold in December 1989 toQueens Park Rangers for £1 million.[1] He finished the 1990–91 season third on the First Division's scoring table, including having the honor of receiving the ITV 'Goal of the Season' award for that season (against Leeds at Elland Road). Wegerle continued to thrive at QPR until the arrival of new managerGerry Francis who had little use for Wegerle and sold him in March 1992.
He joinedBlackburn Rovers for £1.1 million – a joint record fee to be paid by a Second Division club. He helped Blackburn reach the newFA Premier League as Second Division playoff winners in May 1992, but his first team chances were then dented by the arrival ofAlan Shearer atEwood Park, who led the forward line withMike Newell.
The 1992–93 season saw yet another transfer for Wegerle as Blackburn sold him toCoventry City in March 1993 for £1 million after only 22 games. Despite a series of injuries, Wegerle played 53 league games for Coventry, scoring nine goals, until his contract expired at the end of the1994–95 season.[4]
In 1996, Wegerle signed withMajor League Soccer (MLS). At the time, the newly established league was signing known players and allocating them to each of the league's teams in order to ensure an initial parity of talent. As part of this process, MLSallocated Wegerle to theColorado Rapids. However, he enjoyed little success in MLS.
He played a season and a half for Colorado before the team traded him toD.C. United forSteve Rammel 14 games into the 1997 season. Aside from scoring four goals over 36 games with the Rapids, Wegerle also served a single game ascaretaker head coach afterBobby Houghton was fired. When Wegerle arrived in D.C., he joined a team on its way to the league championship. While his scoring pace increased slightly, five goals over 19 regular and post-season games, Wegerle failed to produce as United coachBruce Arena expected.
As a result, Wegerle became part of what is considered the most lop-sided trade in league history,[citation needed] when D.C. sent him to theTampa Bay Mutiny forRoy Lassiter on April 26, 1998. Lassiter was MLS's all-time leading goalscorer; Wegerle played the rest of the 1998 season for the Mutiny, scoring a single goal, then retired.
Wegerle gained his U.S.citizenship in 1991, after being eligible through his American wife. He made his national team debut on May 30, 1992, against theRepublic of Ireland, and went on to record 41caps and score seven goals for his adopted country.[5] On January 8, 1994, Wegerle injured his knee and underwent numerous arthroscopic surgeries, but recovered in time to become a key player for the U.S. in the1994 FIFA World Cup. By 1998, his repeated injuries hobbled Wegerle. He enjoyed a brief resurgence leading up to the1998 FIFA World Cup, but never became the key player he had been in 1994.[6]
According to former U.S. national team coachSteve Sampson, Wegerle came to him and assistant coachClive Charles between the February 25, 1998, game at Belgium and the March 14, 1998, match against Paraguay in San Diego and said he had personal knowledge of an affair between U.S. team captainJohn Harkes andAmy Wynalda, the wife of U.S. strikerEric Wynalda. As a result, Harkes was dropped from the team. The U.S. went on to finish in last place at the1998 FIFA World Cup.[7]
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | June 3, 1992 | Chicago, Illinois;Soldier Field |  Portugal | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1992 U.S. Cup |
| 2 | June 4, 1994 | Pasadena, California;The Rose Bowl |  Mexico | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly |
| 3 | June 18, 1995 | Washington, D.C.;RFK Stadium | Mexico | 1–0 | 4–0 | 1995 U.S. Cup |
| 4 | November 9, 1997 | Vancouver, Canada;Swangard Stadium |  Canada | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1998 World Cup Qualifying |
| 5 | 3–0 | |||||
| 6 | January 24, 1998 | Orlando, Florida;Citrus Bowl |  Sweden | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly |
| 7 | February 1, 1998 | Oakland, California;Oakland Coliseum |  Cuba | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1998 Gold Cup |
He is the younger brother of former NASL-ersGeoff Wegerle andSteve Wegerle. All three played for Tampa Bay at some point in their careers. His brother Steve's sonBryce was also a professional footballer.[8]
Since his retirement, Wegerle has been trying to make it as a professionalgolfer.[citation needed]
He had a brief stay as a co-host ofMLS Extratime onESPN2.[citation needed]
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