Roy Wegerle

Roy Wegerle

Personal information
Date of birth	(1964-03-19) March 19, 1964 (age 61)
Place of birth	Pretoria, South Africa
Position(s)	Striker, midfielder
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 Representing  United States Runner-up CONCACAF Gold Cup 1993 Runner-up CONCACAF Gold Cup 1998
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Roy Wegerle (born March 19, 1964) is a former professional soccer and golf player.

Wegerle was a United States international player who appeared for the national team 41 times between 1992 and 1998. Born and raised in South Africa, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991. Since retiring from soccer he has become a professional golfer.^[1]

As a soccer player, Wegerle was a

Born in Pretoria, 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 club, Arcadia Shepherds F.C., where his brothers had enjoyed long, successful careers.

Following an unsuccessful trial with

In 1986, Marsh, a former Queens 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 to Swindon Town for the last seven games of the season.^[3]

At the end of the season, Chelsea sold Wegerle to Luton Town. In his time with Luton, Wegerle became the team's leading scorer and was sold in December 1989 to Queens 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 manager Gerry Francis who had little use for Wegerle and sold him in March 1992.

He joined

The 1992–93 season saw yet another transfer for Wegerle as Blackburn sold him to Coventry 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 the 1994–95 season.^[4]

In 1996, Wegerle signed with Major 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, MLS allocated Wegerle to the Colorado Rapids. However, he enjoyed little success in MLS.

He played a season and a half for Colorado before the team traded him to

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 the Tampa Bay Mutiny for Roy 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.

According to former U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson, Wegerle came to him and assistant coach Clive 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 captain John Harkes and Amy Wynalda, the wife of U.S. striker Eric Wynalda. As a result, Harkes was dropped from the team. The U.S. would go on to finish in last place at the 1998 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	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-ers Geoff Wegerle and Steve Wegerle. All three played for Tampa Bay at some point in their careers. His brother Steve's son Bryce was also a professional footballer.^[8]

Since his retirement, Wegerle has been trying to make it as a professional golfer.^{[citation needed]}

He had a brief stay as a co-host of MLS Extratime on ESPN2.^{[citation needed]}

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roy Wegerle.

• Excellent account of Wegerle at QPR
• NASL/MISL stats