By Ed Piper
"Did you see that Pele died?" asked my neighbor.
Yes, I saw that.
"He came down into the locker room, and I saw him there."
This was Jean Willrich, a Hall-of-Fame forward for the San Diego Sockers, who was telling me this. I didn't know who he was until this conversation, after years of exchanging hello's while he walked his dog in the neighborhood. Amazing.
Talk about missing a lead in my own neighborhood!
The circumstances with Pele were the NASL, which both Pele and Willrich played for, though at different times. Pele had retired from the New York Cosmos in a campaign to popularize soccer in a soccer-resistant America. Jean, a German born of a French dad and a German mom who was then 17, filled a forward position for the Cosmos in 1978 and 1979.
He considered Italian great Giorgio Chinaglia, another international player the Cosmos signed up, and Johan Cruyff, a Dutch superstar, among his peers. From his native Germany, Franz Beckenbauer was a machine.
Jean's agent recommended instead of taking the time between seasons off, to play in sunny San Diego, "right at the border, where there are pretty senoritas." And that is where Willrich gained his renown and ultimate Hall of Fame selection for the Sockers, who won several MISL titles in a row. He scored over 200 goals for them in indoor soccer.
So, the career list of teams he played for is impressive: a team in Holland, then the Cosmos, also the Sockers. He never left San Diego.
"When I retired, I ran the Poway youth soccer league," the funny, heavily-accented Willrich said. He coached student-athletes from Rancho Bernardo and Poway high schools, all the time living in my neighborhood, unbeknownst to me.
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