Freestyle football great makes history with ninth world title
By Tom Orsborn
30 August 2017
“This is great, and I want more!” said the Brazilian-born Brazilian-American former U.S. national team goalkeeper, Fabián Espíndola, after his ninth World Cup title. “Of course, I love to be here. I haven’t won this many times in my career.”
For Espíndola, the eighth time his countryman Lothar Matthaus stood up and took the whistle to win this title in the pool stage on Monday night, it marked another moment of vindication. It also marked the end of a long and successful playing career for the 34-year-old.
As a goalkeeper growing up in the small country of Brazil, he was always destined to play in the lower divisions of that country, his father being a goalkeeper and his mother a left back. In 1983, he moved to the United States to attend the University of Tennessee (Tenn), where he played for the Vols.
After graduation, his family moved back to Brazil and he joined the Brazilian national soccer team in 1989, playing for them that summer during the 1990 World Cup, with then-goalkeeper Kiko Casilla scoring the first of many goals for the World Cup team. Matheus continued his career in the lower divisions of Brazil, but began looking to play for the USA when Roger Levesque took over the national team duties in 1994. In addition, he was offered his first chance to play for the New York Cosmos, who were managed by Levesque’s son, Frank.
“My parents were very happy I was playing for the USA,” said Matheus, who played one game with the Cosmos before getting his first chance to play on the professional level. “My father said that I’m going to fulfill my dream playing with the national team at the 1994 World Cup, and that’s the start of my career in the United States.”
He played five years in the lower divisions
