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If you are an American soccer fan of roughly my age – mid 40’s - you may remember a movie called: Victory, with Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine - directed by the great John Huston.
The film is set in WW2 where a group of war prisoners – captured from around the world – are forced to play a football match against the Nazi German squad – for propaganda purposes.
The filmmakers secured real footballers for the prisoners – the great Pele, Bobby Moore and a young kid from Cordoba, Argentina who looks to be the best of them all. At one point, he dribbles the entire Germans – even includes a rainbow over a defender - scores and even the Germans in the crowd applaud his skill. And he does look – for what its worth for a staged film production – like he is the most skilled out there.
And this turned out to be a normal occurrence for Oswaldo Ardiles.
In 1978 Oswaldo won the World Cup on home soil for his beloved Argentina. Then he did something that was rare for the time. He took his game to north London and signed with the Tottenham HotSpurs with his good friend – Ricardo Villa. As is his tendency, he won over the fan base immediately – but it was during this time unfortunately, that his country of birth and his country of employment went to war in the Falkland Islands.
It was a strange time for Ossie – the English began to look suspiciously on him as an Argentine and his Argentine countrymen did the same – as if this Londoner was not to be trusted.
But Ossie weathered this as he did all things. His career spans nearly 30 years as a player and another 30 as a manager. We met in his hometown of London in a small flat and he could not have been cooler to us. I hope you enjoy our conversation – the great Ossie Ardiles.
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