Alexander Skotarek (born April 2, 1949) is a retired

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soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

defender. He played in both Europe and the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

during the 1970s and early 1980s. He also earned ten

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with the U.S. national team in 1975 and 1976. His parents are from

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Player

College

Skotarek attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

where he played on the men's soccer team. He is tied for seventh on Michigan State's season assists list with nine in 1968. That season, Michigan State and Maryland were declared co-champions in the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship after the game remained tied at 2–2 after two overtimes.

Club career

Following college, Skotarek pursued a professional career in Europe. He spent at least the 1971 and 1972 seasons with Dutch First Division club

MVV Maastricht Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging Maastricht (), commonly known as MVV Maastricht (, ) or simply as MVV, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently ...

. Prior to the 1973 season, he was transferred from MVV to a Belgian club from Diepenbeek. In 1975, he returned to the U.S. and signed with the

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from ...

of the

(NASL). He spent three seasons in Chicago before being traded to the Tulsa Roughnecks. He then played with the Roughnecks from 1978 through 1981. However, in 1981, he saw time in only one game and retired from playing professional soccer.

National team

Skotarek played ten times for the U.S. national team in 1975 and 1976. Skotarek's first game with the national team came on August 19, 1975, in a 3–1 loss to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. He played one more game that year, another loss to Mexico six days later. His next eight games all came in 1976, five of them were first-round qualification games for the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

. However, the U.S. was eliminated after losing 3–0 to

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in a tiebreaker game played in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. Skotarek was also on the Team America roster for the USA Bicentennial Cup which pitted a mixture of U.S. national team players and NASL stars against the national teams of England, Brazil and Italy.

Coach and general manager

In 1978, Skotarek was the interim head coach of the Tulsa Roughnecks during part of its inaugural season. In July 1982, he became the team's

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

References

External links

Hall of Fame eligibility profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skotarek, Alex 1949 births Living people People from Sindelfingen American soccer coaches American men's soccer players Chicago Sting (NASL) players Emigrants from West Germany to the United States Michigan State Spartans men's soccer players MVV Maastricht players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) head coaches North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) executives Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984) players United States men's international soccer players Men's association football defenders 20th-century American sportsmen