Roger Verdi (born Rajinder Singh Virdee on 4 February 1953) is an English retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who spent his entire career in North America, making over 100 league appearances in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

Early life

Verdi was born on 4 February 1953,1977 St. Louis Stars (NASL) media guide as Rajinder Singh Virdee in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, to Indian Sikh parents. He was the youngest of their two sons. The family moved to England when Verdi was aged seven, settling in

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

. He attended Sandwell Boys school. Verdi changed his name due to racism. He went by 'Roger Jones' and 'Roger Jones Verdi' before settling on 'Roger Verdi'.

Career

England

Verdi played with the youth teams of both

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

, but failing to get a professional contract with either team, moved to North America.

North America

Verdi began his career in Canada with the Vancouver Spartans. Verdi played in the NASL between 1972 and 1978 for the Montreal Olympique,

Miami Toros The Miami Toros was a professional soccer team in the North American Soccer League from 1972 to 1976. The club was founded in 1967 as the Washington Darts, and moved to Miami, where they played the 1972 season in the NASL's Southern Division ...

, St. Louis Stars and

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchis ...

, making a total of 103 league appearances. He later played in the

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

for the

Cleveland Cobras The Cleveland Stars were an American soccer club based in Cleveland, Ohio and a member of the American Soccer League in 1972–73. Before the 1974 season, the name was changed to the Cleveland Cobras. Overview The Stars' colors were blue an ...

Columbus Magic The Columbus Magic was an American soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio that was a member of the American Soccer League. They played their home games in Franklin County Stadium that they shared with Minor League Baseball's Columbus Clippers. The M ...

, and the Phoenix Fire, and in the

MISL The Misls (derived from an Arabic word مِثْل meaning 'equal') were the twelve sovereign states of the Sikh Confederacy, which rose during the 18th century in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and is cit ...

for Phoenix Inferno.

Coaching career

After his playing career ended he moved into coaching, holding assistant coaching positions with Athlone Town FC, Stockport County, Phoenix Inferno and Cleveland Cobras. Other coaching positions include Co-director for Hubert Vogelsinger Soccer Academy in Texas, Connecticut and California and has been the Technical Director for youth clubs in Washington, New Mexico. He joined DFW Tornados as a coach in 2010. He is also the owner of the Roger Verdi International Soccer Academy.

Later life

Verdi retired to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, working in construction.

References

1953 births Living people Footballers from Nairobi English people of Punjabi descent British sportspeople of Indian descent British Asian footballers English men's footballers English expatriate men's footballers Kenyan people of Indian descent Kenyan emigrants to the United Kingdom North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Montreal Olympique players Miami Toros players St. Louis Stars (soccer) players San Jose Earthquakes (1974–1988) players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Men's association football defenders English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Cleveland Cobras players Columbus Magic players Phoenix Inferno players American Soccer League (1933–1983) players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players Phoenix Fire (soccer) players {{England-footy-defender-1950s-stub