Santiago Solari’s improbable rise from DIII soccer to Real Madrid
By Dan Voicescu
Santiago Solari’s journey to becoming Real Madrid manager began with an unlikely, and brief, playing career in DIII college soccer.
Santiago Solari entered a very select group of ex-Real Madrid players who have also managed the club when he was appointed as Julen Lopetegui’s successor at the end of October. None of the other members of that group, however, can claim to have got their start in Galloway, New Jersey, on the outskirts of Atlantic City, where, through a twist of fate befitting Hollywood’s least credible storytelling, young Santiago played a year of DIII college soccer for Richard Stockton College.
As America was catching World Cup fever in the summer of 1994, Saudi Arabia set up their training base on the campus of Richard Stockton College, about halfway between Washington, DC and the New Jersey Meadowlands. Tim Lenahan, an up-and-coming college coach heading into his fifth year at Richard Stockton, was dedicating himself to the logistical and administrative duties required for the setup of the Saudi’s base camp on the school’s campus.
The 1994 Saudi Arabia national team was led by two Argentinian brothers, Jorge and Eduardo Solari, the uncle and father of 17-year-old Santiago. During the five-week training camp, Lenahan forged a strong bond with the Solaris, which allowed him to present Eduardo with a crazy idea: Enroll Santiago at Richard Stockton for the upcoming school year, and have him play soccer.
Even at that time, this must have seemed like a trip down the road to soccer perdition for a young talent aspiring to play professional soccer at the highest level. The number of professional players that got their start at DIII programs can be counted on one hand, and with some fingers left to spare.
Anyone involved in DIII athletics can attest to the fact that, absent any financial benefits beyond subsidized meals on game days, you dedicate the time and effort for the camaraderie, for the love of the game. Most teenagers riding the bus from one New Jersey Athletic Conference field to another would probably rank their prospects of finding a cure for cancer higher than those of going on to start for the likes of Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
And yet during the summer of ’94 the prospect of an American education was attractive enough for Eduardo to entertain the idea of sending his son to college in South Jersey. The exact details are unknown, so we can only surmise that, deprived of the ability to offer a scholarship, Lenahan gave one of the finest recruiting pitches in the history of NCAA soccer, and against all odds secured the services of young Santiago.
As tempting as it is for the low-level soccer players among us to pretend the DIII experience shaped Solari into the player he became, the man himself is clear that his year in New Jersey taught him more about life than it did about soccer. “It was not a soccer experience,” he admitted in an interview with Lenahan in 2011, “but it was an experience about life, about meeting people, about knowing a different culture and different ways of thinking.” Nonetheless, he made his mark on the pitch, scoring nine goals and adding 15 assists before moving to Newell’s Old Boys in 1995.
dark. Next. 25 best club soccer teams of all time
A few years later, I set foot for the first time on the G. Larry James field, home of the Ospreys and former stomping ground of the then-Real Madrid star. The legend of Solari, running roughshod over the ranks of Eastern seaboard DIII soccer programs, had become a rallying cry for opponents visiting the sleepy campus. The myth of the Argentinian superstar was so engrained in our brains we just about expected Solari himself, or at least someone very much on his level, to walk onto the pitch and have his way with us.
Alas, the game turned out to be another typical DIII affair, all sloppy passing, long balls into the mixer and the lapses of judgment characteristic of the third rung of amateur college athletics. The idea someone who had once participated in games like this would go on to win a Champions League final for the galacticos seemed like pure fantasy.
Well, on Wednesday night against Viktoria Plzen, Solari became the first Real Madrid coach in over 60 years to begin his tenure with three straight shutout wins. It seems the star of the former Osprey is still rising.