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Les Wilson was the first North American developed player to play in the top division European leagues.
During his ten year career, from 1964 till 1974, he played in the first and second English divisions. Todays equivalent would be the English Premier League and English Football to the level that he played in, so the highest and second highest levels possible in Europe.
During his time in Europe, he had 144 appearances. During those appearances, he scored eight goals with the Wolverhampton Wanderers, Norwich City and with Bristol city as well. He also helped the Wolverhampton Wanderers secure a promotion to the English First Division in 1967 and finish runner-up in the 1972 UEFA Cup, now being known as the UEFA Europa League.
He was also the youngest player ever at the time to score a goal at an international match. In 1963, when he was 16, he was selected to the BC All-Star team where he scored against the Yugoslavia champions, the Red Star Belgrade.
https://x.com/BCSportsHall/status/2044493962719752506?s=20
After his time in Europe, in 1974, he returned home to play for his hometown Whitecaps. He stayed with the team as a player until 1977, where he retired from professional play.
That doesn’t mean that his time with professional soccer was over, however. He then stayed with the team to serve as an administrator, a coach, and the manager for the whitecaps, leading them to the 1979 NASL Soccer Bowl Championship.
During that time he was also the coach for Canada Soccer and BC soccer. During his time with the teams he led the Canadian Men’s national team to qualification to the 1986 World Cup, and the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup championship.
He was also one of the three founding members of the Vancouver 86ers. The 86ers were a team that replaced the Whitecaps in Vancouver for a while after the NASL collapsed, and was replaced by the Canadian Soccer League in 1986.
The fact that a player who was trained in North America made it to the top of a European league is fascinating enough as is, it doesn’t really matter the time period that it has happened.
We haven’t seen a lot of players start in North America and join a European league, let a lone a top team or top league. Soccer has never been super popular in North America, not now and likely not then either. In recent years it has become more popular, especially with the arrival of the World Cup in a couple weeks, but nowhere close to Europe or South America.
If you want to find out more about the BC Sports Hall Of Fame, or when the induction ceremony will be, you can click here to find out more.