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RedNation Online recently had the opportunity to speak with Bob Lenarduzzi, the President of Soccer Operations for the Vancouver Whitecaps. In this interview, Bob discusses Vancouver's move to Major League Soccer in 2011, the Whitecaps organizational philosophy and long term plan for the club, as well as the current dispute between the Team Owners Association and the USL. He also discusses his illustrious playing career and his tenure as the Head Coach for the Canadian Men's National Team.
Audio Interview:
The name Lenarduzzi is one that is synonymous with soccer in Canada and Bob is a person that has been successful and influential in all of the many facets of the game in Canada. As a player, he began his professional playing career at age fifteen as a youth with Reading F.C. in England. He played 67 first-team games with the club before returning to Canada in 1974 to joing the North American Soccer League's Vancouver Whitecaps for the team's inaugural season. Lenarduzzi played 11 seasons until the Whitecaps last season in 1984, when the league folded. He holds the record for most games played in the league with 312. He was also the first Canadian to be named North American Player of the Year in 1978. At the international level, Lenarduzzi represented Canada in the 1984 Olympics and the 1986 World Cup. International media voted him among the CONCACAF region's top 30 players of the century.
Vancouver Whitecaps, 1982. Bob Lenarduzzi #5
His career as a head coach began in 1987 as a player/coach with the Vancouver 86ers of the newly founded Canadian Soccer League. In 1989, he retired as a player but continued as head coach of the team until 1993, leading the club to an unprecedented four consecutive CSL Titles from 1988 to 1991. His team set a record for professional North American sports teams when the team went 46 games unbeaten between June 6th, 1988 and August 8th, 1989. His 86ers career total of 96 wins makes him the winningest coach in Vancouver professional sports history. Lenarduzzi also heald the position of Head Coach of the Canadian Men's National Team from 1993 until 1998.
As an administrator, Lenarduzzi served as 86ers general manager from 1988 to 1993. He resumed the position in 1998 and was named the A-League's Executive of the Year for 2000. In 2001 he also assumed the position of the Whitecaps Head of Soccer Operations in the same year that the 86ers changed their name to Whitecaps.
Bob Lenarduzzi has received many awards and honours, including induction into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the North American Soccer Hall of Fame, and the United Soccer League's Hall of Fame. He has also been lauded for his enormous efforts to nurture and promote the game in British Columbia and across Canada.
Whitecaps v. Sounders 1983 BC Place Opens.
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