It's true. An American played a major role in the Spanish League last season.
Dimitri Piterman had a bought a quarter share of debt-ridden Racing Santander, making him majority owner and president of the First Division newcomer. But Piterman, a graduate of Cal Berkeley, wasn't planning on a luxury-box view of his new team.
He took charge of practice and impressed the players by introducing some innovative exercises and outracing them frequently during sprints. Piterman, 40, was a star triple-jumper at Cal.
The Spanish federation didn't allow the unlicensed Piterman to take a spot on the bench during league games.
''It's crazy,'' Piterman told reporters, ''any old idiot can run a country, but you need a piece of paper to sit on the bench.''
First, he threatened to buy front-row seats for Santander's match at Osasuna and yell through a megaphone. Instead, he got photographer credentials, shouted orders from the sidelines and relayed advice to official coach Chuchi Cos.
Piterman had replaced Coach Manolo Preciado with Cos, who had played on the Spanish Third Division team in Palamos that Piterman bought six years earlier and steered to the Second Division.
Santander survived the First Division, but fellow shareholders forced Piterman into a vice president's role for this season.
Piterman immigrated to the United States from Ukraine at age 14, acquired U.S. citizenship, and began accumulating a fortune in San Francisco-area real estate while still a student in Berkeley.
He started splitting his time between Northern California and Palamos, where he built a museum for his collection of Salvador Dali works.
''Five years ago, he told us he'd be owning a First Division team, and we laughed,'' says Glenn Van Straatum, who coached Dimitri's sons in a San Francisco U-6 league. ''He had his opinions, but he never tried to coach my team.''
by Soccer America Executive Editor Mike Woitalla