Captain for Life and Other Temporary Assignments.
By John Harkes with Denise Kiernan. Casebound. 260 pages. $24. Sleeping Bear Press (1-800-487-2323). John Harkes the author has good things going for him. He is one of the few truly successful American-bred players. His career coincides with what has been, from an American player’s standpoint, the most important decade of the U.S. game. He was the focus of an extraordinary controversy in 1998. And he can describe in detail not one but two incidents of Bruce Arena fainting. That Harkes played for Arena, Lothar Osiander, Bob Gansler, Bora Milutinovic and Steve Sampson enables him to take you on a trip through a significant era. His U.S. career came to a screeching halt, at Sampson’s hands, and the two chapters surrounding the ouster are captivating. Certainly, Sampson left too much open to speculation by citing issues that “will remain private” when he demoted Harkes from captain and 11-year U.S. veteran to spectator. Harkes admits to some transgressions, but his depiction makes Sampson look bad. You decide how many grains of salt to take with the Harkes version, but one detailed account of the episode is better than none. More importantly, this is the story of a unique figure in the sparse history of exceptional American players. Harkes grew up in the working-class, immigrant-laden town of Kearny, N.J. The son of Scottish parents, he developed into a talent with an admirable will to succeed. He played college ball at Virginia, then did what no other American had ever done — he found respect, success and a degree of wealth playing English soccer. Harkes’ play in cup finals at Wembley, his encounter with some great English names, and his perseverance in that challenging environment are praiseworthy and make for good reading. A couple criticisms: Harkes describes the labor disputes with the U.S. Soccer Federation but doesn’t give us any dollar figures. How do we know who’s right — or greedy — when we don’t know the numbers? And Ernie Stewart was not the “first — and only — soccer player ever to” be on
Sports Illustrated’s cover. (Bob Rigby was the first of a few in 1973). The book may not match the entertainment value of the Shep Messing classic from the NASL days — that one detailed off-the-field escapades and four-letter words. “Hell” is as harsh as Harkes’ book gets, and I bet language gets more colorful than that on the fields of England. Still, the first insider’s view of the last decade of American soccer is worth a soccer fan’s attention.
— Mike Woitalla
