Ian plenderleith biography

In issue 1 of Eleven magazine, I interviewed author Ian Plenderleith about his book Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer.

Here he discusses what motivated him to write about the NASL, the past and future of soccer in North America and the enduring genius of Rodney Marsh...

Scott Skinner (editor of Eleven): Can you tell me a bit about your background, your relationship with US soccer and what drove you to write the book?

Ian Plenderleith: I’ve lived in the US for 15 years and have been writing about soccer here all that time.

At one time I was writing a series of short history features for a website I was working for, and that’s when I realised the NASL had a raft of untold stories, and that the league wasn’t just about the Cosmos and Pele. It seemed to me the NASL was either forgotten, maligned or misrepresented by various factions of the world and US game.

SS: You write that the originators