Wim Suubier - The Pioneer Wing Back
The Lauderdale Soccer Club (LSC) was founded by the Meeroff family in the early 1990’s as Fort Lauderdade United. Originaly it was a youth club with strong boys divisions playing in the South Florida Youth Soccer Association. Later in the 1990’s the club joined forces with an adult team called Argentinos United to participate in the Florida Gold Coast League (in those days the League was named Gold Coast Soccer League) but when the Camandona family who owned Argentinos United retired from active soccer management, the club adopted the name of Lauderdale Soccer Club. Several famous international professional players/coaches helped the Meeroff family developing the club and also played/coached the teams. Among the most involved with our club we should mention Pedro” Pedrito” Magallanes, Leo “Fiera” Vega, Osvaldo “Ossie” Ardiles, Thomas “shoe laces” Rongen, Akram “Brilliant” Molaka, Roy “Rocky” Hudson, Ricardo “Chiquito” Alonso and Wim “Suave” Suubier.
At this time we want to pay respects to Wim Suurbier who recently passed away in Holand victim of a cerebral hemorrhage. Wim was a former Ajax right back and important member of the Neetherlands Men’s national team who played in two Men’s FIFA World Cup Finals. In the latter stages of his career, Suurbier spent many years in the United States, first performing with the Los Angeles Aztecs (1979-81) and the San Jose Earthquakes (1982) in the North American Soccer League before playing for the Golden Bay Earthquakes (1982-83) and Tampa Bay Rowdies (1986-87) in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He also coached in the U.S. first as assistant with Golden Bay in 1983, and later on as head coach with the Tulsa Roughnecks, the Los Angeles Heat, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, the Miami Sharks and the St. Petersburg Kickers.
Wim was a superb coach with a suave but strong personality who pioneered the idea of wing backs covering the entire length of the side line (“carrilero”), a concept that later on was popularized by players such as Roberto Carlos, Juanpi Sorin, Javier Zanetti and Jordi Alba among others.
We will always remember Wim with great respect.
