GoPlay Sports caught up with legendary former Uruguay international striker Ruben Sosa to talk about his life in soccer.

His mullet may have gone, but Sosa is still recognizable and, from the evidence of his grin throughout our 45-minute chat, it’s obvious soccer still makes him smile and as he tells us, if he could live his life again, he would follow exactly the same path.

Montevideo-born Sosa, 53, who was capped 46 times, had an illustrious career and played throughout Europe with teams such as Real Zaragoza, Lazio, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan. From very humble roots, his story is a fascinating one, and it includes playing against Maradona, and appearing at the 1990 World Cup Finals, and scoring the winner against Barcelona in the 1986 Copa del Rey final.

Getting paid in hotdogs

It was in Milan where Sosa was at the peek of his powers and, as he recalls, the novel way he and his manager finalized his contract with Inter, was a million miles away from being paid in hotdogs at Danubio Futbol Club in his native Uruguay.

We start be asking him how he got into the game in South America, and, through an interpreter, Sosa tells us that all the kids in his neighborhood were soccer crazy, but it was strangely his ‘special’ mother who was the soccer fan in his family.

“I started dreaming about soccer when I got my first gift from my parents, which was a soccer ball. When you have 11 brothers you have to try and help them all,” says Sosa with a smile.

“I had a passion for soccer and the only way I could get the family out of the situation we were in was through soccer.

“My mother was the only other person in the family who played soccer. I wrote a book recently about her, she was special because back then the women in Uruguay just cooked and looked after the men.

“It was extraordinary back then. My mother used to go to the games with a soccer hat and a no. 9 on her t-shirt,” says Sosa, again smiling from ear to ear.

“I used to live in a neighborhood which was all about soccer. I started playing when I was five years old, but there wasn’t an age group for us then so I was playing with kids who were seven years old.

“When I used to play junior football the president of the club offered me one hotdog for every goal I scored, so every game I wanted to score 11 goals for all my brothers and sisters, but I can only remember getting seven or eight in one game!

“I played junior football up to 12 years old, but when I was 13 I had to stop playing for a year because I seriously injured my leg.

“When I returned at 14 I went straight to a professional club and played at Danubio and won the championship, moving up from the sixth division and at 16 I was playing in the first division.

“Danubio is a very famous club, Edinson Cavani came from there, it’s a very recogonizable club in our country and most of the best players come from there.

“After three years of playing for Danubio I made my way to Europe and went to Zaragoza.”

Dreaming of Europe

Sosa explains that it was his dream, and all the kids’ at the time to make it big in Europe and he says it was an honor to get the chance to move to Spain in 1985.

Sosa says: “All the young soccer players from Uruguay dreamed about playing in Europe. I wanted not only to go and get a better life but also to prove that players from Uruguay could make it at that level.”

Asked about the differences in players in Uruguay to Spain, Sosa says it was physically where he found he was lacking, especially in his first season with Zaragoza.

“We had the skills and the ability, we used to play in the streets, we played all day, but when I got to Europe their physical capabilities were better. With the skills and tactics I took from Uruguay and then mixed it with the physical skills I picked up in Europe; it was perfect.

“The first year for me was very difficult because the level of training was very high. I scored only eight goals that year with the top scorer getting around 35. But I knew when I got to the physical level I would improve and in the second year I got 14 goals, then 15 and then 24 in the last year and we won the Copa del Rey and beat Barcelona with myself scoring.”

Sosa tells us that he’s proud of his Uruguayan roots and says he’s convinced he and his fellow countrymen have an in-built mental toughness.

“What made us (Uruguayans) so strong, is that we never give up and if we need to train more we train more. There is something inside us that comes out on the field and we have a desire to win,” he explains.

Saturday, April 26, 1986 turned out to be a career-defining day for Sosa. Not only did his deflected free-kick in the Vicente Calderon in Madrid earn Zaragoza their first cup triumph for 20 years, it also projected Sosa’s career on a steep upward curve.

Sosa recalls: “After we won the Copa del Rey I got the chance to go to Italy and at that time Italian soccer was the best in the world.”

Opening the gate for for Uruguayans

“I went to Lazio in Italy and it was a tough league. To make a comparison, the player who hit 35 goals in Spain would only get 15 in Italy, it was hard and a much stronger league.

“I wanted to go and show what I could do, try my best, to get famous and open the gate for Uruguayan players to play in Italy.

“At the time there were just a few foreign players and those from South America were some of the best - Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta etc.

“The teams then could not have as many foreign players as they do now, each team only had a few, e.g. Milan had Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

“Inter Milan had Lothar Matthaus, Jurgen Klinsmann and Andreas Brehme, and all those were classed as foreign players.

“There wasn’t a huge difference between the physical capabilities between the leagues and I was at my peak in Italy.”

The move to Inter Milan

We ask Sosa to pick a funny moment, that stands out from his career, and he tells us about signing for Ernesto Pellegrini at Inter Milan.

“Each stage of my career was important, but Inter was the best part of my career and I’m a fan of Inter and I had it in my heart,” says Sosa before he tells us about sitting in Pellegrini’s office in Turin.

“When I signed my contract with Inter we were talking for two hours and my manager and the club president could not agree on the money,” says Sosa. “So I signed an autograph for the wife of the president, who was Pellegrini at that time.

“He got every player he was going to sign to write their signature so his wife could analyze it. And the way you wrote she could define your personality, and then she would recommend whether or not you would be good or bad for the club.

“For me she said no he’s not a good guy, he’s a horrible person, he only wants the money and he does not make friends.

“I replied by saying to the president that Inter, for me, were the best in the world.

“We proposed that if I scored less than 20 goals the club could pay me the money they wanted, whatever… $100, but if I get more than 20 goals then you have to pay me what my manager wants. I scored 24 and played three years in a row,” Sosa tells us in fits of giggles.

While, he tells us undeniably that his three years at Inter were his best days in club football - top-scoring for the club in 1992-93 and 1993-94 and winning the UEFA Cup, it was his time with the national side and returning home that remains his most memorable.

“Winning the UEFA Cup with Inter was good, but the highlight of my career was winning the two Copa Americas with Uruguay.

“Even though I had the best part of my career in Europe, I think one of the highlights was, at 35, going to Nacional - a team close to my heart - and playing three years and winning three championships.”

Sosa, who now has his own soccer school in Uruguay, tells us about his time playing for Uruguay

“To play at the World Cup was very difficult with the best players and the best teams and in 1990 it was in Italy and so I was desperate to win it there.

“It was a dream to represent your country and for such a small country with three million people to win 16 Copa Americas is amazing and to keep producing players makes me proud.

“I used to play with some very good players, Toto Schillaci at Inter, Karl-Heinz Riedle at Lazio and I played against the best - Maradona, Gullit and Van Basten.”

Maradona

We ask him about playing against Maradona, a player who needs no introduction, but quite simply one of the finest players in history.

Sosa says: “We defeated Maradona’s Napoli in Rome with Lazio with a goal I scored and then we lost 5-1 with Maradona scoring three times.

“The league at that time was the best without doubt, with some big stars.

“I had a good relationship with Maradona, I stayed with him in Sao Paulo, we saw each other frequently and we were around in Italy at the same time.”

Playing professionally in three continents, Sosa played under the guidance of dozens of different coaches, but it was the time in Italy which provided him with the best education.

“I had two coaches which really made an impact on my career - Dino Zoff, the Italy goalkeeper, and Ottavia Bianchi who coached me at Inter and he also coached Maradona at Napoli.

“Those coaches were at the top of the game and had a really big influence on me.”

Soccer in the USA

Sosa tells us he has visited the US on several occasions, and we ask him his thoughts on the game in the country.

“I have been going to the US for a long time and there is a lot of potential, but what I found when I trained here was that kids didn’t seem to enjoy their training,” says Sosa

“You would say you need to train for three hours and they would train all that time, but they wouldn’t enjoy it. And if you’re not doing it with passion and a love of it then it’s never going to happen.

“The kids here have six pairs of sneakers and they have all the equipment, but they don’t enjoy it. Why do they need six pairs? You can only play in one!

Sosa jokes he rarely changed his boots in his playing days.

“I never changed my cleats, when they were old, I would tape them up and fix them.”

Uruguay production line

Sosa explains that Uruguay are proud of their ability to produce world-class players, despite having a population equal to that of Moldova.

“We want to keep producing top players Like Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani - it’s in our blood, it’s in our culture, we’ll keep doing it forever,” he enthuses.

“When I played with the likes of Enzo Francescoli and Daniel Fonseca we thought they were top players, but we keep producing better with the likes of Suarez etc.”

Training in Uruguay

Sosa has a well-established soccer school, with access to great coaches and fantastic clubs in Montevideo. We ask him about the benefits of taking young athletes to South America.

“The idea of taking kids to Uruguay is to put them at the same level and experience playing against Uruguayan teams,” says Sosa.

“In Uruguay every coach who steps on to a field to teach a kid has been a professional, across the country every one is a professional.

“Those coaches believe in what they are coaching, because they have done it and it worked for them.

“It’s important for US coaches to come to Uruguay to learn, experience the culture, the intensity and how soccer is a way of life. The best are always learning and we can learn for you too.”