From London to Tampa, Rodney Marsh's journey is a tale of passion, rebellion, and footballing brilliance.
Rodney Marsh invites me to meet him at a restaurant on South MacDill Avenue in South Tampa. The place is called Mad Dogs & Englishmenand the plan is to meet at midday. I wonder briefly if this is one of Rodney’s famous pranks, but it isn’t.
The restaurant is real, with high ceilings and a menu featuring cobb salad and tuna carpaccio. They will be showing the USA’s opening World Cup game against Paraguay on a big screen next Friday night.
Marsh, now 81, is sitting in the corner, sipping a soft drink.
Old friends greet him, and a waitress fusses around him. He has lived in Tampa since 1976, a city he fell in love with from the moment he arrived. ‘I loved Tampa since the day I got here in 1976,’ he says.
‘My upbringing in London was very hard. I was around nasty people, violent people. People here were lovely. When I signed to play here, I thought, ‘are they for real?’. They were genuinely lovely. I have kept the place here ever since.’
From London to Tampa: A Football Maverick’s Journey
Marsh is a legend, a football maverick who illuminated the game in the 1960s and 70s. He played for QPRManchester Citythe Tampa Bay Rowdiesand Fulham. Three times a week, he hosts a popular show on Sirius XMFC called Grumpy Pundits.
His arrival in Florida was a product of an attitude he describes as ‘combative’. He and authority were not a great mix. ‘We won at Highbury but then, after the next game against Burnley, I had this enormous row with Tony Book, the manager, in the dressing room after the game,’ Marsh says. ‘He was upset because we only drew 0-0. He went ballistic, we had words and he went to the chairman, Peter Swales.’
The chairman asked Marsh to apologize, but he refused. ‘So he got Tony Book up to the boardroom and he asked us to shake hands and Tony said, ‘not unless he says sorry to me’. Swales asked me what I thought of Book. ‘Do you really want to know?’ I said. Swales nodded. I said: ‘He’s f***ing useless.’ They put me on the transfer list.’
The NASL Era: Showbiz and Football
Marsh was courted by several clubs, including West BromNewcastleAston Villaand Anderlecht. Elton John, who had bought an NASL franchise in Los Angeles, wanted Marsh and George Best to play in the same side. However, Marsh’s move to LA was hijacked, and he came to Tampa and the Rowdies instead.
He was met by hundreds of screaming fans at the airport. They called themselves the Wowdies. At his first press conference, he was introduced by Tampa Bay’s owner, George Strawbridge, as the White Pele. ‘The standard of the league was like the English Third Division,’ Marsh says, ‘but Pele played in it and Pele was the biggest thing. It was showbiz. It was like a league full of teams who were all the Harlem Globetrotters. It was tremendous. I got a lot of satisfaction from it. They were the happiest times of my life.’
A crowd of 32,000 turned out for Marsh’s first match in the NASL when the Rowdies beat the Chicago Sting 2-1 in the first game of the season. He led the side to a sustained period of success before the philosophy of the league and support for it began to unravel.
Legacy and the Future of Football in the US
Marsh’s contribution to football in the US is immense. He was one of the first few who were instrumental in popularising the sport on this continent 50 years ago. ‘The average attendance at the 1994 World Cup in the USA is still a record. The average crowd was 68,991. I think this World Cup is going to be even bigger,’ he says.
He is going to the England-Ghana game in Boston but is sad that neither Cole Palmer nor Phil Foden are in Thomas Tuchel’s squad. He sees in their absence an echo of the reluctance to trust creative talent that curtailed the international careers of men like him and Frank Worthington and Tony Currie.
‘If you are going to take Jordan Henderson,’ Marsh says, ‘don’t have him in a player’s spot. Have him on the staff. I love him to death. But you are not going to bring him on with five minutes to go if you need a goal.’
Marsh’s legacy is not just about his playing career but also about his role in bringing football to America. He is a pioneer, a maverick, and a legend. His story is one of passion, rebellion, and footballing brilliance.
