Hello Colorado Rapids fans. This weekend the club will be retiring Marcelo Balboa's #17 jersey. It's just the fifth jersey number retirement in MLS history and the second one for Colorado (Pablo Mastroeni's #25 was retired July 4, 2021).
Shortly after the end of the 2022 MLS season, we interviewed Celo. This was after the Altitude TV contract had expired. MLS was in the middle of setting up MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Teams were saying goodbye to their local broadcast partners. Celo was in limbo. He was happy and at peace, amid the uncertainty.
Here's that interview again. We discuss him growing up in Southern California and transitioning from college soccer to the fledgling semi-professional game in America. The Colorado Foxes come up. We talk bicycle kicks, his rehab to make the USMNT for the 1994 World Cup, and that wild Copa America. He gets real about his struggles academically, with injuries, and in his personal life. He's got some good stories about his time at Club Leon (Marcelo Balboa Clasico Champions, you'll never sing that!).
Then we discuss his legendary Colorado Rapids moments: That phone call with Phil Anschutz, the first goal in Rapids history, the 1997 MLS Cup Final, the 1999 U.S. Open Cup Final, getting traded to the MetroStars, and more.
We touch on what he's done since retiring, working with the Rapids Academy, doing soccer media in English y Espanol, y mas!
Congratulations Celo. Thank you for everything. Legend, now and always.
