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Billy Gonsalves

Billy Gonsalves
Personal information
Full name Adelino William Gonsalves
Date of birth (1908-08-10)August 10, 1908
Place of birth Portsmouth, Rhode Island, United States
Date of death July 17, 1977(1977-07-17) (aged 68)
Place of death Kearny, New Jersey, United States
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position Inside Left/Center Half
Youth career
Pioneer
– Charlton Mill
– Liberal.
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1926–1927 Lusitania Recreation Club ? (?)
1927–1929 Boston Soccer Club 52 (16)
1929–1932 Fall River Marksmen 116 (69)
1932 → Fall River F.C. 12 (7)
1933–1937 St. Louis Central Breweries ? (13)
1937–1938 Beltmar Drug ? (?)
1938 South Side Radio ? (?)
1938–1939 Chicago Manhattan Beer ? (?)
1940–1941 Healy F.C. 19 (16)
1941–1942 Kearny Scots
1942–1948 Brooklyn Hispano
1948–1952 Newark F.C.
National team
1930–1934 United States 6 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Adelino William ("Billy") Gonsalves (sometimes spelt in the Portuguese form, Gonçalves) (August 10, 1908 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island – July 17, 1977 in Kearny, New Jersey) was an American soccer player, sometimes described as the "Babe Ruth of American Soccer". He spent over 25 years playing in various American professional leagues and was a member of the U.S. squad at the FIFA World Cup in 1930 and 1934. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Gonsalves was the seventh of nine children born to Augustine and Rose Gonsalves. His parents had immigrated from Portugal two years before his birth. Although born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Gonsalves grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. An excellent athlete, Gonsalves boxed and played both baseball and soccer as a boy. When he was fourteen, Gonsalves began playing for Pioneer, a local amateur team. He then went on to play for Charlton Mill and Liberal. Gonsalves grew in prominence in the local leagues. In 1926, he signed with Lusitania Recreation Club of East Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1927, Lusitania won both the Boston city and District League titles.

In 1927, Boston Soccer Club of the American Soccer League (ASL) signed Gonsalves. Nineteen years old at the time, Gonsalves joined a team which had taken second in the ASL the previous season and was stocked with talented international players. Finding it difficult to break into the starting lineup, Gonsalves did not play a game with Boston until Christmas Eve. However, given the chance, he grabbed it and scored a goal two minutes later. He went on to find the net six times in his next twenty games. That season the Wonder Workers also took the league title.


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