![]() It was the start of a life steeped in soccer, with Hudson playing first-hand witness to a number of inflection points in the sport’s evolution in the US. It was the most incredible time in my life.” “It was just completely seductive here in every way – the lifestyle, the wonderful competition on the field. “I had no desire to go back to Newcastle,” Hudson said. Fort Lauderdale has been his home ever since. Hudson played another six seasons for the Strikers in the NASL, and spent the better portion of his playing career in the United States. In Hudson’s first season in Fort Lauderdale, the Strikers lost in the playoffs to a Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer-led New York Cosmos side in front of more than 77,000 fans at Giants Stadium. Hudson joined a squad anchored by Gordon Banks in goal. ![]() He was also swept up in the excitement surrounding a league that had hit its apex in the late 1970s. I like that.’”Īrriving in the country for the first time at the age of 22, Hudson was immediately smitten by the Florida sunshine. “The scout says, ‘It’s just outside of Miami.’ I says, ‘OK, that’s good. “I had never heard of Fort Lauderdale,” Hudson said. Hudson’s maiden voyage came in 1977, when a scout approached him with an offer to join the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League on loan from his hometown Newcastle United. It was the Emerald City, where you wanted to be.” It wasn’t just a skip across the ocean like it is now. “I was in love with America before I even came to the United States,” Hudson said.
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