Carl Gentile is a former U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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. He played one season in the National Professional Soccer League and two in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

, all three with the St. Louis Stars. He also earned six

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with the U.S. national team in 1968.

Youth

Gentile grew up in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

where he graduated from

Christian Brothers College High School Christian Brothers College High School (CBC High School) is a Lasallian Catholic college preparatory school for young men in Town and Country, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Louis and is ...

in 1962. He is a member of the CBC Alumni Hall of Fame. Gentile went on to play for St. Louis University, gaining first team All-American recognition in 1965. That year St. Louis also won the

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

. In 2009, Gentile was named to the St. Louis University Men's Soccer Half-Century Team.

Professional

In 1967, Gentile signed with the St. Louis Stars of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). When the NPSL merged with the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

in 1968 to form the

(NASL), the Stars moved to the NASL. Gentile played the 1968 NASL season, then left the team. He returned for the 1971 NASL season.

Olympic and national teams

In 1964, Gentile joined the U.S. Olympic team as it attempted, but ultimately failed, to qualify for the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

. The U.S. lost its first match of qualifying on March 16 when Surinam defeated the U.S. 1-0. Gentile scored three goals two days later in a 4-2 win over Panama. He scored again two days later in a 2-1 loss to Mexico which put the U.S. out of contention for the tournament. Gentile earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

with the U.S. national team on September 15, 1968. A month later he earned his second cap, this time as a defender in a 6-3 victory over

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. He then played three

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

qualification matches, all three wins, the first over

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the next two over

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

Other sports

Gentile played professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

in the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

farm system and attempted to become a professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

kicker, trying out for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

in 1970.

Coaching

Gentile now coaches with the St. Louis Soccer Club, now known as Saint Louis Scott Gallagher. He was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame on October 20, 1995.

References

External links

NASL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gentile, Carl Living people 1947 births American soccer players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Soccer players from St. Louis St. Louis Stars (soccer) players Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer players United States men's international soccer players American people of Italian descent Baseball players from Missouri Association football forwards NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament Most Outstanding Player winners