Pedro Guilherme DeBrito (May 25, 1959 – July 5, 2014) was a

soccer player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. His career took him through multiple U.S. leagues including 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 ...

, Major Indoor Soccer League, American Soccer League and the National Professional Soccer League. Born in

Portuguese Cape Verde Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. History 15th century The islands of Cape Verde was discovered in 1444 by Dom Prin ...

, he earned one

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 United States national team in 1983.

College

DeBrito, a native of Cape Verde, moved with his family to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

when he was nine. His family then moved to the U.S. when he was fifteen. After high school, he attended the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

. He played as a forward on the men's soccer team and finished his four seasons with 43 goals and 59 assists. He holds the school's career assists record and, , is fifth on the career goals list. In 1981, UConn defeated

Alabama A&M Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Mars ...

2–1 to win the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship. He was a 1980 Honorable Mention and 1981 First Team All American honors. The University of Connecticut inducted DeBrito into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. He was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame in the Class of 2000. DeBrito was one of 22 college players to be part of the

40-40 club 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smalle ...

, having both 40 goals and 40 assists in their college career.

Professional

The

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

of the

drafted DeBrito with the first pick in the 1982 NASL College Draft. That year he was the NASL Rookie of the Year as a forward. In 1983, the U.S. Soccer Federation, in coordination with the NASL, entered the U.S. national team, known as Team America, into the NASL as a league franchise. The team drew on U.S. citizens playing in the NASL, Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and dies and signed with Team America. When Team America finished the 1983 season with a 10–20 record, the worst in the NASL, USSF withdrew the team from the league and DeBrito returned to the Rowdies. However, he did not play for the Rowdies in 1984 as the team traded him to the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...

on April 26, 1984, for Refik Kozić and cash. While DeBrito played as a forward with the Rowdies and as a midfielder with Team America, the Cosmos used him as an outside back. DeBrito remained with the Cosmos through the 1984 NASL outdoor season. The league collapsed at the end of the season and the Cosmos jumped to MISL for the 1984–1985 season. However, the Cosmos did not last the season and DeBrito signed with the Dallas Sidekicks (MISL) as a free agent on September 10, 1985. On February 13, 1987, DeBrito injured his right knee putting him out for the remainder of the 1986–1987 season. He began the 1987–1988 season with the Sidekicks but the team attempted to trade DeBrito the Tacoma Stars for Godfrey Ingram. When the two teams failed to complete the trade, the Sidekicks released DeBrito due to salary cap considerations nine games into the 1987–1988 season. DeBrito then signed with

Wichita Wings The Wichita Wings were a professional indoor soccer franchise based in Wichita, Kansas. The Wings were admitted to the Major Indoor Soccer League as an expansion team on August 21, 1979.

as a free agent. Later that season, he broke his right leg. In 1989, DeBrito played for the

Albany Capitals The Albany Capitals joined the third incarnation of the American Soccer League in 1988. The team joined the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the ASL merged with the Western Soccer League. The club played in Albany, New York. Afte ...

of the outdoor American Soccer League. DeBrito returned to the Dallas Sidekicks as a free agent in 1990 and remained with the team through 1991. On December 2, 1992, he signed with the

Detroit Rockers The Detroit Rockers were an indoor soccer team in the National Professional Soccer League from 1990 to 2001. They played in Joe Louis Arena and Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit, Michigan as well as The Palace of Auburn Hills and Compuware Sports A ...

of the National Professional Soccer League and played with the team until 1994 when he retired from professional soccer. He later spent time in Portugal before returning to the United States and settling in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

where he continued to play for local recreational soccer teams.

National team

DeBrito earned his only

in the U.S. national team's only game in 1983, a 2–0 win over Haiti on April 30, 1983.

Personal life

DeBrito's parents were John and Angelina DeBrito. He had five sisters: Vera, Fernanda, Valeriana, Angela, and Maria. His younger brother, John DeBrito, was also a professional soccer player in the 1990s and early 2000s. Pedro was the Boys Varsity Soccer Coach for the Oliver-Wolcott Technical High School in Torrington, CT in 1999. DeBrito was critically injured in an automobile accident in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, on July 3, 2014, and died as a result of those injuries on July 5, 2014. He was on his way to work as a manager of the Drew Estate Cigar Company when the car he was driving hit a tree in the median.

References

External links

UConn Soccer Records

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debrito, Pedro 1959 births 2014 deaths African-American men's soccer players All-American college men's soccer players Albany Capitals players American people of Cape Verdean descent American Soccer League (1988–89) players American men's soccer players UConn Huskies men's soccer players Dallas Sidekicks (original MISL) players Detroit Rockers players Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Men's association football utility players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) players New York Cosmos (1970–1985) players New York Cosmos (MISL) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Tampa Bay Rowdies draft picks Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) players Team America (NASL) players United States men's international soccer players Wichita Wings (MISL) players Road incident deaths in Florida 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people People from São Nicolau, Cape Verde Portuguese emigrants to the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States