Anthony "Tony" Lecce (born January 1, 1945) is an Italian-born Canadian former

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 ...

defender who earned nine

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

with the Canadian national soccer team and played four seasons 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 ...

Career

Lecce played in 1964 with

Toronto Italia The National Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada that existed from 1926 to 1997. Teams were primarily based in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The league was renamed to Canadian National Soccer League in 1993 following the folding ...

in the

Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League The Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada. The league operated for six seasons from 1961 to 1966 across four cities in two Canadian provinces and one American state. In the 1960s, the Eastern Canada Professional ...

for three seasons. Throughout his tenure with Italia he received the league's MVP award in 1965. In 1967, he played in the American Soccer League with

Boston Tigers Boston Metros were an American soccer club based in Boston, Massachusetts that were a member of the American Soccer League (1933–1983), American Soccer League. In their second season, the Metros joined the Eastern Professional Soccer Conference. ...

. He played in the

(NASL) in 1968 with Toronto Falcons. In early 1969, he played with Rochester Lancers in the American Soccer League. The remainder of the season he played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

with former club Toronto Italia. The following season he played with league rivals Toronto Hungaria. In 1971, he returned to the NASL to sign with

Toronto Metros Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor ...

from 1971 through 1973.

International career

He played for

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 ...

where he made his debut on October 6, 1968 against

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 ...

in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match. He would make eight appearances for the national team.

References

External links

* *
NASL stats
1945 births Living people Footballers from Rome Canada men's international soccer players Canadian soccer players Canadian expatriate soccer players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Italian emigrants to Canada Men's association football defenders Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League players American Soccer League (1933–1983) players Canadian National Soccer League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Toronto Italia players Boston Tigers players Toronto Falcons (1967–1968) players Rochester Lancers (1967–1980) players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players {{Canada-footy-bio-stub