John Souza

Who was John Souza?

John Souza-Benavides, known as John "Clarkie" Souza was a soccer player who earned 14 caps and scored 3 goals for the United States men's national soccer team, and played in the U.S. team's historic 1–0 victory over England in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He was selected for a World Cup All-Star team by the Brazilian sports newspaper Mundo Esportivo, and remained the only American player ever selected to a World Cup All-Star team until Claudio Reyna in 2002. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and died in Dover, Pennsylvania.

Souza is sometimes credited as having scored two goals in the tournament but modern sources indicate he scored neither; Gino Pariani scored against Spain and Frank Wallace scored their first goal against Chile.

Souza was a member of the Fall River Ponta Delgada team that won the National Challenge Cup in 1947, as well as the National Amateur Cup for three consecutive years, from 1946 to 1948. In 1951, he transferred to the New York German-Hungarians and proceeded to again win both the National Challenge Cup and the National Amateur Cup that year.