Canada Soccer Hall of Famer Colin Jose, a soccer historian who spent decades documenting the beautiful game, has died at the age of 88. He died Saturday in London, Ont., 39 years to the day after Canada first qualified for the men’s FIFA World Cup in 1985, according to Canada Soccer.
Jose was a founding member of the Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum, now known as the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame, and served on the executive committee of the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Jose (pronounced Joze) was Canada Soccer’s press officer from 1972 to 1982 and the country’s unofficial soccer historian for another 30-plus years thereafter. He served as the official statistician for Canada Soccer’s national teams, the official statistician and historian of the old Canadian Soccer League, and as a liaison officer on the FIFA press and publications committee.
Jose wrote or co-authored several books covering Canadian soccer, the North American Soccer League, and the American Soccer League. His research and statistics served as the foundation for Canada Soccer’s national database and records management program. Simply put, Jose was a soccer encyclopedia who did it for the love of the game.
“It’s my hobby and I get a great deal out of it,” Jose once said. “I get to see a lot of games; there are some financial rewards, but most years it’s a trade-off; I spend as much as I make.” Jose’s influence was not restricted to Canada.
The Colin Jose Media .