The 62-year-old former defender spent six years playing for the legendary New York Cosmos. He shared a dressing room with Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and Pele before the North American Soccer League collapsed and Eskandarian got into the business of selling football shirts and boots instead.
"It was an unforgettable time, we had almost 70,000 people at every game," he recalls. "We had a private jet taking us around and 11 national team superstars playing together. We made fun of everybody. We all acted like little kids."
Yet, across the Atlantic Ocean, Eskandarian’s legacy is very different; he was one of the chief architects of Scottish football’s nadir, the 1-1 draw with Iran at the 1978 World Cup finals.
Scotland left for the finals with coach Ally MacLeod promising at least a medal. One apocryphal tale tells of how MacLeod promised to win the whole thing. A disastrous 3-1 loss to Peru in the opening match was followed by a must-win game against an unknown Iran team.
