During the summer of 1994, Santiago Solari was a promising 17-year-old from Argentina who was part of a training squad that helped the Saudi Arabia National Team prepare for the World Cup on the campus of what is now known as Stockton University.
More than two decades later he’s an interim manager of Real Madrid with Division III college soccer on his resume.
That’s because his visit to South Jersey, where his uncle Jorge Solari and father Eugenio Solari were coaching the Saudi team, ended up stretching through to the fall when he enrolled as a student and played for Stockton’s soccer team.