Mario Leurinda, a relatively new resident of Natchez, is often found at area soccer matches – city league and high school alike – talking to players on the sidelines, giving advice and describing soccer strategies.

Players would do well to listen. It’s a safe bet they’ll not find a more experienced person in the sport of football, as Leurinda and the rest of the world call one of the area’s fastest growing sports.

Leurinda, now a physician at Natchez Regional Medical Center, was a professional soccer player in his native Honduras for 11 years before a knee injury – and his studies in medicine – sent him to Mexico City, then Miami and eventually Natchez.

&uot;In Honduras, soccer in the No. 1 sport,&uot; he said. &uot;It is everywhere in the world, except the United States.&uot;

Leurinda began playing soccer as a child, but soon worked his way up to the major league, the level of soccer from which professionals are developed in most Central and South American countries, he said.

After six years in the majors, Leurinda was signed to a pro team in 1974, the University Football Club. Three years later, he was traded to the Olympia Football Club, where he played for eight years.

Olympia is &uot;the Dallas Cowboys&uot; of Honduran soccer, Leurinda said, the country’s most popular team.

Leurinda became something of a celebrity, he said, and is still recognized when he returns to Honduras on vacation. &uot;There are only 5 million people in the entire county,&uot; he said, &uot;Not 200 million. It’s like a small town, like Natchez. Everybody knows each other. It’s a beautiful thing when people recognize you.&uot;

Although well known, Leurinda was not compensated like American professional athletes typically are.

&uot;The economy of Honduras is nothing like it is here. We received a salary, but nothing to what you would get here,&uot; he said.

&uot;We played because we loved the sport. The game was the most important thing for us. We would have played without compensation.&uot;

Leurinda is still very active in local soccer, coaching a city league team this summer and working with Cathedral, where one of his sons, Christian, plays.

Soccer definitely runs in the Leurinda blood – Christian, at 13, is the youngest player on Cathedral’s varsity team and Eric, 8, scored 40 goals this summer for Bluff City Veterinary Clinic’s Under 10 championship city league team.

But soccer in the United States, and especially in Mississippi, is not nearly as popular as other sports, most notably it’s cousin American football.

But Leurinda thinks soccer could catch on stateside at any time, he said.

&uot;It depends on the national teams, and how well they do,&uot; he said. &uot;If they win the World Cup a few times, more young people will become interested, and that is important.&uot;