Jon Van Woerden — CLUBELEVEN

Photography by Nico Polo

Three World Cups, decades of experience shooting since the ‘70s, and surreal anecdotes with legends of the game. Truth is, few photographers have the trajectory Jon van Woerden has had. It’s been a distinguished career full of adventures, and we were lucky enough to meet him in Florida to sift through his archives and reminisce over the countless memories he holds covering the sport in North America.

For Jon, it all started in Canada playing soccer in grade school. After moving to Florida in 1964, he was shocked by the lack of soccer in America, but he fell back in love with the game with the arrival of Pele.

“When I arrived, there was no soccer down here at all,” he remembers. “But in ‘76, my dad took me to a Toros game in Miami, and we saw a game with Pele. That’s when I really got into soccer again. I felt like the game had finally arrived,” he says.

It wouldn’t be long before he picked up a camera and started shooting his favorite sport.

“I started out just shooting local bands back in the day. I was still in high school, I bought a cheap Minolta 101, and I got started in photography. The rest is history. I was first covering concerts, and when soccer came around, I figured I could cover that too. It was basically the same – bad lighting and action. I just gave it a try, and that’s how I got into doing sports.”

In ‘77, when the Strikers came to Fort Lauderdale, Jon unassumingly began working for them as a freelance photographer, before becoming the team photographer after an eventful European tour with the club.

“When I went to England with the Strikers, it was the worst winter they’d had in years. All the pitches were frozen. Gordon Banks was our goalie at the time – a legend – and Bobby Charlton actually showed up to one of our matches. It was a really amazing moment for me to meet him. After that tour in England, I was offered the full-time photographer position at the Strikers.”

It would be the start of a fruitful career that would lead him to cover some of the most important events in American and world soccer history.

“Soccer was pretty incredible back in the day,” he stresses. “At the Strikers, they would bring the team in on motorcycles, cars, and even elephants. Elephants! Teams were just trying very unique things. A lot of teams had major international stars too. Pele, Beckenbaur, Cruyff, George Best, Nene Cubillas, Gerd Muller, and so many other legends came over. It was hard to enjoy all of it because once you’re shooting, you’re locked out of actually watching the magic going on on the field. My photographs are my memories.”

It really was a different world back then. Everything was done “old school,” and it added to the excitement of being on the field shooting.

“Everything was analog back in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” he says. “I’d just look at the negatives after a game, and only one shot out of fifteen was usually worthy of publication. So you’d spend some time editing those few shots, developing the prints, and then sending them over via FedEx to your publication. It was a whole different world back then.”

After spending a few years with the Strikers in the ‘70s, the following decade ushered in an era of new adventures for Jon. He even got to play alongside Gerd Muller.

“In the early ‘80s, I was playing for an amateur soccer team in Fort Lauderdale that my dad was running. I remember it was 1983, and the Strikers were going to play a game over in Minnesota, but Gerd Muller decided to stay behind. Somehow, we actually got him to play on our amateur squad, and we played the NATO ships that came into Fort Lauderdale. They had a soccer team, and they wanted to play against us, so we met up with them and Gerd was one of our strikers for that game. It was a great time. You’d think he’d go around and score like crazy, but he took it pretty easy and was just very friendly.”

That wouldn’t be his only anecdote with a legend of the sport. A few years later, he got to cross paths with his old NASL friend Pele. To this day, Jon still keeps the countless magazine covers, messages, and photos that the Brazilian star signed for him.

“One of my favorite anecdotes happened with Pele. I was running a photo studio, and I was covering the Copa Pele with another studio photographer. I had met Pele a few times before while covering the NASL, but my colleague didn’t know that. I remember I walked into the stadium, got onto the elevator, and Pele was coming down from the fourth floor just by himself – no bodyguards or anything. He looked at me and said, ‘Hi John, how are you?’ I just said hello back, and my fellow photographer was stunned. It was a pretty funny encounter. But Pele was such an incredible guy. I still have some signed shots of him to this day.”

Later on in the ‘80s, Jon began working with US Soccer. He’d amassed an incredible resume with his work on Soccer America and Kick Magazine, but this new gig opened the door to see the world and capture the American team at one of the most pivotal moments in its history.

“I started working with US Soccer in 1987 as they were trying to qualify for the World Cup. I shot some of those qualifiers in Mexico City and in Fort Lauderdale, which was awesome. Then I got to travel to different spots in the Caribbean and Central America just following the team too. I was at that big game against Trinidad, which the US had to win if they wanted to go to Italy 1990.”

“Caligiuri scored that wonderful goal, and the rest was history. It was an amazing game. They oversold the tickets, so there were people clamoring outside the stadium. Everybody was wearing red, and it was just a sea of people. It was amazing because even though they lost the game and were so close to making the World Cup, the hosts were happy. The game was well won by the US, and it changed everything.”

That victory would take the USMNT to a World Cup for the first time since 1950. And it would also take Jon to his first World Cup ever as a photographer for Soccer America.

“I got to shoot 22 games at that 1990 World Cup, including the Final,” he says. “The US didn’t last quite as long as we’d hoped, but we still had some good laughs.”

“Covering a World Cup for the first time was crazy,” he admits. “We were there for five weeks, and besides shooting the games, we got to visit different cities and be amongst fans from all over the world. We covered a game in Rome, and then the next one was in Turin, so we drove up the Italian coast for that second match. It was well worth it. It was an unforgettable experience.”

The process of actually shooting a World Cup game was also unlike anything most would expect.

Jon (left) at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. Photo courtesy of Jon Van Woerden.

“I remember we’d have to show up three hours earlier, and then they’d let us onto the pitch. It would be a free-for-all since there were no reserved spots. It was a fight for it. In Italy, Fujifilm was our official supplier, so they would give us the film and process it too. On the field, they’d give us envelopes with our names on them, and when we’d finish a roll, we’d stick it in the envelope and chuck it backwards. We had runners, and they’d pick up the envelopes and process the film during the game. By the time the match was over, your film was already processed and ready to go. Then, it was just a matter of editing it and sending it over to your outlet.”

After that experience in Italy, it was a race to the first World Cup in the US. The four years between World Cups were an exciting time for soccer in America, and Jon was right at the center of it.

“I got to travel with the US team to a lot of different places. Even with the USWNT. In 1991, for instance, the USWNT was getting ready for the first Women’s World Cup, and we went to Haiti for the Concacaf Qualifying Tournament. We went to Cité Soleil in Port au Prince, and we bought soccer balls and equipment for all the kids playing there. It was one of the most impoverished parts of the country, so it was shocking to see. But for a lot of these trips it was shooting the games and getting to do other things outside of that.”

Jon describes those years as special, particularly because of the big marketing push ahead of the World Cup. That excitement would especially allow him to work on many creative projects with the US team.

“I remember doing a photoshoot with the USMNT ahead of the World Cup, emulating the Iwo Jima statue. It was a cover for Soccer Magazine. They were looking for something dramatic, and we thought, ‘What about an Iwo Jima shot?’ We did the photoshoot with the squad after one of their training sessions. We posed them at Tamiami Stadium with a flag, and then I photoshopped some rocks and the ocean so that it would look like the statue. We wanted it to look like the whole team was raising up that flag ahead of the World Cup.”

And it was quite a fitting shot. When the World Cup finally arrived on American shores, it was an emotional moment for both the players and those working to cover the event. It felt like the pinnacle of everything the US soccer community had been working towards for decades.

“The players were so excited to be going. It was a very positive vibe ahead of the tournament. It was an amazing time. It was exciting to see the stadiums totally packed, and I was happy to be able to cover the opening game and the final at the Rose Bowl as well. It was so impressive to see the staging that goes behind a World Cup match compared to a regular soccer game, and getting to see the US play at home was unbelievable. It also helped that the final was one of the most memorable ones in history.”

For Jon, it was a dream come true to cover two World Cup finals back-to-back.

“The World Cup final is the pinnacle for the players on the field, but it’s the same for all of us covering it,” he says. “It feels like the culmination of everything you’ve worked towards. I’d love to do it again in 2026.”

Even if it did feel like the culmination of years of work, Jon wasn’t done, and the years following that pivotal World Cup ended up being even more fruitful with the arrival of MLS.

“There was a big promotional push for MLS after the World Cup. And there was a lot of photography involved with that, of course. It was an exciting time getting to see professional soccer return to the US. During the ‘80s, the crowds had dwindled here in Florida, but with the start of MLS, the huge crowds were back again. Just like it had been with the Strikers, the Rowdies, the Cosmos, and all these other teams back in the day. The stadiums were big again, there were fans coming in, and the promotional stuff was great. NASL didn’t do that as well back in the day, but they had a lot of creative ways to promote things in those early years of MLS. It was a great time for soccer.”

Jon once again found himself at the center of a new wave of pro soccer. Shortly after the league kicked off, he began working for the Tampa Bay Mutiny, and a new adventure began.

“Covering soccer during those early years of MLS was pretty neat. I got to shoot for the Mutiny after the World Cup, but I was living in Fort Lauderdale. They had Southwest Airlines as their sponsor, so they would basically fly me out back-and-forth on gamedays to Tampa. Eventually, I bought a very cool 1987 BMW M6, and I would just make the 3-hour drive over. I would drive to the game, have dinner afterward, and then head back at like midnight to Fort Lauderdale.”

“During those years, it was great getting to see Carlos Valderrama and a few of those other international stars arrive here,” he adds. “It created a whole new atmosphere for the game.”

Since then, Jon has continued to cover the game on our shores, and he even got to go to one last World Cup in 1998. But these days, you can still find him on the Inter Miami CF sidelines covering the latest soccer revolution in our country.

For almost fifty years, he’s seen the game evolve in America, documenting it with unparalleled precision and creativity. In his home study, amidst magazine covers and numerous boxes of negatives, we continue to chat about his time with the game. It’s clear he’s a treasure-trove of anecdotes, memories, and experiences that preserve the history of our sport in North America.

“When I was shooting, I didn’t think about keeping all the negatives and stuff,” he admits. “To be honest, I just did it because I kind of hoarded them, I guess. Now that I look back, I’m glad I didn’t throw all that stuff away. I’m in the process of scanning everything, and it’s cool to see the progression of everything across time – from shooting black & white film to digital. I guess it’s pretty neat to know I’ve helped preserve a bit of history in some way.”

After hours of examining his collection of prints and negatives – which could easily fill a museum – Jon gives us some parting advice.

“Just shoot as much as you can, and keep everything you shoot. You never know how valuable it can be for the sport years down the line.”