The Mohawk’s staying for now.
And so is Clint Mathis, for the time being, while the whispered rumors about the MetroStars’ forward slowly turn into a racket that have him headed to Europe.
Now that his face (or Mohawk hairdo) is recognized from huts in Africa to the skyscrapers of New York, Mathis’ stock was never higher. Before the World Cup even started and the U.S. team captured the attention of the global soccer fraternity, Mathis was said to have been on his way to more money and better competition with Bayern Munich in Germany.
He returned Saturday night a pseudo-hero, not winning it all, but grabbing hold of this country’s short attention span and now finding himself doing the talk-show circuit to tell all.
His finest moment came in the match against host South Korea, when he scored a goal and had the country asking, “Who’s the guy with the Mohawk?”
“Scoring that goal, it wasn’t like it was real,” Mathis said. “There were 68,000 Koreans cheering . . . and then it was like you could hear a pin drop.”
For the time being, Mathis, 25, said he’s “concentrating 100 percent on playing for the MetroStars,” who have him under a non-binding contract for another year-and-a-half.
“I’m going to do what’s best for me and my family,” said the Georgia native, who hopes to be back in the Metros’ lineup tomorrow night against Colorado.