Pablo Campos Wins NASL Most Valuable Player

San Antonio Scorpions’ Pablo Campos, 2012 NASL Golden Ball winner.

The North American Soccer League announced on Wednesday that San Antonio Scorpions’ Pablo Campos has won the Golden Ball award for 2012.

The Golden Ball is awarded to the most valuable player voted on by the media in NASL markets. Twelve of the 18 first place choices were cast for Campos, who appeared in every regular season match for the Scorpions logging in 2,388 minutes and collecting the Golden Boot award as well for scoring 20 goals during the season. He had 5 assists in 2012 and was also a unanimous selection by NASL coaches to the league Best XI. After his 20-goal season and scoring 18 goals last season when he played for the Carolina RailHawks, he now holds the NASL’s all-time goal scoring record with 38 goals in all competitions during the last two seasons.

“It was great to be part of this inaugural season for the Scorpions and being able to set a standard for future Scorpions players to follow,” Campos said. “I want to thank my teammates, coaches and the organization for all their support throughout the year to make all of our success possible.”

The  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil native also said recently that playing for the Scorpions this year has been the highlight of his career. Unfortunately for Campos, his Golden Ball may have already lost some of its luster as his season was cut short when he lost his cool and was ejected from Sunday’s second leg semifinal match in San Antonio, leaving his teammates short handed after head butting Minnesota Stars defender Kyle Altman. Even worse, the red card happened less then two minutes after Campos had put his team up 1-0 over the Stars. Minnesota came back with 2 unanswered goals to defeat San Antonio 2-1 and move on to the finals, cutting the Scorpions’ season short.