We all remember when soccer first enchanted us and where it brought us childhood joy.
For George Altirs it was in Mejdlaya, the northern Lebanon village a few miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea.
“We used to play on dirt, on sand,” he said. “A bunch of kids playing pickup ball whenever we could.”
Altirs and I were catching up ahead of this World Cup. We first met when he got involved in New Jersey youth soccer as his sons reached the age for organized sports. Altirs enlisted his major fashion company’s factory to produce jerseys for their teams.
That led to his launching of Capelli Sport in 2011.
At this World Cup, Capelli uniforms are worn by Cabo Verde, one of the tournament’s most intriguing teams, and were already being hailed for their design. That made Altirs especially excited about attending his ninth World Cup. But he was also delighted about another project and showed me a photo of a new gleaming playground mini-field.
It’s at the site of Altirs’ childhood soccer, recently constructed thanks to contributions by him and a childhood friend for today’s kids of Mejdlaya.
“Where we played, 45 years ago, without anything,” he says. “It’s a special feeling.”
New York, New Jersey …
Upon moving to Brooklyn in the late 1980s, Altirs took an entry-level New York City job. Within a year, he and his brother, Masoud ‘Mike’ Altirs launched their own company, GMA Accessories. They operated out of their Brooklyn basement, manufacturing hair accessories, and did business as Capelli New York. It grew into a massive international fashion firm.
“I never really thought I would be in the sporting goods business, but I love sports,” says Altirs.
Soccer — Altirs attended as many games as possible when the USA hosted the 1994 World Cup — remained an avocation. Until he launched the Cedar Stars youth club.
“When my son started with Cedar Stars, we needed uniforms,” Altirs said. “When we couldn’t get our colors, I asked my wife [Liz Altirs] to come up with a few designs. We made them in our factory, for our own 24 players here in Hackensack, New Jersey.”
When Altirs started to invest in professional teams, he thought, “Why would I want to buy from other people?”
Launching Capelli Sport proved the logical next step:
“I learned a lot in the fashion business — sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain. I learned from the big corporations, like Walmart, Target, Macy’s — the department stores. I saw the potential, and we decided to start to go into it seriously.”
Capelli Sport became common throughout American soccer, from youth to the pros. MLS’s PRO Referees have been sporting Capelli gear since 2021. And it spread globally.
More than a 100 professional clubs in Europe — including in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Serbia — wear Capelli. It also sponsors three top-tier teams in Chile.
Africa ...
The Cedar Stars expanded to several New Jersey cities and beyond, including Accra, where Altirs had bought into Ghanian pro club Inter Allies FC.
This year, Cabo Verde became the latest national team to sport Capelli’s uniforms, after Serbia and Trinidad & Tobago.
A nation of 10 islands off West Africa, Cabo Verde has a population 525,000 and an even larger population among the Cabo Verdean diaspora. The Tubarão Azul — the Blue Sharks — prevailed in a qualifying group that included Cameroon, which competed in eight previous World Cups.
After Capelli signed the team, The Athletic ranked its jersey tenth among the 48 teams: “smart, original.” Lifestyle Inc ranked it the No. 3 most stylish: “Cape Verde really knows how to make an entrance.” And on the eve of Cabo Verde’s opener, Spain’s AS daily cited the Blue Sharks’ jersey’s “ingenious pattern.
Cabo Verde made global headlines by opening with a 0-0 tie against World Cup favorite Spain. Its goalkeeper, the 40-year-old Vozinha, became an overnight sensation.
On Matchday 2, Cabo Verde faced another former world champion, Uruguay, and tied, 2-2.
Europe …
A week after he attended the 1998 World Cup in France, Altirs met Liz, who was visiting from Germany, on a beach in Lebanon. They started chatting after the groups they were with bantered about Brazilian and German soccer.
In 2015, Altirs invested in German club MSV Duisburg. The company had over the years also created a Talent ID program. In 2023, Santiago Castaneda, a teenage Florida product, was part of a Capelli Sport squad playing games in Denmark, where he was scouted and signed by MSV Duisburg at age 18. Now 21, he’s played nearly 70 games with second division SC Paderborn 07.
Last season, Castaneda helped Paderborn win promotion to the 1. Bundesliga.
Altirs became owner of Danish club HB Køge in 2019. Its women’s team, propelled by the signing of American players, won promotion to the top flight, and lifted three straight Danish Women’s Elitedivisionen titles in 2021-23. Within two years of playing in the second tier, they hosted Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
“We lost, 2-0, but it was great,” says Altirs, who last May sold the HB Køge women’s team to Angie and Chris Long, the majority owners of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current. “They run the No. 1 club in the world. We partnered with them and then said, ‘You take over HB Køge, it’s better for the club.”
Altirs’ current ownership interests include Barnsley Womens FC, Lithuania’s Utenis Utena and HB Køge’s men’s team.
USA …
As his sons progressed through youth soccer, Altirs’ covered expenses for their lower-income teammates — and a desire was sparked to have a wider impact on the U.S. youth game.
“I wanted to provide a good platform for top soccer players in our area to play at the highest level,” he says. “I put a lot of resources behind helping these kids, to maximize their potential, whether they go play college, or they go pro.”
Among the Cedar Stars’ successes: their U-15s won the MLS Next’s 2026 national title and its U-19s were back-to-back runners up in 2024 and 2025.
Altirs’ contributions to the American game have included building and improving facilities, starting with the conversion of a New Jersey Capelli warehouse into indoor soccer courts. He funded floodlights and a turf replacement at Newark’s St. Benedict’s Prep. Capelli provides gear for Soccer Without Borders. And Altirs serves on the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s New York Leadership Council.
His own experience as a youth player in Lebanon was that, “After you become 15 or 16, the game disappears. There’s no college soccer, nothing for you after that. But I stayed in love with the game. I kept watching.”
After watching every World Cup on TV since childhood, the USA hosting in 1994 enabled him to witness its spectacle in person. He was at the Rose Bowl when the trophy went to Brazil, a team he had an affinity for since a boy, when he was sent Seleção gear from his uncle in Brazil.
At this World Cup, he’s of course enjoying Cabo Verde’s debut, and …
“No. 1 for us is the United States,” he says. “This country has given so much to me and my family, and I’m deeply grateful for that. I love the game, and I cherish every match that matters. Moments like these are what make soccer so special.
“But we really want the USA to win it, or get as close as they can get.”
