Fire striker to end 14-year career.

by Dan Gaichas

 

BRIDGEVIEW, IL--Fire forward Brian McBride has announced his retirement from playing effective at the end of this season after a career that has spanned 14 years with stops in Columbus, Preston North End, and at Fulham before coming to the Fire in 2008.

"It was time for me," said McBride. "It was something that I felt I wanted to do, not so much that that I can't keep playing. It was time for a new segment of life and a different career."

McBride is still the co-leader at Columbus in goals scored with 62 between 1996, when he was MLS’s very first draft pick, and 2003. During that time, loan spells with Preston North End and Everton yielded five goals in 17 matches.

He came to Fulham in 2004 and would score 40 goals in 111 matches twice winning Player of the Year honors in 2005 and 2006.  After coming back from a dislocated kneecap in 2007-2008, he captained Fulham to retain their Premiership status that season. McBride became so popular at Craven Cottage that they have named a bar after him.

The Arlington Heights-native would return home in July 2008 to play for the Fire where he has scored 16 goals in 49 matches despite missing a chunk of 2009 due to shoulder surgery. This year, McBride has four goals and two assists.

McBride is also the United States’ third all-time leading scorer among men with 30 (behind Landon Donovan and Eric Wynalda) and is one of just three players to score in multiple World Cups (Donovan, Clint Dempsey). He has represented the US in three World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006) and in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Managing a club is not in McBride’s immediate future, but...

"I won't say never because I have such a passion for the game and I think I have a few things in my head that can help people," he said.