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That Clint Dempsey’s professional soccer career started in New England is as much footnote as fact.
There is now plenty of time and distance between Dempsey’s beginning – getting drafted eighth overall by the Revolution in the 2004 Superdraft – and his end, which he reached Wednesday morning by announcing his retirement from soccer as a member of Seattle Sounders FC.
New England and Seattle are the bookends to a remarkable career that spanned 15 years and reached nearly every continent.
For Dempsey, who accrued accolades in Major League Soccer, in the Premier League with Fulham and Tottenham, and at the international level with the United States men’s national team, the stint in New England is like the bullet that doesn’t fit on a one-page résumé.
Dempsey’s days in Foxborough happened a long time ago. His accomplishments there – while great – don’t come close to the level of what followed.
Among his many triumphs, Dempsey captained the U.S. national team and ended his career tied with Landon Donovan for the most goals all-time (57) in the men’s program’s history. He is also the only male American player to score in three consecutive World Cups. He won the CONCACAF Gold Cup thrice and is a three-time U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year.
The Revolution can’t take credit for much of Dempsey’s development, but they were his launching point.
It now seems insane, but six teams – including his native Dallas – passed on Dempsey in the Superdraft almost 15 years ago. In fact, Dallas miffed on Dempsey twice in a row before former Revoluton coach Steve Nicol snapped him up with the eighth pick.
At the time, clubs thought they were being cautious by holding off on Dempsey, believed to be an overly-competitive type with a temper from a relatively unknown collegiate program at Furman University.
To be fair, the scouting reports on Dempsey weren’t completely wrong. In New England, he was suspended twice by the league and once by the team; he got into a fist fight with then-captain, Joe Franchino. Eye-witnesses of the brawl say it was the sort of fight that only one person walks away from, though both Dempsey and Franchino turned back into buddies once things cooled off.
But the fight was more evidence of Dempsey’s ambition and competitiveness than anything else. At the time of the fight, sources say, Dempsey had been irked by MLS rejecting a $1.5 million bid from Charlton.
”I get frustrated because I want to win,” Dempsey told The Boston Globe in 2006. ”And if I am not winning, I am not happy. It’s something that was instilled in me. I don’t know why, maybe it’s genetics. Winning is the most important thing, and it doesn’t matter how we play. After a victory, you can’t put a price on how it feels, and you can’t explain it.”
Fueling Dempsey’s hyper-competitiveness and drive was a flair that had rarely been seen before in American soccer. Dempsey, a polite Texan who loved fly-fishing, became known for his vision and playmaking as much as his knack for rapping and his unorthodox goal celebrations.
In fact, there was never any suppressing Dempsey. Not even a broken jaw could do it. He played with one for two games as a rookie before having it wired shut.
Dempsey didn’t start the first game of his rookie season, but made enough of an impression off the bench to merit a place in the starting 11 in the Revolution’s second game. He started the third game, too, on April 25 at Giants Stadium against the Metrostars and recorded his first professional goal off a corner kick, just 12 minutes into the match.
Even so, Nicol deployed Dempsey as a defensive midfielder to start the 2004 season. It wasn’t until injuries to Taylor Twellman and Joe-Max Moore hit that Nicol used Dempsey in a more advanced role, where he flourished.
”I try my best to help the team win, and I bring my personality to the game,” Dempsey said. ”If you don’t have a playing style, what’s the point in playing? I’m not a robot who just plays the ball. If that’s your style, all right. But I am not vanilla, I add a little flavor. But not too much because you have to find the right balance. You are never at a stage where you are perfect, but you have to push the envelope.”
Dempsey broke the MLS record for goals scored by a rookie in 2004 (7 goals) en route to winning the Rookie of the Year award. He missed a decisive shot in a penalty shootout against D.C United in the Eastern Conference finals that year, but earned his first U.S. national team callup three weeks later for a World Cup qualifier against Jamaica.
In 2005, Dempsey saw an increased role in New England’s attack in a newly-forged a 3-5-2, which gave him plenty of freedom to roam midfield and create in the attack. New England’s style of play greatly favored Dempsey’s mentality and also led to his stock continuing to rise.
Between the 2005 MLS All-Star Game, in which he assisted on a goal against his future club, Fulham, and scoring against Ghana in the 2006 World Cup, Dempsey reached new levels and started to talk publicly about wanting to leave the U.S. to play in Europe.
After being prevented from signing with Charlton, Dempsey said he intended to leave MLS after the 2006 season, when his contract expired. But Dempsey was well-served by the Revolution and MLS choosing to not pull the trigger on an overseas transaction so soon.
The Revolution and the league met Dempsey halfway in December 2006 when they transferred him to Fulham. By letting Dempsey go, the Revolution got what was, at the time, part of record-breaking transfer fee, some of which they used to start their current youth academy. The move also opened the door for Dempsey to test his talent against the world’s top players in the English Premier League.
In the years that followed, Dempsey became a fixture with the U.S. national team and a sought-after talent in Europe. He scored against Liverpool, Juventus, Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton, Manchester United, England, Spain, Italy, Brazil and countless other teams and countries. He became captain of the U.S. national team. He broke records and tied records and rapped on live television. He helped steady the U.S. in the lead-up to the 2014 World Cup, when the program’s compass seemed to be spinning.
And despite all that, Dempsey never forgot his roots.
In 2013, when he returned to MLS to sign with the Sounders, he spoke glowingly of Nicol, the coaching staff, the players and the fans in New England. Every time he’s returned to Gillette Stadium since his departure, he regaled some media members about his time with the club and his experiences scoring goals and fishing with Steve Ralston. He even answered questions for up to 20 minutes after a 5-0 loss to the Revolution in 2014, and he never celebrated the goals he scored against his former team.
Dempsey, now 35, appreciated that New England is where his professional career took root. It’s as much footnote as it is fact.