John Harkes

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John Harkes
Personal information
Date of birth	March 8, 1967
Place of birth	Kearny, New Jersey, USA
Height	5 ft 11 in (181 cm)
Position	midfielder
Youth clubs
1985–1987	University of Virginia
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1990–1993 1994–1995 1995–1996 1996–1998 1999 1999–2001 2001–2002	Sheffield Wednesday Derby County F.C. West Ham United F.C. D.C. United Nottingham Forest F.C. New England Revolution Columbus Crew	82 (7) 67 (5) 12 (0) 83 (14) 55 (2) 29 (0)
National team
1987–2000	USA	90 (6)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

John Harkes (born March 8, 1967 in Kearny, New Jersey) was an American soccer player who had a successful professional career in England and the United States, and is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He appeared in two FIFA World Cup finals and won two MLS Cup titles with D.C. United, and was the first American footballer to appear in the final of a major English tournament. A mainstay in the US national team midfield for most of the 1990s, Harkes was named the team's "Captain for Life" by then head coach Steve Sampson. Harkes ended his national team career with 90 caps and 6 goals.

Contents 1 High school 2 College 3 Professional career 3.1 U.S. minor leagues 3.2 England: 1990–1996 3.3 Major League Soccer: 1996–2003 4 International career 5 Off the field 6 External links

[edit] High school

Harkes grew up in the soccer hotbed of Kearny, New Jersey, and played youth and high school soccer with future national team teammates Tony Meola and Tab Ramos.

He attended Kearny High School and graduated in 1984. He is the only New Jersey boy's soccer player to play in four NJSIAA championship matches, including a 2-1 victory over East Brunswick in the Group 4 final in 1984. That year, Kearny went 24-0.

[edit] College

He played soccer at the University of Virginia

[edit] Professional career

[edit] U.S. minor leagues

Harkes began his professional career with the Albany Capitals.

[edit] England: 1990–1996

He truly began his professional career at Sheffield Wednesday of the English Football League in 1990. That season, Harkes became the first American to play at Wembley Stadium when Sheffield Wednesday reached the 1991 League Cup final. There, the Second Division (now Football League Championship) Wednesday upset the First Division (now Premier League) side Manchester United 1-0. Also that year, Wednesday won promotion to the First Division.

In 1993, Harkes became the only American to score in a League Cup Final in a 2-1 loss to Arsenal. The goal earned him English football's "Goal of the Year" award. He also appeared in the FA Cup Final that year, again losing to Arsenal, 3-2 after a replay and extra time. Harkes played one more season in Sheffield, and went on to play for Derby County and West Ham United.[1]

[edit] Major League Soccer: 1996–2003

In 1996, Harkes, along with his US national teammates based overseas, returned to the U.S. for the launch of Major League Soccer. He became D.C. United's first player ever, and led the club to a MLS Cup win and a U.S. Open Cup win. D.C. United successfully defended its MLS Cup title in 1997, with Harkes assisting on the match-winning goal in the cup final.

Despite the disappointment of being left off the 1998 World Cup squad, Harkes helped United capture the Supporters Shield for the best regular season record in the league, before losing in the MLS Cup Final to the Chicago Fire. He also helped United become the first MLS club to win the CONCACAF Champions' Cup and upset Brazil's Vasco Da Gama in the Interamerican Cup.[2]

After the 1998 season, D.C. United traded Harkes to the New England Revolution in a salary cap move. He played two and a half seasons with New England and spent part of 1999 on loan with Nottingham Forest before being traded to the Columbus Crew in the mid-season of 2001. After an injury-plagued 2002 season, Harkes announced his retirement in 2003.

[edit] International career

John Harkes played in the 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups and was controversially cut from the team weeks before the 1998 tournament by national team coach Steve Sampson.

Harkes made his national team debut on March 23, 1987 against Canada and appeared in the 1988 Olympics.

In 1990, he was a member of a World Cup squad made up mostly of college and semi-professional players. United States was routed 1-5 by Czechoslovakia, but were respectable losing 0-1 to host and eventual semifinalist Italy, and 1-2 to Austria. Despite losing all three matches, many players from the 1990 squad, including Harkes, Ramos, Meola, Marcelo Balboa and Eric Wynalda, would form the core of the US national team for most of the decade and play an important role in the development of MLS.

USA fared better as the host nation in the 1994 World Cup, upsetting Colombia 2-1 in a group stage match to advance to the Round of 16. Harkes contributed to the Andrés Escobar own goal which likely led to the Colombian defender's shooting death weeks later [3] . Harkes delivered a cross from the left aimed at Earnie Stewart, which Escobar attempted to clear, but instead sent the ball past his goalkeeper.

However, Harkes missed the Round of 16 match against Brazil after receiving his second yellow card of the group stage against Romania, earning a one-match suspension. Brazil won the match 1-0 and went on to win the World Cup.

In Copa América 1995, Harkes led the United States, a guest team at the tournament, to a 3-0 upset of defending champion Argentina and a semifinal finish. He was named co-Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

In 1996, before the beginning of the qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, head coach Steve Sampson named Harkes "Captain For Life", which meant Harkes would be the captain of the national team as long as he wished and Sampson was the coach. He responded by leading the team in assists in qualifying and helped he United States qualify for a third straight World Cup finals appearance.

However, Sampson controversially left Harkes off the World Cup squad, citing "leadership issues", although the decision was never fully explained.[4] The bitterness resulting from the omission and the irony of the "Captain for Life" title would serve as the inspiration for his autobiography, Captain for Life: And Other Temporary Assignments (ISBN 1-886947-49-X), co-written with Denise Kiernan and published in 1999. In the book, Harkes criticized Sampson for lacking "credibility to a group of guys who had hundreds and hundreds of caps among them" and "putting a huge amount of pressure on young, internationally inexperienced players", and concluded, "I can't think of one thing that Steve did right in the months leading up to the World Cup".[5] The 1998 team went on to lose all three games in the group stage, finishing last overall.

Harkes was called up to the national team again by his former college coach, Bruce Arena in 1999, and helped the United States win the bronze medal in the Confederations Cup that year. He ended his international career in 2000 with 90 appearances.

[edit] Off the field

In 1994, Harkes appeared on People magazine's annual "The 50 Most Beautiful People" issue.

In 2003, John Harkes announced his retirement from professional soccer. He became the Director of Youth Development for D.C. United and acts as a color commentator for soccer broadcasts in the United States for Fox Sports Channel.

Harkes was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2005.

Harkes appears in the 2005 film The Game of Their Lives in the role of Ed McIlvenny, a member of the US World Cup team that upset England 1-0 in the 1950 FIFA World Cup.

Harkes worked as an analyst for ESPN and ABC in broadcasting the 2006 World Cup.

In July 2006, John Harkes left his job at D.C. United to become an assistant coach for Red Bull New York under coach Bruce Arena.

[edit] External links

• U.S. Soccer Players biography
• Soccer Times profile
• D.C. United Director of Youth Development
• National Soccer Hall of Fame profile
• Yanks-Abroad Interview and Article

	United States squad - 1990 World Cup
1 Meola | 2 Trittschuh | 3 Doyle | 4 Banks | 5 Windischmann | 6 Harkes | 7 Ramos | 8 Bliss | 9 Sullivan | 10 Vermes | 11 Wynalda | 12 Krumpe | 13 Eichmann | 14 Stollmeyer | 15 Armstrong | 16 Murray | 17 Balboa | 18 Keller | 19 Henderson | 20 Caligiuri | 21 Covone | 22 Vanole | Coach: Gansler

	United States squad - 1994 World Cup
1 Meola | 2 Lapper | 3 Burns | 4 Kooiman | 5 Dooley | 6 Harkes | 7 Perez | 8 Stewart | 9 Ramos | 10 Wegerle | 11 Wynalda | 12 Sommer | 13 Jones | 14 Klopas | 15 Moore | 16 Sorber | 17 Balboa | 18 Friedel | 19 Reyna | 20 Caligiuri | 21 Clavijo | 22 Lalas | Coach: Milutinović