Ian Feuer

^[1]

Ian Anthony Feuer (born May 20, 1971 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a retired U.S. soccer goalkeeper who spent most of his career with English clubs with time in Belgium and the United States. He runs his own soccer academy Premier Goalkeeping Academy in Southern California and was the goalkeeper coach for the Los Angeles Galaxy, U.S. National team.

Move to Belgium

Feuer, the son of show business parents, was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. While growing up, he developed a love for soccer after beginning to play at age 8. His coaches moved him to the goal when he 11 when he grew. Feuer's life took a significant turn when, at age 15 when he attended a soccer clinic run by Harald Schumacher. Schumacher was so impressed with Feuer that he recommended that Feuer move to Europe to develop his skills and Feuer immediately took his advice.^[2]

Feuer moved to Belgium in 1988 where he signed with First Division power house club BruggeIbecoming one of the first americans to sign a professional contract with a European team.n 1991 he joined Molenbeek, also of the Belgian First Division, on loan from Brugge. He played nineteen league matches For Molenbeek, becoming a local hero. Feuer then moved back to the U.S. to sign for the Los Angeles Salsa.^[3]

International career

While with Molenbeek, Feuer made the U.S. roster for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Feuer and Brad Friedel were the only keepers selected. Feuer also earned his first cap with the U.S. national team when he came on for Mark Dodd in the 71st minute of a March 18, 1992 loss to Morocco. Feuer then went on to receive 18 more caps with the National team although most were on the bench behind Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel.

Return to U.S.

When Feuer returned to the U.S. from Belgium he signed with the Los Angeles Salsa.^[3] He played for Salsa in their 1993 American Professional Soccer League season, making 17 regular season appearances for them.^[4] The team made the playoffs before losing to Colorado Foxes in the championship game.^[4] Feuer was named Rookie goalkeeper of the season whilst with Salsa.^[3]

Move to England

Feuer became the first American born keeper to sign for a Premiership team when he signed for West Ham United1for the994-1995 season. Feuer was backup keeper to the legendary Luděk Mikloško who was their first choice keeper. After and injury to Feuer's hand West Ham loaned Feuer to Division Two club Peterborough United on 20 February 1995 and he was to play sixteen games for The Posh that season. Feuer earned runner up for the Player of The Year award even though he was only there for 3 months.^[5]

Feuer returned to West Ham United and On 11 September 1995 Feuer began another loan spell, this time with First Division side Luton Town, and he debuted for them two days later against Millwall. He started fourteen straight league matches for the Hatters up to a game against Tranmere Rovers on 2 December 1995, and then on 14 December Luton signed him on a permanent basis for a fee of £880,000. His first game as a full Luton player was on 16 December 1995 versus Portsmouth. In total he played 38 league games for Luton in the 1995–96 season.^[6] Feuer received the coveted "Player of the Year" award as well as the "Supporters Player of the Year" award.

He established himself as a cult hero and the club's first choice as keeper, seeing time in 97 League matches overall for Luton,^[7] until he injured his right shoulder in August 1997.

MLS

On March 24, 1998, Major League Soccer (MLS) signed Feuer on a free transfer from Luton Town. MLS allocated Feuer to the New England Revolution. He played 26 games in the 1998 season before being traded to the Colorado Rapids for a future draft consideration on February 24, 1999. The Revs traded Feuer when Walter Zenga announced he intended to play for New England. Before the trade, the Revs had loaned Feuer to English Football Conference club Rushden & Diamonds. Feuer impressed during an FA Cup tie in which he made numerous impressive saves to take his team to a 0-0 draw with Leeds United.^[8]

When Feuer arrived in Colorado, he was the backup keeper to Marcus Hahnemann. However, when Hahnemann moved to Fulham during the season, Feuer stepped into the nets for the Rapids last nineteen games of the season. Those nineteen games saw the Rapids rapidly drop in the standings and on November 29, 1999, the team declined to pick up the second year in Feuer’s contract.^[9]

Back to England

On October 1, 2000, Feuer signed with Cardiff City on a monthly contract as a backup keeper, although he did not play a League game for them. However, a month later he was transferred to West Ham where he made 3 League appearances.^[10] At the end of the 1999-2000 season, he moved to Division 1 club Wimbledon. He spent the next two seasons with Wimbledon as understudy to Kelvin Davis. However, the club did loan him to Derby County during the 2000-2001 season where he made just 2 appearances, although he was released by Wimbledon at the end of the 2001-2002 season. On August 12, 2002,he signed a week by week contract with Tranmere Rovers when their starting keeper, Keith Welch, was injured. That only lasted two weeks and two games. Feuer then had a trial with Arsenal followed by a trial with Wolverhampton Wanderers during September 2002 where he featured as an unused substitute in two league games. Less than a week later, Crystal Palace attempted to sign Feuer when Matt Clarke was injured. However, they could not come to terms with Feuer and pulled out of the deal. Feuer then retired from playing professionally and returned to the U.S. to start his coaching career.

References

External links

• Derby County
• Feuer’s Goalkeeping Academy

United States squad – 1992 Summer Olympics 1 Friedel 2 Rast 3 Lalas 4 Burns 5 Imler 6 Brose 7 Washington 8 Lapper 9 Snow 10 Reyna 11 Allnutt 12 Dayak 13 Moore 14 Jones 15 Ibsen 16 Lagos 17 Huwiler 18 Feuer 19 Henderson 20 Onalfo Coach: Osiander