Doug McIntyre’s weekly MLS column, 23 Thoughts, parses through the latest insights and inside info from around American soccer.

We’ll kick off this week’s column with a few more words on – who else? – Clint Dempsey, who announced his retirement on Wednesday. The out-of-nowhere news elicited an avalanche of heartfelt tributes to Dempsey from across the American soccersphere, and for good reason: Deuce’s story and the way he played the game resonated with people.

I tweeted yesterday what I’ve written in the past, that in my opinion, Dempsey is the greatest U.S. player of all time. Let’s be clear. I don’t intend to disparage Landon Donovan, the only other contender for that title for now (with all due respect to OGs like Claudio Reyna and Brad Friedel), by saying this. Donovan is a legend in his own right. Based on sheer ability, he’s probably the superior player. I don’t think Donovan’s accomplishments get the respect they deserve either, especially in Europe, because he decided to spend most of his career in MLS. That said, “GOAT” is a subjective designation. I lean toward Dempsey for two simple reasons.



1. No American attacker has ever been as consistently good, for as long, against elite European club competition. The Premier League was probably the best in the world when Dempsey arrived in 2007. (I’d say it’s third now, behind La Liga and the Bundesliga). The Champions league final was an all-English affair the following year. The best strikers flocked there. But by the time he left for the Sounders in 2013, Deuce had turned himself into one of the most reliable scorers in the Prem.

2. Look at the numbers. Over his final three seasons in England, Deuce scored 36 league goals. According to TruMedia stats guru Paul Carr, only five players (Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Demba Ba and Gareth Bale) managed more during that span. And Dempsey, who was often deployed as a midfielder, got all but seven of those goals playing for Fulham, not Manchester City or Man United or Arsenal.

3. Dempsey’s legendary competitiveness is the other thing that sets him apart. People say he played with a chip on his shoulder. I think he had one on both. The memory of Dempsey walking off the field after the U.S. squandered a two-goal lead and lost the 2009 Confederations Cup final to Brazil spoke volumes. He was inconsolable, the tears streaming down his face. Dempsey scored the opener in that match, and he also had the clincher in the 2-0 upset of Spain in the semis.

4. To be sure, that loss stung every U.S. player. Yet most of them seemed to realize that they had done themselves and their country proud, that there was no shame in losing a close final to the best national team in history. Not Clint. He was devastated. Dempsey personified American’s soccer’s ongoing quest for global respect more than any player I’ve ever seen.

5. Years ago, I interviewed The Price is Right host (and Seattle Sounders minority owner) Drew Carey about his brief stint as a USMNT photographer. He told a great story about a young Dempsey, who was with the U.S. for a friendly against Poland in Germany ahead of the 2006 World Cup. As the American players poured out of the tunnel for warmups, two local shutterbugs were blocking their path. The other Yanks simply jogged around them, but Dempsey ran straight up to the pair and screamed “Get the f*** out of my way!” They did. Those seven words are Dempsey in a nutshell.

6. Admittedly, covering Dempsey’s career form start to finish probably influences my GOAT pick. U.S. Soccer posted a video of all 57 of his international goals on Wednesday. I saw more than half of them in person. Dempsey’s first came in the first USMNT game I covered for ESPN the Magazine, against England in Chicago way back in 2005. A few weeks later, I was embedded with an MLS “Select Team” that traveled to Spain to play Real Madrid for the Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu. The visitors lost 5-0. At breakfast the next morning, I asked Clint if he could appreciate the skill Zinedine Zidane, (Brazilian) Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, et al. had displayed the night before. The look he shot me could’ve killed. He was pissed. I always got the sense teammates and team staffers, even those he was tight with, were always a little scared of Deuce. Maybe for good reason. I’ve heard at least one story that involved Deuce pinning a guy to the wall by his neck.

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