Bloodied but unbowed: McBride to retire

Word from Ives on Twitter is that today’s “major player announcement” from the Fire – due to drop in about three hours – is Brian McBride saying so long (farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu) not just to the Fire, but to his days as a player. Even when you see it coming, it’s hard to countenance.

“Bake” was the first draft choice in the first MLS draft, and his subsequent adventures in England – where he developed into the very image of the classic #9 target forward – made him a bit famous and quite a bit wealthy before he returned home to Chicago. But the bare facts of McBride’s career (142 goals in 416 professional appearances; 30 goals in 96 caps for the USA) don’t explain the love fans have for the man. The fans at Fulham didn’t change the name of the bar at Craven Cottage to ‘McBride’s’ because he banged in 40 goals in four seasons. It is something more with McBride, something different.

In an age when we can listen in (via Twitter) on the most mundane aspects of an athlete’s life (did you know Maurice Edu couldn’t decide between scrambled eggs and fried eggs last week? I do!), McBride is a throwback – quiet, humble, almost taciturn at times. But it is his toughness, his willingness to endure the shattering collisions the position requires, that has earned him the most love. McBride took the banging, the elbows, the tripping, the kidney-punches, over and over and over – and he took them all with an air of melancholy dignity, as if saying, “My will is not negotiable; my emotions are my own.”

That is what I will remember years from now: Brian McBride’s dignity. ‘McHead’ came of age before American footballers had any expectation of success in the world’s game; that he retires in a different age can, at least partially, be credited to his selfless play. Of course the enduring image is of his face shattered (again!) by that de Rossi elbow in the ‘06 World Cup; of course he took it with Midwestern stoicism; of course he is beloved; of course he will be missed.

So, to you, Brian McBride, a Chicago original, sláinte and farewell.

(If you want to go on a scoring rampage to end the season, sir, that’d be just lovely.)

Category: Brian McBride, Team News