Michael Bradley retires as an icon in U.S. soccer history who made a big impact

Michael Bradley saw the ball coming and diverted his path to intercept Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez’s pass backward near midfield. One touch is all he needed to push the ball into the attack and reach full speed. He glanced up, saw Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa off his line and chipped him from 40 yards out. 

That goal on a June night in 2017 is one of the most memorable in U.S. Soccer history, and it helped give the U.S. a 1-1 draw on the road in Mexico, a rarity in World Cup qualifying. But just four months later, Bradley was booed by American fans when playing for Toronto FC at Atlanta United.

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Bradley announced this week that he will retire after Toronto FC’s final game of the season on Saturday. He will walk away as one of the best, yet polarizing, midfielders to ever play for the U.S. men’s national team — and as one of the most influential players in MLS history.

Bradley finished his career with the third most caps for the USMNT, the 10th most goals and the second most assists. He scored big goals in big games — the long-distance effort at Azteca and his goal against Slovenia at the 2010 World Cup being the most memorable — started at two World Cups and for the team that went to the Confederations Cup final. His versatility in midfield was underappreciated. He scored 15 goals as a midfielder in Holland, then went to Germany and showed his industriousness before moving to Italy and proving himself more than capable on the ball in a league where no American had been able to break through since the 1990s.

But Bradley’s impact goes beyond just what he contributed on the field. 

His decisions on where to play professionally made him a trailblazer. It is commonplace now to see Americans starting and playing in big leagues across Europe, but it was less normal when Bradley went there at age 18 in 2006. He forged his own path in Europe and found success in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. He did the same when he chose to come home and lift an MLS franchise onto his shoulders. 

For the national team, Bradley understood the weight of his leadership and of representing the country; he never shied away from taking on difficult social topics or answering questions after the toughest losses. The bald-headed captain was criticized for coming back to MLS too early in his career, but he took on a massive challenge to turn Toronto FC around and over the next few years was instrumental in transforming what had been a laughingstock into what became one of the best teams in league history. 

At his peak Bradley reached a level few midfielders in U.S. Soccer history ever have.

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“If you look at his career, just purely objectively, he’s had a phenomenal career,” Bradley’s former USMNT teammate Landon Donovan said in a phone interview this week.

“When you say the name Michael Bradley, it’s synonymous with American soccer,” his former U.S. teammate Brad Guzan said.  

On Tuesday night after the U.S. defeated Ghana 4-0 in a friendly, head coach Gregg Berhalter called Bradley an “icon in U.S. Soccer history.”

That should not be considered a hot take. Yet, somehow it is. Bradley became a polarizing figure later in his career, but it had less to do with what he was doing on the field individually and more how people perceived his role in bigger narratives. 

Bradley wore the captain’s armband for the U.S. team that failed to make the 2018 World Cup, and as a result became an easy scapegoat for the institutional issues that doomed that cycle. He and forward Jozy Altidore were booed in MLS stadiums after the loss in Trinidad and seemed to take on more of the vitriol. In some ways, the negativity toward Bradley was inherent to wearing the armband for a team that fell short in such a painful fashion. Bradley understood that. He was one of the only players to face reporters in Couva after the loss. 

“We have nobody to blame but ourselves,” he said that night.

Months after that loss, with the World Cup underway, Bradley allowed me to follow him around for two days in Toronto. The story I pitched was to examine the human side of coping with such a massive loss. Bradley and I had, of course, crossed paths in mixed zones and round tables over the previous years, but we didn’t know each other well when I made the ask. Bradley opened his doors anyway. During the time we spent together in Toronto, he offered no excuses for that failure. He told me the same thing he said he’d tell his wife on those days when he got booed: “That’s part of it.” He opened up to the process of coming to peace with that loss. 

And while too often it felt like more attention was being put on individual players rather than on the bigger problem, Bradley found a way to continue on in the face of the most difficult moment of his career. Toronto FC would capture its first MLS Cup in 2017. Everyone involved in the U.S.’s 2018 World Cup cycle would have that as a part of their story, of course, but that didn’t mean it should completely overshadow everything else.

“I’m proud of who I am, I’m proud of the person I am, I’m proud of the player I am; I’m proud of the leader and the competitor I am, I’m proud of the husband and father and son that I am,” he said that day in July 2018. “I think the people who really know me, the people who have played with me, or the people who have spent real time with me, they know what I am all about. That’s more than enough for me.”

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For those who played with Bradley, it is almost surprising when they are asked how he will be, or should be, remembered. Donovan called him “a top-five professional I ever played with” and a hall of famer.

“When you talk to real footballing people from around the world, there is a reason why the name Michael Bradley rings true with those types of people,” Guzan said. “In a world that we live in now with social media and everybody’s an expert, it’s easy to cloud that judgment and that analysis of him as a player, him as a leader, him as a person. For me it’s a bit crazy to even have that conversation.”

For much of his career, Bradley had to find ways to steer through perceptions that had less to do with how he performed and more to do with his last name. That his father, Bob Bradley, was the U.S. national team coach from 2006 to 2011 added a complicated layer to his national team journey. First, Michael Bradley had to prove himself in the national team program with his father as the coach. Then, when Bob Bradley was fired after a 4-2 loss to Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup final, Michael Bradley had to cope with the fallout.

Michael and Bob Bradley have an extremely close relationship, amplified by their mutual love of soccer, but as their respective influence in the game grew, those dynamics could be more difficult to manage. That was true especially at Toronto FC in 2022 and 2023, when Bob served as coach and Michael remained the captain and leader in the locker room. 

“It’s hard to tell the Michael story without talking about his dad and his influence, too, and how Michael was able to navigate that,” Donovan said. “That’s tricky. Just being around my kids and seeing the challenges involved with that, when they’re not professionals, and then dealing with that at the highest, highest level. I think he did a really, really great job of that.”

The onus fell heavily on Michael to prove himself separately from his father’s standing in the game. He did so with his performances on the field for the U.S., but also in what he was able to accomplish by challenging himself in Europe.

Michael Bradley spent most of the prime of his international career playing under Klinsmann, a manager who players have said was hardly considered a uniting force in the locker room. And when Klinsmann was fired and Bruce Arena hired, Bradley was the leader of a team that felt fractured and ultimately, missed out on the World Cup — a stunning failure that rocked U.S. Soccer.

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It was evident within the program that the issues ran deep and started from the top. 

“There were a lot of challenges with Jurgen,” said Donovan, who was famously left off the 2014 World Cup roster by Klinsmann. “And Michael as the captain had to navigate that. And when you’re a captain of a team where you don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye with the coach, it’s challenging because you are the captain and you want to be the conduit between the coach and the players. … So that was just a really challenging time for him.”

At the club level, Bradley’s impact on Toronto FC, helping to turn the worst franchise in MLS into one of the best for a time, makes him one of the most important players in league history — and arguably in Toronto sports history.

When Bradley arrived in Toronto in 2014, the club had never qualified for the MLS playoffs in its seven-year history. Bradley was the first big name to arrive, followed soon by Altidore and eventually Sebastian Giovinco. Toronto quickly became not just a powerhouse in MLS, but one of the most fun and memorable teams to watch in the modern history of the league. 

Bradley demanded excellence from his teammates in training sessions in a way no TFC player had done before. And in doing so, raised the expectations throughout the organization. His influence stood out in 2017 when TFC put together one of the most dominant seasons in MLS history. Yet even as the club racked up win after win, Bradley and his steely demeanor continually pushed teammates. Complacency even amidst success was never an option for Bradley that season.

With those wins, and with Bradley serving as the voice and heartbeat of the club, TFC also became culturally impactful in Toronto, putting loud, sold out crowds in BMO Field.

Toronto made the playoffs for the first time in 2015, went to its first MLS Cup in 2016 and won it a year later. In 2018, they made a run to the CONCACAF Champions League final before falling to Chivas de Guadalajara on penalties, and in 2019 they went to another MLS Cup final.

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“Just an undoubted leader, a character, someone who always competed at the highest level and gave his absolute all,” former Toronto FC captain Steven Caldwell said on TSN. “Left everything out there on the field and certainly the most dominant and influential player in TFC history.”

Joshua Kloke also contributed to this story. 

(Photo: Mohammad Karamali/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

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