Brian Waltrip (born January 12, 1978) is an American former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player, who has played professionally in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Career

Waltrip was born in

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

. During his youth he played for both São Paulo FC of Brazil and VFB Stuttgart of Germany. He then went on to play college soccer at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

and was a

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and the ...

candidate in 1999. In 1999, he left university for an offer to play in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for Racing Club de Strasbourg. He was selected in the 2000 MLS Superdraft by the

Tampa Bay Mutiny Tampa Bay Mutiny was a professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida. They were a charter member of Major League Soccer (MLS) and played from 1996 to 2001. They played their home games at Tampa Stadium and then at Raymond James Stadium. The ...

. He opted out of this contract and chose instead to play for

Tampere United Tampere United is a Finnish football club from the city of Tampere. The club plays in Kakkonen, the third highest level of football in Finland. The club had a team in Veikkausliiga, the premier football league in Finland, until the end of the ...

of the

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkau ...

. Only half a season later he signed with

C.D. Olivais e Moscavide Clube Desportivo dos Olivais e Moscavide is a centenary club located in the eastern area of Lisbon that distinguishes itself in practice in different levels of football, basketball, American Football and Table Football, in addition to developing ...

and thereafter

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

of the Portuguese top league. Leaving Portugal, Waltrip went back up north to play with

Mandalskameratene FK Mandalskameratene is a Norwegian football club, from the town of Mandal in Vest-Agder, currently playing in the 3. divisjon. The club was founded on 1 July 1912, under the name of 'Alladin'. In 1918 the club changed its name to 'Mandalskamerat ...

in Norway. After one and a half successful seasons there his contract was bought by

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

. He was there for another year and a half until January 2007 when he was bought by

Sogndal Sogndal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Hermansverk is the administrative center of Sogndal municipality. Other villages i ...

. After another successful season he was bought by Molde FK. In 2010, he left Norway for Japan and spent the next 2 seasons with A.S. Laranja (Kansai League) in Kyoto, Japan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waltrip, Brian 1978 births Living people American men's soccer players Soccer players from Florida Sportspeople from Pensacola, Florida FK Mandalskameratene players Sandefjord Fotball players Sogndal Fotball players Molde FK players South Florida Bulls men's soccer players Tampere United players Veikkausliiga players Eliteserien players American expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Japan American expatriate sportspeople in Norway American expatriate sportspeople in Finland American expatriate sportspeople in Portugal American expatriate sportspeople in Japan C.D. Olivais e Moscavide players Tampa Bay Mutiny draft picks Men's association football midfielders