Chris Snitko (born January 24, 1973), is a retired U.S.

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who was the 1995

ISAA Goalkeeper of the Year The ISAA Goalkeeper of the Year was an annual award created by the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America (ISAA) to recognize the best U.S. college soccer goalkeeper. The ISAA began naming an annual men's Goalkeeper of the Year in 1983. In ...

. He then spent six seasons in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

and earned five

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

with the

United States U-23 men's national soccer team The United States U-23 men's national soccer team, also known as the United States men's Olympic soccer team, is a youth soccer team operated under the auspices of U.S. Soccer. Its primary role is qualification into and competition at the quadr ...

Youth

Snitko, though born in

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jers ...

, grew up in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

. He attended Canyon High School where he played on both the soccer and baseball teams. While in high school, Snitko also trained with the UCLA men's soccer team during his spare time. He also spent two years with the local youth club, North Huntington Beach Futbol Club where his team, the Untouchables took the 1990 state title. After graduating from high school, Snitko attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

where he played on the men's soccer team. In 1992, he sat as

Brad Friedel Bradley Howard Friedel (born May 18, 1971) is an American professional soccer coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper. Friedel played 84 games for the United States national team between 1992 and 2005, and represented his country at ...

manned the Bruins' nets. However, in 1993, Snitko became the starting goalkeeper for UCLA, a position he held for the next three seasons. He gained his greatest success as a senior when he was selected as a first team All American and the

.NCAA men's soccer awards
His 31 career shutouts and 47 career victories are both second on the team's respective lists.

National team

In 1996, the

Kansas City Wizards Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the team clubhouse and ...

(MLS) selected Snitko in the first round (fifth overall) of the

1996 MLS College Draft The 1996 Major League Soccer College Draft was held on March 4, 1996, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. History As Major League Soccer prepared for its first season, the league began stocking teams with players. As the teams were being created at the s ...

. That year he did not play with the Wizards as the team allowed Snitko to train and play full-time with the U.S. U-23 team as it prepared for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. While Snitko made the

U.S. Olympic team United States of America (USA) has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern era Olympic Games, except for the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which it led a boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. American athletes have w ...

, he did not start in the tournament because the team also boasted

Kasey Keller Kasey C. Keller (born November 29, 1969) is an American former professional soccer player who played in Europe and the United States, as well as being the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. national team. He is a four-time FIFA World Cup partici ...

as it starting goalkeeper. However, Snitko did earn 5 junior national team caps with the U-23 team.

Professional

In 1997, Snitko rejoined the Wizards full-time. Once again, he found himself behind a great keeper, this time

Mike Ammann Mike Ammann (born February 8, 1971) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper in England and Major League Soccer. Youth Ammann was born in Orange, California. The younger brother of Bob Ammann, he played for t ...

. That season Amman set a league record for 21 wins. Snitko saw time in only five games that year. When the Wizards traded Amman in 1999, it did Snitko no favors as the team picked up

Tony Meola Antonio Michael "Tony" Meola (; ; born February 21, 1969) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He represented the United States national team at the 1990, 1994, and 2002 World Cups. From 1996 to 2006, he p ...

. After only a few games of the 2000 season, the Wizards traded Snitko to the Chicago Fire for two draft picks. Snitko promptly started for the Fire, earning a shutout in his first game with his new team.
/sup> However, he ended the season up with only five appearances with the Fire and was traded to the

Dallas Burn Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

on March 21, 2001 for a third round draft pick in the 2003 College Draft. On June 27, 2001, an error on Snitko's part resulted in a goal for the

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club w ...

in the second round of the 2001 Open Cup.
/sup> Soon after he suffered an injury to his ankle and he only played in one game that season. He retired from playing professionally at the end of the 2001 season. In 2003, the Chicago Fire hired Snitko as a goalkeeper coach for their farm system. He is currently an architectural photographer in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

.
/sup>

References

External links

*
UCLA player data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snitko, Chris 1973 births Living people American soccer players Chicago Fire FC players FC Dallas players Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Association football goalkeepers Sporting Kansas City players Olympic soccer players of the United States University of California, Los Angeles alumni UCLA Bruins men's soccer players Sportspeople from Hackensack, New Jersey Soccer players from New Jersey Major League Soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Sporting Kansas City draft picks All-American men's college soccer players