Earnest Lee Stewart Jr. (born March 28, 1969) 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 played as a striker or a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. His career spanned 17 years from 1988 until his retirement in 2005, with the majority of them spent in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, the country of his birth. He was also a United States international, and is currently the sporting director of the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

until February 15, 2023.

Early life and education

The son of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

airman Earnie Stewart Sr. and his wife Annemien, Stewart grew up in

Uden Uden () is a town and former municipality in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. Since 2022 it has been part of the new municipality of Maashorst. History Uden was first recorded around 1190 as "Uthen". However, earlier settlements h ...

, the Netherlands.

Playing career

Stewart began his professional career in the Netherlands in 1988 with

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, followi ...

. By the end of 1990, he made his first appearance for the United States national team against

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 th ...

. In his first season at Willem II, he finished third on the goal-scoring list for the Dutch First Division with 17. He went on to score 49 goals in six seasons there. In the meantime, he became a regular for the United States national team, starting all four games that the United States played in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

. Most notably, he scored the goal that gave the United States its winning margin against

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

in the group stage, the first World Cup game won by the United States since

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

. By 1996, Stewart had moved to

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Div ...

, eventually spending more than six seasons there. NAC was

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

in 1999, but Stewart helped the club win the First Division in 2000, thereby earning promotion back to the Eredivisie. During his years at NAC, he also played in all of the United States team's matches at the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

s, becoming one of only five American men to play at three

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

s. In January 2003, he left the Netherlands to play 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 Cana ...

, and was allocated to D.C. United, where he won the

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

in his second season. His scoring numbers did not equal his earlier high standards, as he tallied just four regular season goals and one playoff goal in MLS. He left D.C. after the 2004 season, coming back to the Netherlands and his original club, VVV-Venlo, where he became technical director following his retirement in 2005. Stewart became the eighth American man to make his 100th international appearance in a 2004

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

against

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pet ...

. His 111 goals as a professional in the Netherlands makes him the highest-scoring American in international club play. He was named

U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year The U.S. Soccer Player of the Year is given by the United States Soccer Federation to the American soccer players judged best in the calendar year. It is considered the highest accolade for American soccer players. The U.S. Soccer Male Player o ...

in 2001.

Post-playing career

Stewart was named technical director of

of the Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

on May 14, 2006. He was appointed as

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and host ...

's Director of Football Affairs in June 2010. The 41-year-old succeeded Marcel Brands, who left AZ for PSV. Stewart left his post as Technical Director at NAC Breda by mutual consent. Stewart stated in the past that he had a long-term goal of returning to United States soccer in an executive role: "One ambition I do have is to go back to the United States and to be of importance to soccer." Stewart accomplished just that, when on October 26, 2015, the

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 2010 ...

officially announced that Stewart would take on the role of sporting director for the club. On June 6, 2018, Stewart was named general manager of the United States men's national team. On August 12, 2019, Stewart was named the first sporting director of the

. On January 26, 2023, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced that Stewart would be departing and would be joining PSV to be closer with his family. Stewart will remain with U.S. Soccer until February 15 to ensure a peaceful transition so that the federation can search for another sporting director.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list the United States' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Stewart goal.''

References

External links

Stewart to Join NAC Breda

Moneyball comes to AZ Alkmaar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Earnie 1969 births Living people People from Veghel People from Uden Citizens of the United States through descent United States men's international soccer players American soccer players D.C. United players NAC Breda players VVV-Venlo players Willem II (football club) players Major League Soccer players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Dutch emigrants to the United States African-American soccer players FIFA Century Club Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Dutch people of American descent Sportspeople of American descent Directors of football clubs in the Netherlands Association football forwards Association football midfielders National Soccer Hall of Fame members 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople Footballers from North Brabant Dutch footballers