Michael Mason (born June 28, 1971) is an American former professional

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 spent his playing career in Germany.

Club career

Mason was born in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

, Germany, but holds a U.S. passport. He began playing at lower division clubs

KSV Baunatal KSV Baunatal is a German association football club based in Baunatal, Hesse. The team was founded on 13 April 1964 out of the union of ''KSV Altenritte'' and ''KSV Altenbauna''. The club's greatest success has been its three seasons spent in th ...

and

KSV Hessen Kassel KSV Hessen Kassel is a semi-professional German football club based in Kassel, Hesse. KSV competes in the German Regionalliga Südwest, the fourth tier of German football. Nicknamed "Die Löwen" (the lions), the club was founded as FC Union 9 ...

before being picked up by

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in 1994. He played with the reserve team until 1996, when he made the first of a handful of first team appearances. In 1997, Mason's career hit its high point. He was playing

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

football at Hamburg which led to U.S. national team

Steve Sampson Mark Stephen Sampson (born January 19, 1957) is an American soccer coach. He is also the former head coach of both the United States men's national team and the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. Collegiate career Sampson attended UCLA ...

calling him up. That year, he 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 ...

. He spent two years at FC St. Pauli, then played briefly with

FC Gütersloh FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

, getting picked up by

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Obe ...

during the 1999–2000 season. He last played at a German Regionalliga Süd side, Hessen Kassel, a team he played with as a youth. At his previous team,

SV Elversberg SpVgg 07 Elversberg is a German association football club, located in Spiesen-Elversberg, Saarland. History The club was founded in 1907 as ''FC Germania Elversberg''. It was dissolved in 1914, but then re-constituted in 1918 as ''Sportverein ...

, he played for former U.S. national player

Brent Goulet Brent Goulet (born June 19, 1964) is a retired American soccer forward who later coached SV Elversberg from 2004 to 2008. He began his career in the United States before moving to England and Germany, and also earned eight caps with the U.S. nat ...

who was a longtime player and now coach for the team.

International career

Mason was discovered to be eligible for the

United States national team The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

through an e-mail that was sent to manager

. He was called up to several qualifier matches for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Michael 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Kassel Citizens of the United States through descent American soccer players German people of American descent Sportspeople of American descent Association football midfielders Association football forwards United States men's international soccer players Hamburger SV players FC Carl Zeiss Jena players FC St. Pauli players VfR Aalen players SV Elversberg players KSV Hessen Kassel players FC Gütersloh 2000 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Hamburger SV II players Footballers from Hesse