Thomas Gardiner is a retired American

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 professionally in the Major Indoor Soccer League and was a member of the U.S. team at the

1981 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship, the third edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in Australia from 3 to 18 October 1981. The tournament took place in six venues—where a total of 32 matches were played. Adelaide, Brisban ...

. Gardiner graduated from

RHAM High School RHAM High School (Regional Hebron, Andover, and Marlborough) is a regional public high school located in Hebron, Connecticut, United States. Overview RHAM's former team name, the Sachems, comes from the name of Native American Indian Chiefs of th ...

where he was an outstanding soccer player. A member of the 1977 Connecticut High School championship soccer team, he was a 1979 High School All American. In 1980, Gardiner played a single season with the Southern Connecticut State University men's soccer team before leaving the team to concentrate on preparations for the

. Gardiner played all three U.S. games in that tournament. In the fall of 1981, he signed with the Philadelphia Fever of the Major Indoor Soccer League but tore is medial collateral ligament after playing only one game. As he recovered from that surgery, he suffered a career ending ankle injury in 1982. He was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame in 2008.First Four Indutees to Connecticut Hall of Fame
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Tom 1962 births Living people People from Hebron, Connecticut# Soccer players from Connecticut American men's soccer players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players Philadelphia Fever (MISL) players Southern Connecticut Fighting Owls men's soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players Men's association football defenders