Tom Kain (born July 1, 1963) was the director of sports marketing at Nike. He is also 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 ...

midfielder. He played collegiate soccer at the

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

where he was named as the top collegiate player winner in the 1985

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 ...

. He also earned five caps with the U.S. national team in 1986 and 1987.

Youth

Kain grew up in Wall Township, New Jersey and graduated from Wall High School in New Jersey in 1980. While there he wore number 7, which the school has retired. Wall High School won the New Jersey Group III state championship all three years he played. He had 56 goals and had 40 assists during his junior and senior years at Wall. In 1999, he was named by '' The Star-Ledger'' as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1980s. After high school, Kain played for

. His outstanding play for the Blue Devils led to his selection as a 1982 second team and 1983, 1984 and 1985 first team All American. In 1985, he won the

as the outstanding men's collegiate soccer player. His school record of 51 career goals stood until broken by Ali Curtis in 2000. During his tenure with the Blue Devils, the men's soccer team went 68-13-7. In 1996,

inducted Kain into its Athletics Hall of Fame. Kain is one of 22 college players to be part of the

40-40 club 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, having both 40 goals and 40 assists in their college career.

Professional

After graduating from Duke, Kain achieved a remarkable first, the first American born player to play professionally in Germany. He spent one year at Second Division club Union Solingen, but never played a game. He had been the number one selection, by the New York Express in the 1986 Major Indoor Soccer League draft. After seeing no playing time in Germany, and suffering from a foot injury, he returned to the United States in the spring of 1987 where the Kansas City Comets had purchased his contract rights from the bankrupt Express. He played for the Comets until his retirement in February 1991 in order to pursue business opportunities.

National team

In 1981, Kain was a member of the U.S. U-20 national team at the U-20 World Championship. The U.S. went 0-1-2 in group play and did not qualify for the second round. He was also a member of the U.S. team at the

1987 Pan American Games The 1987 Pan American Games, officially known as the X Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event held in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, on August 7–23, 1987. Over 4,300 athletes from 38 countries in the Americas c ...

. Kain played six games with the United States men's national soccer team between 1986 and 1987. However, he has only 5 official caps as his last game with the team, a September 5, 1987 Olympic Qualifier is not considered a full international.

Post-Playing career

He retired from active playing at the age of 27 while with Kansas City and was hired by

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

. He steadily rose through the company's ranks and became its Director of U.S. Soccer by his mid-thirties. Nike eventually lured Kain away from Adidas. His success at Adidas and Nike led to SoccerAmerica selecting him as their #24 most influential person in U.S. soccer.

Nike

Kain departed Nike on May 8, 2018 as the result of investigation into workplace behavior at the company. Eleven senior managers left Nike as of May 8.

References

External links

MISL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kain, Tom Living people All-American college men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders People from Wall Township, New Jersey Soccer players from Monmouth County, New Jersey Footballers at the 1987 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for the United States United States men's international soccer players Wall High School (New Jersey) alumni Duke Blue Devils men's soccer players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players Kansas City Comets (1979–1991) players 1963 births United States men's under-20 international soccer players American men's soccer players Hermann Trophy men's winners American expatriate soccer players in Germany