Taylor Timothy Twellman (born February 29, 1980) 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 professionally from 1999 to 2010. He now works in the media as a soccer television commentator. Twellman is best known for his play with the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

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 ...

(MLS) from 2002 to 2009, during which time he scored more goals in MLS than any other player."MLS blocks another offer for Twellman"
''Boston Globe'', Frank Dell'Apa, January 31, 2008. He was the youngest player to score 100 goals in MLS in 2009 at the age of 29, and is New England's all-time leading goal scorer. Twellman was a five-time MLS all-star and in 2005 was the league MVP.
Washington Post, Steve Ulman, November 3, 2010. Twellman also earned 30 caps for the United States national team, scoring 6 international goals. Twellman has been active since his retirement in promoting awareness of concussions and working in the media. He currently works as a color commentator for ESPN/ABC.

Youth and college

Taylor was raised in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, and attended Saint Louis University High School (SLUH), where he was an all-star athlete in

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, in which he was offered a contract by the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

. After graduating from SLUH in 1998, Twellman rejected the offer, electing to play soccer at

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

on an athletic scholarship. At

, Twellman played soccer in 1998 and 1999; in 1998 Twellman was named a second-team

All America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n for the squad, and in his sophomore 1999 season he finished as a runner-up for both the

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 ...

and the MAC Player of the Year Award. After only two seasons with the Terrapins, Twellman left college to turn professional.

Professional career

In 2000, Twellman signed with German

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 ...

club 1860 Munich. He spent two years with the team, but played for the reserve team in Division III, and never played above the reserve level. Twellman returned to the U.S. when he was drafted second overall by the

in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft. In Twellman's first season in MLS, he established himself as one of the best players in the league, scoring 23 goals. He finished second in league MVP voting, and was named to the 2002

MLS Best XI The MLS Best XI is an annual acknowledgment of the best eleven players in Major League Soccer. Winners *Players in bold were awarded the Landon Donovan MVP Award for that season. Most appearances by a player The following players have appeared ...

. In the 2003 season, despite being beset by a number of injuries, Twellman finished tied with Carlos Ruiz of the L.A. Galaxy for top goalscorer of the league with 15. His production went down in 2004, as he ended up with just nine goals. TaylorTwellman 2006 MLS Cup

Twellman's best MLS season came in 2005, winning both the

Major League Soccer MVP Award The Landon Donovan MVP Award is an annual award for Major League Soccer, MLS players. It is voted on by media, MLS players, and club management and is given to the player deemed the most valuable player in the league each season. From 1996 to 20 ...

and

MLS Golden Boot The MLS Golden Boot (currently commercially termed "Audi Golden Boot") has been awarded since the 2005 season to Major League Soccer's regular–season leading scorer. The award replaced the MLS Scoring Champion Award that was awarded since the le ...

, and finishing the regular season with 17 goals. He was also named to the 2005

. Twellman was the target of transfer talk when

Odd Grenland Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

of Norway reportedly made a $1.2 million bid for him, which MLS rejected. In February 2007, New England announced they had signed Twellman to a four-year contract, reportedly worth $5 million. In 2007, Twellman won his first title with the Revolution: the

US Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

, a season in which he finished third in MLS in goals scored. The Revolution also won the Eastern Conference title, with Twellman scoring a spectacular bicycle kick against the Chicago Fire to secure the Revs' spot in the 2007 MLS Cup. Twellman scored the opening goal of the 2007 MLS Cup against Houston Dynamo. However, this would be New England's only goal as they would go on to lose their third straight MLS Cup by a score of 2–1. In January 2008, English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

team

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

attempted to entice Major League Soccer and the New England Revolution to sell Twellman. Preston initially advanced an offer of $1.7 million, but MLS and the team rejected that offer, rejected another offer of $2.5 million, and then rejected another bid for $3 to $3.5 million, which would have been the fourth highest and possibly the second highest transfer fee in MLS history to date.

Injuries and retirement

Twellman suffered a neck injury and a serious

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...

from a mid-air collision against

Los Angeles Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began play ...

goalkeeper

Steve Cronin Steve Michael Cronin (born May 28, 1983 in Sacramento, California) is a retired American soccer player who most recently played for D.C. United of Major League Soccer. Career College and Amateur Cronin played college soccer at Santa Clara Unive ...

on August 30, 2008. Twellman played the rest of the 2008 season, but due to lingering symptoms from his whiplash and concussion, he played only two games in 2009. Twellman had planned to make his return during the 2010 season, but he was unable to play that season and was placed on the season-ending injury list. After struggling to find any playing time over the past three seasons in MLS due to his head injury, Twellman announced his retirement from the game at the end of the 2010 MLS season.

International career

Twellman began his involvement with the U.S. national program at youth level with the U-17 and U-20 squads. He first gained professional attention after scoring four goals for the U-20 national team at the 1999 World Youth Championship while still playing with the University of Maryland. He also represented the United States at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and surrounding towns and ...

After establishing himself in MLS, Twellman made his first appearance with the senior U.S. national team on November 17, 2002 against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. He struggled to score his first international goal, having several apparent goals waved off for offside infractions. He finally scored against

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

in a World Cup qualifier on October 12, 2005. He improved his chances for a spot on the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

team in a friendly against Norway on January 29, 2006. In the game, he scored the ninth

hat trick A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

in U.S. national team history, but was ultimately left off the World Cup roster by coach

Bruce Arena Bruce Arena (born September 21, 1951) is an American soccer coach who is the head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Arena has had ...

. Twellman was selected by new U.S. coach

Bob Bradley Robert Frank Bradley (born March 3, 1958) is an American soccer coach who is the head coach and sporting director of Toronto FC. A native of New Jersey and graduate of Princeton University, Bradley coached in the American college game and Maj ...

as a member of the U.S. squad for the

2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the ninth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and was won by the United States over Mexico. It was contested in the United States from ...

, scoring in a group stage win over El Salvador. Twellman gradually fell out of the national team pool in the following years after a series of concussions sidelined his club career.

Post-retirement

Twellman has had an active media career after retiring as a player. He currently serves as lead color commentator for ESPN's

coverage alongside lead play-by-play man

Adrian Healey Adrian Healey is an English football commentator, currently working with MLS Season Pass broadcasts on Apple TV. He is a veteran football commentator in the U.S., working for networks such as ESPN; he was part of the ESPN commentary team in S ...

and later

Jon Champion Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as the lead association football commentator for ESPN (US). Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC ...

. He also hosts a weekly recap show about the league, ''MLS Rewind'', on

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Twellman called the 2012, 2016, and 2020 European Championships, and in 2014 Twellman was ESPN's lead analyst for U.S. matches in the World Cup in Brazil. Since retirement, Twellman has created the THINKTaylor foundation, a charitable organization regarding sports-related concussions. Twellman has agreed to donate his brain to science after death. His brain could be of use to determine whether multiple concussions cause permanent harm to the brain. Twellman Soccer provides programs and tools for players, coaches and organizations across the United States.

Personal life

Taylor's father

Tim Twellman Timothy Twellman (born May 1, 1955) is an American former soccer player who spent seven years in the North American Soccer League and four in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He also earned one cap with the U.S. national team in 1982. After re ...

, and uncles Mike Twellman and Steve Twellman, all played professionally in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. Taylor's brother James Twellman played with the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

reserves in 2002. Taylor's grandfather,

Jim Delsing James Henry Delsing (November 13, 1925 – May 4, 2006) was an American Major League Baseball outfielder who is most remembered for having been the pinch runner for -tall Eddie Gaedel on August 19, 1951. He also was the centerfielder replaced by ...

, was a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

outfielder in the 1950s for five teams. His uncle is golfer Jay Delsing.

Career statistics

MLS

Honors

New England Revolution * U.S. Open Cup:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

North American SuperLiga The SuperLiga was an official North American association football competition between teams from the Liga MX of Mexico and Major League Soccer of the United States and Canada, the top divisions in each country. The competition was sanctioned by C ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

United States *

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

Individual * Major League Soccer MVP: 2005 *

: 2005 *

: 2002, 2005 In 2004, Twellman received the inaugural Keough Award, which recognizes the outstanding male soccer player from the St. Louis area.

References

External links

* *
Taylor Twellman profile at Soccer New England
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twellman, Taylor 1980 births Living people Soccer players from St. Louis American soccer players Association football forwards Maryland Terrapins men's soccer players TSV 1860 Munich II players New England Revolution draft picks New England Revolution players Regionalliga players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Major League Soccer MVPs United States men's youth international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's international soccer players Footballers at the 1999 Pan American Games 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 Copa América players Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in football CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players American expatriate soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Major League Soccer broadcasters Concussion activists Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games