Michael Steven Sorber (born May 14, 1971) is an 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 ...

coach and former player. He currently serves as assistant head coach for

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

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 ...

. He played professionally in the United States and Mexico and was a member of the U.S. national team at 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 ...

Youth and college

Sorber was born and raised in

Florissant, Missouri Florissant () is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, within Greater St. Louis. It is a middle class, second-ring northern suburb of St. Louis. Based on the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 52,533, making it the 12 ...

in the

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 ...

area, where his father Pete Sorber was the head coach of the St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley men's soccer team for 30 years. During those years, he led the college to 10 National Junior College Athletic Association national championships. Under his father's tutelage, Mike developed into a polished youth player. He played boys' soccer at St. Thomas Aquinas-Mercy High School where he was part of two Missouri state championship teams in 1985 and 1988. His senior year, he was honored as part of the All-Great Midwest Conference team and was the North MVP at the St. Louis North-South High School Senior All-Star Game.
/sup> After graduating from high school in 1989, Sorber played

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

soccer with the

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

men's soccer team. He was part of the Billikens’ 1991 Final Four appearance in the NCAA tournament and was a 1992

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 ...

finalist. He ended his career at St. Louis with 13 goals and 29 assists. While he finished his college playing career in 1992, Sorber continued to work on his college education and graduated in 1994 with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in communications with a minor in criminal justice.

Mexico

After spending two years contracted to the U.S. national team leading up to the 1994 World Cup, Sorber moved to Mexico to play first division soccer with

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

. He played two seasons with Pumas and became the first American player ever to be named a Mexican League All Star.

MLS

In 1996, Sorber signed a contract with the newly established

(MLS). MLS allocated Sorber to

Kansas City Wiz Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the we ...

. However, he played only a single season with the Wiz before being traded to MetroStars for

Damian Silvera Damian Troy Silvera (July 27, 1974 – June 14, 2010) was an American soccer player who was a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic soccer team. He also spent a season and a half in Major League Soccer. Youth and college Silvera grew up in Huntingt ...

on February 1, 1997. Sorber played three years with MetroStars but the team made the playoffs only in 1998. MetroStars waived Sorber on February 21, 2000. He was claimed by

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 ...

but then traded to Chicago Fire during the 2000 preseason for a fourth-round pick in the

2001 MLS SuperDraft The 2001 Major League Soccer SuperDraft was held on February 5, 2001, at the Signature Grand in Davie, Florida. Player selection Any player whose name is marked with an * was contracted under the Project-40 program. Round 1 Round 1 trade ...

. Sorber played only one year with Chicago, helping the club win the Central Division title and reach the 2000 MLS Cup final. In five years in the league, he scored nine goals and added 17 assists, plus a goal and five assists in the playoffs.

International career

Sorber earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

with the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

in a January 25, 1992 loss to the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

team. He would go on to earn a total of 67 caps, scoring 2 goals with the national team. Sorber played in the

held in his home country. Following the tournament, national team coach

Bora Milutinović Velibor "Bora" Milutinović ( sr-Cyrl, Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian former professional footballer and manager. He has managed at five editions of the FIFA World Cup, tied for the record a ...

stated "When you analyze the World Cup, Sorber was probably our MVP. It is difficult for me to explain what I feel about him. He is disciplined and intelligent." He earned his final cap in a 1998 friendly against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. Although named as an alternate 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 ...

team, he was not chosen for the final roster.

Coaching

Sorber retired in February 2001 and returned to his alma mater, Saint Louis University, where he joined the Billikens as their assistant coach. Sorber was an assistant coach for the U.S. men's national team. He was named to the position by head 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 ...

in May 2007. On October 5, 2011, MLS expansion side Montreal Impact announced that Sorber had joined the club as an assistant coach. In January 2013, following the departure of head coach Jesse Marsch, the Montreal Impact announced that it will not retain the services of Mike Sorber for the 2013 season. On February 1, 2014, Sorber was hired by the Philadelphia Union of MLS as an assistant coach. He was named the Director of Soccer Operations for LAFC in 2017.

Career statistics

International goals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorber, Mike 1971 births Living people American expatriate soccer players United States men's international soccer players Club Universidad Nacional footballers Sporting Kansas City players New York Red Bulls players Chicago Fire FC players Liga MX players American expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Mexico Saint Louis University alumni Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer players American soccer coaches Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer coaches Soccer players from St. Louis 1993 Copa América players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Major League Soccer players Philadelphia Union non-playing staff CF Montréal non-playing staff Association football midfielders American soccer players Los Angeles FC non-playing staff