Billy Thompson (soccer, Born 1968)
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William Thompson (born May 5, 1968) is a retired U.S.
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
player who is currently the club director for Los Gatos United. He earned one
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. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...
with the U.S. national team and played three seasons in
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
with the
Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...
.


College

Thompson, born in
Cupertino, California Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose, California, San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The ...
, attended
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
where he played as a
forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...
on the men's soccer team from 1986 to 1990. Thompson earned first team All American honors as a senior. That year he was the captain of the Bruins team which won the
NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
. Thompson was also the 1990 ISAA Player of the Year and finished his time at UCLA with 42 goals and 27 assists.


Early career

While playing with UCLA, Thompson spent the 1988 and 1989 collegiate offseason with the Los Angeles Heat of the Western Soccer Alliance. In 1988, he was named to the WSA All Star team. Following his last season at UCLA, Thompson was a member of the U.S. soccer team at the 1991 Summer World University Games. He then moved to France to play for FC Pau from 1991 to 1994. He was with the team from 1991 to 1994 before returning to the United States for a short spell with professional beach soccer which led him to compete in the Beach Soccer World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a year later. In 1995, he spent a single season with the Hawaii Tsunami of the USISL. As a Member of the US Men's national team, Thompson played in the 1991 President's Cup in Seoul Korea where he was named the league's Offensive MVP. He also played in the World University Games in 1991 in Sheffield, England, the 1991 Gold Cup in Vancouver, Canada, the 1989 ''Tournoir Espoirs'' in Toulon, France, and the 1988 Marlboro Cup in Miami, Florida. He also competed in the President's Club, and was named the league's Offensive MVP. That same year he also guest played with ''Raj Pracha'' FC of Thailand.


MLS

On February 6–7, 1996,
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
(MLS) held its first
draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
. The
Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...
selected Thompson in the third round (21st overall) ahead of fellow Bruins Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hejduk, and Ante Razov. At the time he was playing indoor soccer with the Tampa Bay Terror of the National Professional Soccer League. Thompson went on to play four seasons with the Crew. However, at the end of his second season, in which he saw time in only six games (four as a starter), the Crew did not protect Thompson during the
expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or sports franchising, franchises. This occurs mainly in Sports in North America, North American sports and closed leagues. O ...
. The next season, he came back strong, appearing in twenty-nine games. However, he retired at the end of the 1999 season finishing with 4 goals and 18 assists for his MLS career.


Coaching

After retiring from professional soccer, Thompson remained in Columbus to pursue a career youth soccer development. From 2000 to 2001, he served as the assistant coach to the Ohio Wesleyan men's and women's soccer teams. He also served as head coach for the Wellington High School girls' team from 2000 to 2011. In 2000, Thompson joined Worthington United, a local youth soccer club, growing the program from six teams to 60+, leading the 1990 boys team to the Ohio State Cup semifinals in 2006 and 2007, and to their first state title in 2008. In 2008 Worthington United partnered with the Columbus Crew where Thompson became the Director of Coaching and Player Development, and Academy Director for the Crew Soccer Academy of the newly formed Major League Soccer Youth Development Initiative. Thompson was the Director of Coaching for the Worthington Crew Juniors and Crew Juniors Soccer programs from 2008 to 2015. He was awarded Ohio South's coach of the year honors in 2005 and holds a USSF Youth Technical Director License and a USSF National "A" License. Since 2016, In 2016 Thompson transitioned to the Ohio Premier Soccer Club where he is presently the Ohio Premier Boys Director of Coaching and Player Development/Technical Director. In 2018, the Ohio Premier Boys ECNL U-19 team won the National Championship. In May 2022, he was named the Executive & Technical Director of Los Gatos United Soccer Club.


National team

Thompson earned one
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. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...
with the U.S. national team. His one cap came in a 1–0 victory over
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
on June 14, 1988.USA - Details of International Matches 1980-1989
He played seventeen total games with the national team, but sixteen of those were not full internationals.


Personal

Billy and his wife, Shawnda, reside in the Columbus area with their two children.


References


External links


MLS Stats

Worthington United


{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Billy Living people 1968 births Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards All-American college men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in France American soccer coaches American men's soccer players Columbus Crew players Expatriate men's footballers in France Hawaii Tsunami players Los Angeles Heat players Major League Soccer players National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) players Sportspeople from Cupertino, California Soccer players from Santa Clara County, California Tampa Bay Terror players UCLA Bruins men's soccer players United States men's international soccer players USISL players Western Soccer Alliance players Pau FC players Columbus Crew non-playing staff High school soccer coaches in the United States Capital Comets men's soccer coaches Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand American expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops men's soccer coaches College women's soccer coaches in the United States 20th-century American sportsmen