Dwayne De Rosario

Personal information
Full name	Dwayne Anthony De Rosario
Date of birth	May 15, 1978 (1978-05-15) (age 31)
Place of birth	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club	Toronto FC
Number	14
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1997	Toronto Lynx	7	(3)
1997–1999	Zwickau	12	(1)
1999–2000	Richmond Kickers	35	(17)
2001–2005	San Jose Earthquakes	107	(25)
2006–2008	Houston Dynamo	75	(24)
2009–	Toronto FC	28	(11)
National team‡
1996–1997	Canada U-20	8	(5)
1998–	Canada	49	(15)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 October, 2009. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 5 April, 2009

Dwayne De Rosario (born May 15, 1978 in Scarborough, Ontario) is a Canadian soccer player who currently plays for Toronto FC in Major League Soccer.

[edit] Career

[edit] Club

De Rosario began his career in 1997, signing with the Toronto Lynx of the A-League, where his future Canadian national team teammate Paul Stalteri had played. Halfway through the season, however, De Rosario opted to change clubs, signing with German side FSV Zwickau. After two seasons with Zwickau, De Rosario opted to return to North America, signing with the Richmond Kickers in 1999. After a slow 1999 season, in which he registered two goals and five assists, De Rosario exploded in 2000, scoring 15 goals and five assists while leading the team to a 20-6-1 record.

The next season, when Canadian Frank Yallop was named head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes, De Rosario was one of his first acquisitions. De Rosario proved Yallop's judgment right, scoring five goals and four assists in only 1,072 minutes for the Earthquakes in 2001, playing an important role as the team went on to win the MLS Cup; he scored the golden goal in the final and was named MLS Cup MVP. De Rosario had similar success in 2002, registering four goals and eight assists in 1,637 minutes, though the Quakes fell short of a repeat. In 2003, a torn ACL hobbled De Rosario for much of the season but he still managed to make a late surge, registering four goals and three assists in only 686 minutes and helping lead the team to a second MLS Cup championship. De Rosario played 1,214 minutes in 2004, scoring five goals, including the 2004 MLS Goal of the Year, and three assists.

In December 2004 Dwayne had a trial with Nottingham Forest^[1], but he was not offered a contract by the team.

In 2005, following Landon Donovan's departure, De Rosario moved to midfield and promptly led MLS in assists with 13, while scoring nine goals, including the 2005 MLS Goal of the Year - the only player ever to receive that honor in two consecutive years - for a powerful bending free kick in the last regular season game against the Los Angeles Galaxy. He was named to the MLS Best XI.

Due to San Jose's failure to reach a stadium agreement with AEG, De Rosario, along with the rest of his Earthquakes teammates, moved to Houston for the 2006 season. During the 2006 MLS All-Star Game in Chicago, De Rosario scored the only goal of the game in the 70th minute to lift the MLS All Stars to a 1-0 win over Chelsea, a pre-season friendly for the London club. De Rosario was one of only four players on the MLS team to play the entire match.

De Rosario and the Houston Dynamo captured the 2006 MLS Cup title by beating the New England Revolution on November 12, 2006. The Dynamo won in a shootout, and De Rosario successfully converted his penalty kick. De Rosario signed a contract extension with Houston through 2010, where he is reported to make $325,000 per year. However, this seems to be false due to his new transfer to Toronto.^[2]

The next year, De Rosario and the Dynamo repeated the feat by winning the 2007 MLS Cup, beating New England 2-1. De Rosario was named MLS Cup MVP, the first player ever to win the award twice.

De Rosario made his third consecutive all-star appearance at the 2008 MLS All-Star Game in his home country, when the game was held in Toronto. He scored the decisive goal on a penalty kick in the 69th minute in the MLS All-Stars' 3-2 victory over West Ham United.

De Rosario was traded to Toronto FC on December 12, 2008 in return for Julius James and allocation money, after long speculation that De Rosario would move to his hometown club.^[3] He made his competitive debut for Toronto FC on Saturday, March 21 against the Kansas City Wizards, setting up Jim Brennan for Toronto's first goal in a 3-2 victory. He scored his first goal for Toronto from a header in a 1-1 draw at BMO field against FC Dallas.

[edit] Clutch performer

Through his career in MLS, De Rosario has earned a reputation as one of the most clutch performers in the league. ^[4] His career tally includes 2 game-winning goals in MLS Cup finals, both for which he received MLS Cup MVP, and 2 game-winning goals in MLS All-Star games against foreign oppositions such as West Ham United. On June 18th 2009, he scored a natural hat trick to put Toronto FC ahead of the Montreal Impact 3-1. Toronto had to win the game by four goals to win the Canadian Championship and move onto the CONCACAF Champions League, which they did after defeating Montreal 6-1.

[edit] International

De Rosario is one of the stars of the Canadian national team, playing either at forward or midfield, and has registered fifteen goals in 49 caps (as of May, 2009). He received his first cap May 18, 1998 against FYR Macedonia at the age of 20. He also played for the Canadian U-20 team in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, the XIII Pan American Games Winnipeg 1999 (Canada U-22), and helped Canada contend for the Gold Cup since the year they won it, 2000. Scored his first CMNT goal in a 2:1 win over Korea in the 2002 Gold Cup.

De Rosario has won the male Canadian Player of the Year award three consecutive times. In 2007 he scored 5 goals in 8 games, the most in a year for the CMNT since John Catliff in 1993.

[edit] International Goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition
1	February 2, 2002	Rose Bowl, Pasadena	Korea Republic	2–1	2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup
2	October 15, 2002	Easter Road, Edinburgh	Scotland	1–3	Friendly
3	October 11, 2003	Ratina Stadion, Tampere	Finland	2–3	Friendly
4	June 16, 2004	Richardson Memorial Stadium, Kingston	Belize	4–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
5	June 16, 2004	Richardson Memorial Stadium, Kingston	Belize	4–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
6	October 13, 2004	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby	Costa Rica	1–3	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
7	November 17, 2004	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City	Guatemala	1–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
8	June 1, 2007	Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, Maracaibo	Venezuela	2–2	Friendly
9	June 11, 2007	Orange Bowl, Miami	Haiti	2–0	2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup
10	June 11, 2007	Orange Bowl, Miami	Haiti	2–0	2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup
11	June 16, 2007	Gillette Stadium, Foxborough	Guatemala	3–0	2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup
12	September 12, 2007	BMO Field, Toronto	Costa Rica	1–1	Friendly
13	January 30, 2008	Stade Louis Achille, Fort-de-France	Martinique	1–0	Friendly
14	June 20, 2008	Saputo Stadium, Montreal	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	4–1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

[edit] Personal

De Rosario is the son of Guyanese immigrants to Canada.^[5] He adopted strict vegan diet in 1994.^[6] He is married to Brandy De Rosario and has two boys and one girl. His cousin is Olympic hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.^[7] He attended Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute in Scarborough.

[edit] Honors

[edit] Canada

• CONCACAF Gold Cup (1): 2000

[edit] Houston Dynamo

• Major League Soccer MLS Cup (2): 2006, 2007

[edit] San Jose Earthquakes

• Major League Soccer MLS Cup (2): 2001, 2003
• Major League Soccer Supporters Shield (1): 2005

[edit] Toronto FC

• Canadian Championship (1): 2009

[edit] Individual

• MLS Cup MVP: 2001, 2007
• MLS Goal of the Year: 2004, 2005
• Major League Soccer Best XI: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
• Canadian Championship Golden Boot: 2009
• George Gross Memorial Trophy: 2009
• Canadian Player of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007
• Toronto FC Player of the Year: 2009

[edit] Career Stats

Last Update: October 24, 2009.

1) Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (American Based Clubs) - Nutrilite Canadian Cup (Canadian Based Clubs)

2) Concacaf Champions League/Cup

3) North American SuperLiga - Pan-Pacific Championship

[edit] See also

• List of current MLS players

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• DwayneDeRosario.com, Dwayne's Official Website
• MLS player profile
• MLS and Houston star states desire to play for his hometown team
• CanadaSoccer.com with a national team player profile of de Rosario
• Dwayne De Rosario on Twitter

Canada squads v • d • e Canada squad – 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup Winners (2nd Title) 1 Forrest • 2 Fenwick • 3 Fletcher • 4 Menezes • 5 de Vos • 6 Aristodemo • 7 Stalteri • 8 Dasovic • 9 Corazzin • 10 Xuasa • 11 Brennan • 12 Clarke • 13 Watson • 14 Bent • 15 Hastings • 16 Kusch • 17 Peschisolido • 18 Thomas • 21 Nash • 22 Onstad • 24 De Rosario • Coach: Osieck v • d • e Canada squad – 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Forrest • 2 Clarke • 3 Watson • 4 Menezes • 5 de Vos • 6 Bent • 7 Stalteri • 8 Dasovic • 9 Corazzin • 10 Xausa • 11 Brennan • 12 Onstad • 13 Fletcher • 14 Imhof • 15 Hastings • 16 Kusch • 17 de Rosario • 18 Nsaliwa • 19 Peschisolido • 20 McKenna • 21 Bircham • 22 Franks • Coach: Osieck v • d • e Canada squad – 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Sutton • 2 Braz • 3 Pozniak • 4 McKenna • 5 Gervais • 6 Bernier • 7 Hume • 8 Serioux • 9 Gerba • 10 Occean • 11 Brennan • 12 Grande • 13 Hutchinson • 14 De Rosario • 15 Simpson • 16 Leduc • 17 Peters • 18 Dodds • 19 Franks • Coach: Yallop v • d • e Canada squad – 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Sutton • 2 Braz • 3 Jazić • 4 Reda • 5 Hainault • 6 de Guzman • 7 Stalteri • 8 Harmse • 9 Friend • 10 Gerba • 11 Hastings • 12 Gervais • 13 Hutchinson • 14 De Rosario • 15 Bernier • 16 Nash • 17 Hume • 18 Nakajima • 19 Ribeiro • 20 Pozniak • 21 Ledgerwood • 22 Onstad • 23 Giacomi • Coach: Hart