Ronnie O'Brien
Personal information
Full name	Ronnie O'Brien
Date of birth	January 5, 1979 (1979-01-05) (age 30)
Place of birth	Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997–1999 1999–2002 1999 2000–2001 2001–2002 2002 2002–2006 2007 2008	Middlesbrough Juventus → AC Lugano (loan) → Crotone (loan) → Lecco (loan) → Dundee United (loan) FC Dallas Toronto FC San Jose Earthquakes	000 0(0) 000 0(0) 008 0(0) 004 0(0) 008 0(0) 006 0(0) 101 (12) 013 0(0) 028 0(4)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 April 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 7 April 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Ronnie O'Brien (born 5 January 1979 in Bray, Ireland) is an Irish footballer who last played for the San Jose Earthquakes.

[edit] Playing career

O'Brien's footballing career began very promisingly, when at the age of 18 he signed a contract with Middlesbrough of the FA Premier League. Although he played little at Middlesbrough, he had great success with Irish national team youth sides, winning the European U-16 championship alongside players like Damien Duff and Robbie Keane. After two years with Middlesbrough, O'Brien was released on a free transfer. Incredibly, Italian giants Juventus offered 20-year-old O'Brien a five year contract; however, he had trouble getting playing time on such a talented side and was loaned out to Lugano of Switzerland, Dundee United of Scotland, and lower league Italian sides Crotone and Lecco. After several years of disappointment, O'Brien was released from his contract with Juventus in 2002.

In search of consistent playing time, O'Brien, made the unconventional decision to move to America to join the Dallas Burn. O'Brien made an immediate impact, scoring on his debut for the club in a U.S. Open Cup match. He finished the 2002 season with two goals and two assists in 11 games but had proven himself one of the more dynamic players on the team. O'Brien entered the 2003 season with great expectations, but these were cut short early in the season. In the Burn's third game of the season, a tackle from D.C. United's Dema Kovalenko broke O'Brien's tibia, effectively ending his season. O'Brien returned to the team in 2004 and was one of the team's offensive leaders - he started 29 games, registering two goals and 10 assists, was named to the MLS Best XI, and helped revitalize a Burn team that had recorded one of the league's worst records ever in the previous season.

In 2005, O'Brien repeated his Best XI form, finishing the year with six goals and 12 assists. During the 2006 season, O'Brien clashed with FC Dallas' head coach Colin Clarke all season. His form was poor and he finished with only one goal in 27 games. At the conclusion of the season, O'Brien was traded to the expansion club Toronto FC with a gentlemen's agreement that Toronto FC would not draft any other FC Dallas players.

Due to a knee injury during a training session, which was later aggravated during a friendly match, O'Brien was limited to 13 games in the 2007 season.

In 2008, O'Brien was traded to the San Jose Earthquakes. In return, Toronto FC received San Jose's first round pick in the 2009 draft plus an undisclosed amount of money.^[1] He made 28 appearances, scoring 4 goals (his 16th in the MLS). His 6 assists brought his MLS career assist total to 45 (from 142 total appearances).

Following O'Brien's strong performance and evident leadership in 2008, the San Jose Earthquakes stunned their fans by failing to pick up his contract option for the 2009 season. Instead, Earthquakes' GM John Doyle was hoping that he would accept a substantial pay cut. In January 2009, O'Brien made it known that he would not be returning to the San Jose Earthquakes.^[2] Without O'Brien's leadership and strong play, the Earthquakes have struggled early in 2009. Despite a favorable schedule in which San Jose played five of their seven games at home, the Quakes managed just one win, leading many San Jose fans to call for O'Brien's return.

O'Brien keeps an off-season residence in Dallas, and is an avid Dallas Mavericks fan.

[edit] Time magazine stunt

Excerpted: In August 1999, Time magazine in the United States conducted an internet poll to find the Person of the Century. Mischievous friends in Bray sent an e-mail urging Irish people to vote for Ronnie O'Brien. O'Brien vaulted his way to the top of the standings, beating out such notables as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King and Bill Clinton. Then there was a computer crash, which Time said was a result of too many people voting online at once. Instead of being named Person of the Century, O'Brien was taken out of the running, because Time officials said not enough people had heard of him. The official rules stated, "whimsical candidates will not be counted."^[3]

Similarly, O'Brien was also voted Juventus's most promising newcomer, even though he only played one game for the club when he came on as substitute in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. An email was sent around between Irish students who propelled O'Brien to the number one position in the poll. He received 32% of the vote.^[3]

[edit] Senior international callup

Despite having played multiple times for the Irish underage sides, O'Brien has only received one callup to date to the senior side. Steve Staunton contacted Toronto FC about his availability for a short tour of the US in June 2007. However, O'Brien turned down the chance to play for his country again, as he had just returned from injury, while adding he was happy playing club football.^[4]

[edit] Honors

[edit] Individual

• MLS Best XI: 2005

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of current MLS players