• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
US Soccer Players

US Soccer Players

The official site of the USMNT Soccer Players with soccer news, schedule, statistics, players, interviews, and exclusive stories.

  • Home
  • Players
  • Games
  • News
  • Guides
  • USNSTPA
  • Show Search
Hide Search
thomas-dooley-usmnt-player-credit-j-brett-whitesell-isiphotos

Defender

Thomas Dooley

6' 1"

Biography of retired USMNT soccer player and National Soccer Hall of famer Thomas Dooley who played in the 1994 and 98 World Cups.
Caps: 81 | Goals: 7

Considered one of the key players for the USMNT in the 1990’s, Thomas Dooley brought the professionalism he earned through years in the German professional leagues.  The son of a US serviceman, Dooley was eligible to represent the United States and he took that option in 1992.  Appearing in the 1994 and ’98 World Cups, Dooley captained the USMNT in France.  After 14 years in the German leagues, including a German Cup win with Kaiserslautern in 1990 and a UEFA Cup win with Schalke in ’97, Dooley signed with Major League Soccer and joined Columbus in the summer of ’97.  He retired in 2000 and was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2010. Dooley coached the Philippines National Team from 2013-18 and in 2022-23. He is currently coaching Vietnamese club The Cong-Viettel FC.

Photo by J Brett Whitesell – ISIPhotos.com

USMNT Experience

2003

Honored with star at the U.S. Soccer Star Plaza at Home Depot Center for playing in two World Cups.

1999

Captained the team in his final match in a 2-1 win over Chile on February 21.

1998

Started all three games for the U.S. at the 1998 World Cup in France.

1997

Only U.S. player to play every minute of the last five qualifying matches in which the U.S. went 3-0-2.

1997

Started all 10 games for the U.S. leading them to a record of 4-2-4.

1996

Tallied a game-winning goal in a World Cup qualifying match vs. Trinidad & Tobago on November 10.

1996

Scored two goals and led the U.S. team to a 6-2-1 record with him in the line-up.

1995

Started nine games in 1995, scoring the USA's second goal in its 4-0 drubbing of Mexico in U.S. Cup '95.

1995

Started all but one game for the USA in its title run for U.S. Cup '95 and semifinal appearance in Copa America, despite suffering a stress fracture in his left ankle during U.S. Cup '95.

1994

Played a career high 22 games and over 1829 minutes for the U.S.

1994

The only U.S. midfielder to play every minute of every game during the '94 World Cup.

1993

U.S. Soccer Male Athlete of the Year and Futbol de Primera Player of the Year scoring four goals and two assists in 17 matches.

1993

Scored three goals in as many games in U.S. Cup '93, including his first U.S. goal in the historic 2-0 upset of England and two goals against Germany.

1992

Played every minute of the USA's U.S. Cup '92 championship.

1992

Made first international appearance for U.S. May 30 vs. Ireland.

Professional Experience

2000

Started 17 of 20 games with MetroStars in final professional season.

2000

Acquired in a trade by the New York/New Jersey MetroStars from Columbus for Mike Duhaney.

1999

Started 19 of 25 games for Crew assisting on one goal; named MLS All-Star.

1998

Started all 23 games for Columbus scoring a goal and two assists leading the Crew to the Eastern Conference finals.

1998

Named to MLS Best 11 and a 1998 All-Star and won MLS Fair Play Award.

1997

Named to MLS Best 11 and finished second in voting for MLS Defender of the Year.

1997

Scored his first MLS goal in his MLS debut on June 21 vs. MetroStars on a header.

1997

Transferred to Columbus Crew where he scored four goals and an assist.

1996-97

After missing half the season with knee injury, he returned and played for Schalke in seven league games, starting three and scoring two goals.

1995-96

Won UEFA Cup with Schalke 04 defeating Inter Milan on penalty kicks.

1995-96

Returned to line-up from foot injury and helped lead Schalke to 19-1 record scoring two goals in seven league games. Transferred to Schalke 04, the team he idolized as a child, in the Summer.

1994-95

Transferred to Bayer Leverkusen.

1990-91

Scored four goals in 23 games helping Kaiserslautern win German Bundesliga.

1989-90

Won German Cup with Kaiserslautern.

1986-87

Played 24 games leading Homburg to a promotion to the Bundesliga.

1984-85

Helped Homburg win Third Division title and promotion to Second Division.

1984-85

Began professional career in German Third Division with Homburg scoring five goals in 38 games.

Youth and College

Youth and college: Joined Homburg from FK Pimaseus where he was a goal-scoring center forward in a top amateur league. Studied architecture for three semesters at the University of Kaiserslautern.

More Thomas Dooley news

Rosters
Results
FIFA Rankings
Alumni

USMNT News
USMNT Players in MLS
USMNT Players Abroad

About US Soccer Players
Privacy Policy
Contact Us
Sponsorship and Licensing

  

© 2025 USNSTPA • Contact • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved - USNSTPA

This website stores data such as cookies for analytics and essential functionality.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. We do not sell any data we get using cookies – we simply store cookie information in your browser to perform functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We use browser local storage to hide the homepage background image on repeated visits to make it easier to see new content.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses StatCounter to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!