Andrew Williams (born 23 September 1977 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario, Canada) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

- Jamaican retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who last played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

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 Cana ...

Career

College

Williams played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Ki ...

for the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

where he remains the team's all-time leading scorer, with 52 goals and 45 assists. Williams is one of 22 college players to be part of the 40-40 club, having both 40 goals and 40 assists in their college career. As of 2018, he is the most recent member of the 40-40 club.

Professional

After spending a couple of years in his home country with

Real Mona Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010 ...

, Williams joined

in 1998 with the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

, with whom he would play for two seasons. In 2000, he moved to the

Miami Fusion The Miami Fusion was a professional soccer team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one of the league's first two expansion teams, their best seas ...

, but would only remain there one year before going to the

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 compe ...

. Williams played in 2001 and beginning of 2002 with New England, before moving to the MetroStars in a six-player deal in the middle of the 2002 season. He only lasted half a season with the Metros, soon traded again, to the Chicago Fire, with whom he played for two years. Williams became the second player in

history when he was their first selection in the

2004 MLS Expansion Draft The 2004 MLS Expansion Draft was held on November 19, 2004 and consisted of 10 rounds. The two new teams, Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake, drafted players from the other 10 Major League Soccer teams. Existing MLS teams were allowed to protect 12 pla ...

. He became the first player in MLS history to play for six teams. In his ten years in the league, Williams has scored 27 goals and added 78 assists. After leading Jamaica to the Caribbean title in 2008, Williams suffered through the prolonged illness of his wife during the 2009 season, which culminated with Real Salt Lake winning the MLS Cup in November 2009. The Williams family received further good news in late 2009/early 2010 as Marcia Williams' cancer went into remission. In 2010, Williams returned to Real Salt Lake focused and re-energized. Williams' contract with Real Salt Lake ended after the 2011 season and he opted to participate in the

2011 MLS Re-Entry Draft The two-stage 2011 MLS Re-Entry Draft took place on December 5, 2011 (Stage 1) and December 12, 2011 (Stage 2). All 19 Major League Soccer clubs participated. The Stage 1 and Stage 2 Drafts were conducted in the same order as the traditional Waive ...

. After he was not selected in Stage 1 of the draft, Williams announced his retirement from professional soccer on 5 December 2011. In 2014 Andy Williams joined the coaching staff for Real Salt Lake when new head coach, Jeff Cassar, named him as an assistant coach (Midfield coach) and in addition to his assistant coach duties. Andy oversaw and coached the reserve team for Real Salt Lake. Williams became Head Scout at Real Salt Lake, and has since played an integral part in the signings of several players.

International

Despite being something of a journeyman in Major League Soccer, Williams has been a stalwart for the Jamaica national team. He has 97 caps with the team and 13 goals, and was often the focal point of their offense, running the team from the central midfield. Williams played for his country in 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 t ...

, making one substitute appearance. Williams retired from the Jamaican team following their failure to qualify for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

. Despite his initial retirement, Williams was called in for a June 2008 friendly vs. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in which he played the full 90. Williams was also called in for Jamaica's 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and played five games, scoring against Canada in a 1–1 draw.

Personal life

Andy Williams was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but grew up in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inte ...

. His father, Bobby Williams, played for the Jamaica national team in the 1960s. Married Shauna Marie Williams on April 24, 2021.

Honors

Real Salt Lake

MLS Cup (1):

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

Eastern Conference Championship (1):

Chicago Fire

MLS Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...

Supporters Shield (1): 2003 *

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. Op ...

(1): 2003

Jamaica

* Caribbean Cup: **Winner (2):

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

References

External links

*
MLS Best of: Andy Williams
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Andy 1977 births Living people Canadian soccer players Jamaican footballers Jamaica international footballers Jamaican expatriate footballers Columbus Crew players Miami Fusion players New England Revolution players New York Red Bulls players Chicago Fire FC players Real Salt Lake players Soccer players from Toronto Canadian sportspeople of Jamaican descent Black Canadian soccer players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Harbour View F.C. players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players Rhode Island Rams men's soccer players Real Salt Lake non-playing staff Association football midfielders All-American men's college soccer players FIFA Century Club