Delvin Christopher "D.J." Countess (born January 9, 1982, in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

) is an American former professional

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He graduated from Bella Vista High School in

Fair Oaks, California Fair Oaks is a unincorporated community in Sacramento County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Fair Oaks as a census-designated place ...

Club career

Countess attended

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, where he had a 1.02

goals against average Goals against average (GAA), also known as average goals against (AGA), is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on spo ...

, good for a second in the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

his freshman season. Upon completing his freshman year, he joined the

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)

Project-40 Generation Adidas is a joint venture between Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer aimed at raising the level of young professional soccer talent in the United States. The program, sponsored by Adidas, offers professional-ready players in the U.S ...

program. On August 3, 2001, he acquired by the MetroStars through a weighted lottery. During his first year he served as a backup to

Tim Howard Timothy Matthew Howard (born March 6, 1979) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He is the part-owner of club Dagenham & Redbridge as well as an international ambassador in the United States for Premie ...

. Countess was traded to the

Dallas Burn Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

on March 13, 2002, prior to the start of the 2002 season. However, shortly after an impressive debut match, he suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to miss the remainder of the season. He bounced back in 2003, starting in twenty-four league matches and was named the clubs Defender of the Year after tallying 115 saves. He also tied an MLS record that season by facing a total of ten

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

s; and he set the league record by saving four, including two in a single game which was also another league record. In 2004, he was traded to Chicago Fire, where he spent the 2004 season as the primary backup to Henry Ring. Countess made only two first team appearances.

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake (RSL) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Fou ...

, then coached by Countess' youth coach,

John Ellinger John Ellinger (born October 4, 1951) is a former American soccer coach of the Under-17 United States men's national soccer team, and former head coach of Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. Ellinger played collegiately at Frostburg State Uni ...

, took Countess as a second draft pick in the 2004 MLS Expansion Draft. Countess started in twenty-seven matches for the expansion team but his option was not picked up following the season. Though several MLS clubs expressed interest in acquiring him in early 2006, Countess opted not to return to MLS and to instead pursue a career in Europe. In mid-2006 he had trials with French clubs

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or by the abbreviation AJA, is a French professional association football, football club based in the Communes of France, commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club plays in L ...

and

FC Metz Football Club de Metz () is a Football in France, French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 1, the highest division in the French football league system, for the 2025–26 Ligue 1, ...

, and Swedish club

Östers IF Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in Växjö, specializing in Association football, football. For the 2025 Allsvenskan, 2025 season the club is back in the top tier, Allsve ...

. All three teams expressed interest but it was Östers IF who then played in Sweden's top division the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

that signed Countess to a contract until the end of the 2006 season. Up to October 2006, he had started in three matches for the club. In early 2007, he signed for

Provincial Osorno Provincial Osorno is a football club based in Osorno, Los Lagos Region, Chile. The club is currently playing at the third tier of the Chilean football system, the Segunda División. The club were founded on 5 June 1983 and then re-founded on 3 ...

, in the Chilean second division, Liga Chilena de Fútbol: Primera B. After helping them win promotion to the Primera División, in July 2007 he moved to Argentina to play for newly promoted Atlético Tigre in the

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

.http://www.futbolpasion.com/transferencias.cfm?campeonato=ap07 Transfers Apertura 2007 Countess sustained a wrist injury early in the 2008 season with Tigre, he underwent surgery in April 2008.

International career

Countess has played at various levels for the

United States national team The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

playing a total of seventy-two games for the U-17's, U-20's and U-23's. He was in goal for the U.S. when they finished fourth at the 1999

FIFA U-17 World Championship The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

in New Zealand, and in the 2001 U-20

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

in Argentina. In 2004, he played in the US U-23 Olympic team that failed to qualify for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Dream Keeper Foundation

Countess has been involved in

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

work throughout his career. While playing for

he established the Dream Keeper Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing funding for

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

children in need of medical care.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Countess, D. J. 1982 births Living people American men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players Soccer players from Sacramento, California Chicago Fire FC players FC Dallas players Real Salt Lake players UCLA Bruins men's soccer players Östers IF players Club Atlético Tigre footballers Provincial Osorno footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Chile American expatriate sportspeople in Argentina American expatriate sportspeople in Chile Major League Soccer players Allsvenskan players Primera B de Chile players United States men's youth international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Men's association football goalkeepers Sportspeople from Fair Oaks, California