Mike Ammann (born February 8, 1971) 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 ...

player who played as a

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 ...

in England and

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 ...

Youth

Ammann was born in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District ...

. The younger brother of Bob Ammann, he played for the

Los Angeles Heat The Los Angeles Heat was an American professional Association football, soccer team. The Heat joined the Western Soccer League, Western Soccer Alliance in 1986, then the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the WSL merged with the Ame ...

in the

Western Soccer League The Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer ...

in 1989. In 1989, Ammann graduated from Mater Dei High School. He entered Cal State-Fullerton where he played on the men's soccer team from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, the Titans went to the NCAA

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

. That year, he also played for the East Los Angeles Cobras in the

USISL The United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL) was a semi-professional men's outdoor soccer league that played six seasons from 1989 to 1994. It was the first outdoor league to be operated by the organization known today as the United ...

Professional

After Mike Stevens, the director of Charlton Athletic, saw Ammann play in the 1994 NCAA Final Four, he offered him a trial. Ammann played for Charlton Athletic in the second tier of English football from 1994 to 1996. When

started in 1996, Ammann was initially not signed, but late in the inaugural season he signed with the then- Kansas City Wiz. In 1997, he set a league record (since broken) of twenty-one wins, and ranked fourth in voting for the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award. Before the 1999 season, Ammann was traded to the MetroStars with

Mark Chung Mark Chung (born June 18, 1970) is a former professional Association football, soccer player who played ten seasons in Major League Soccer. Born in Canada, he earned twenty-four cap (sports), caps, scoring two goals, with the United States men's ...

for

Tony Meola Antonio Michael Meola (; ; born February 21, 1969) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He represented the United States national team at the 1990, 1994, and 2002 World Cups. From 1996 to 2006, he pla ...

and Alexi Lalas. That season the MetroStars squad finished with the worst record in league history. However, Ammann played well despite the lack of success, and was named Defensive Player of the Year two consecutive seasons. The 2000 season was Ammann's best as the Metros went through a rebirth. Ammann was selected to the 2000 MLS All Star game and started in goal for the Eastern Conference.

Injuries and retirement

Ammann missed the last five weeks of the 2000 MLS season after Mamadou Diallo collided with him in a game against the

Tampa Bay Mutiny The Tampa Bay Mutiny were an American professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The Mutiny were a charter member of MLS, playing from 1996 to 2001. Th ...

. Diallo stepped on Ammann, resulting in three broken three ribs, a punctured lung, and a concussion. The incident, which was dubbed "Crime of the Century" by Metro teammate Mike Petke, saw Diallo receive no punishment. Ammann missed the rest of the regular season because of these injuries, returning for the playoffs and shutting out the Chicago Fire 2–0. With the emergence of

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 ...

for the MetroStars, Ammann was traded to D.C. United for Richie Williams and an allocation before the 2001 MLS season. Injuries dogged him, however, and he retired after not playing a minute in 2002. Ammann's doctor had never performed the procedure prior to operating on Ammann and left him permanently disabled. Ammann suffers disabilities in his right and left arms and hands. Dr. Hazel was found guilty by a jury of malpractice in D.C. Courts.

Post-soccer career

Since 2003, Ammann worked in

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

and became the director of channel sales at Tintri. Ammann worked for Hitachi, ViON and EMC. In 2010, Ammann founded Twenty-Four Seven Goalkeeper, a goalkeeper academy in the Northern Virginia area, which taught both boys and girls of all ages. Ammann then merged 247GK with GK Icon and founded GK Icon USA some time before 2013. Ammann is currently the President of Purechannels, a global B2B Channel Marketing Agency. www.purechannels.com

Honors

Individual *

MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially ado ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

References

External links

Q&A with Metro great Mike Ammann
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ammann, Mike 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Orange, California Soccer players from Orange County, California American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in England Charlton Athletic F.C. players Cal State Fullerton Titans men's soccer players D.C. United players East Los Angeles Cobras players Expatriate men's footballers in England Men's association football goalkeepers Sporting Kansas City players Los Angeles Heat players Major League Soccer players New York Red Bulls players Western Soccer Alliance players Major League Soccer All-Stars American men's soccer players Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California) alumni English Football League players 20th-century American sportsmen