Not an MLS Legend, but a Legend in the MLS Retires

The man who perhaps as much as anyone can claim to have turned round the fortunes of an MLS club singlehandedly, has decided to hang up his boots at the end of the season. Darren Huckerby is the player and although he only joined San Jose Earthquakes last season, his impact on the club won’t be forgotten for quite a while.

Huckerby joined the Earthquakes after a successful run with English side, Norwich City. He played for the Canaries from 2003-2008 and helped lead them to the EPL in 2004 for the first time since 1995.

The man originally from Nottingham played in over 200 matches for Norwich, scoring 48 goals and was named the club’s player of the year twice. Norwich were then relegated to League One in their first season without him. But season ending hip surgery has forced him to admit the battle against time and fitness has been lost.

On Saturday, the San Jose Earthquakes announced that midfielder Darren Huckerby had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip at Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado., and the Englishman would miss the remainder of the 2009 MLS season. But it seems that Huckerby and his high standards, didn’t quite feel he had left what it would take to come back at the same level of performance.

“Now is the right time to call it a day. I’ve decided that, at nearly 34, with a dodgy hip, it wasn’t worth continuing and not playing as well as I could. The surgeon was happy enough that I could carry on and get to a decent standard. But my game has always been about running past people and, as soon as I can’t do that, I knew I was in a bit of trouble,” he told BBC Radio Norfolk, the local radio station in the Norwich area.

How Huckerby Caused a Minor Quake of His Own in San Jose in 2008

The Nottingham native played in 14 games this season and has scored three goals and three assists. He joined San Jose in July of 2008 and helped lead the Quakes on a late season push that almost landed them in the playoffs. He scored six goals and tallied four assists in his 14 games of action, on his way to becoming the MLS Newcomer of the Year. He also won the team’s most valuable player award, and took home the Budweiser Golden Boot for the Earthquakes. His best run of play came last September, when he took home MLS Player of the Month honors with a three-game stretch that saw him find the net three times and also notch an assist. He was subsequently named MLS newcomer of the year last season.

The Career of Darren Huckerby

Nottingham-born Huckerby, who started his career with Lincoln City, enjoyed his first big move when signed by Newcastle United boss Kevin Keegan for $800,000 as a 19-year-old in November 1995. But he made just two substitute appearances, as well as spending a month on loan with Millwall, before becoming Gordon Strachan’s first signing for Coventry City for £1m a year later.

After three successful years with the Sky Blues, he moved on to David O’Leary’s Leeds United for $7m in August 1999. But, like many others in the Leeds United of that time, he had an unsettled time at Elland Road before rejoining his old Newcastle boss Keegan again at Manchester City for $5m in December 2000.

He then had loan spells with home town club Nottingham Forest, followed by Norwich before signing a more permanent contract at Norwich on Boxing Day 2003. There he made 203 appearance taking his English career record to 134 goals in 501 games before moving to California last year, where he score nine times in 28 games for the Earthquakes. But he admitted to the radio station that his heart remains in Norfolk.

Looking to his future, Huckerby sees himself as more of a coach than a manager.

“Sometimes you just kind of click at a place. And that was certainly the case for me at Norwich. I pretty soon knew I wanted to end my career here. Maybe it shouldn’t have ended like that. But my only real regret was that they got relegated. And I truly believed that if I’d been there I could have helped. I’ve had some great times. I was lucky enough to play in every division and the Champions League. Hopefully I can pass that sort of experience down to other players and I would love to do that one day with Norwich. I don’t see myself as a manager. More someone who can work with 16 to 22 year-olds and improve them as players and people.”

In an era, where the commitment of aging European players to their MLS employers is frequently questioned by fans, Darren Huckerby remains an example of someone who gave everything, and as soon as he felt he wasn’t good enough, told the truth, rather than drew an extra pay check.