Cory Gibbs

Cory Gibbs (born January 14 1980 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is an American football defender who currently plays for Colorado Rapids. He is of Jamaican descent via his parents.

Club career

Early career

Gibbs played college soccer at Brown University, joining the team in 1997. During his career, Brown won three Ivy League Championships and participated in the NCAA Tournament all four years. In 2000, Gibbs led Brown to an Ivy League championship and the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He was named Ivy League Player of the Year, and a First-Team All-American. He was also one of three Brown soccer players, including Matthew Cross (Kansas City Wizards) and Scott Powers (Columbus Crew), to be drafted in the 2001 MLS SuperDraft.

St. Pauli

After graduating from Brown in 2001, Gibbs decided not to play in the MLS and joined FC St. Pauli of the Bundesliga. He played 25 games for St. Pauli that season, becoming the youngest American to score a goal in the Bundesliga with a goal against FC Cologne. St. Pauli was relegated to the 2. Bundesliga after the 2001-02 season, and Gibbs played an equally important role with the team in his second season as in his first. St. Pauli, however, was relegated again after the 2002-03 season, this time to the Regionalliga Nord, the German third division. Gibbs remained with the team, being moved from central defense to defensive midfielder.

Gibbs decided to leave St. Pauli during 2003 due to the low level of play and lack of exposure needed to secure a spot on the United States national team. After a move to Jahn Regensburg of the 2. Bundesliga fell through, Gibbs decided to return to the United States and play in Major League Soccer, where he would be easily visible and available for international matches. Although the Columbus Crew initially tried to acquire Gibbs, he eventually ended up with the Dallas Burn

Dallas Burn

In his stint with Dallas, Gibbs was a starter in every game that he was available for. He made a total of 21 appearances before leaving for Feyenoord.

Feyenoord

On January 20 2005, the Dutch club Feyenoord agreed on a transfer with MLS, and Gibbs signed a four and a half year contract with the club. In his first season, he made 15 appearances and scored one goal.

After injuring his knee in a U.S. national team friendly against England on May 28 2005, Gibbs rehabbed (under the direction of Dr. Daniel Kalbac in Miami, Florida) and came back from his injury on January 19 2006. On January 24 2006, Feyenoord loaned Gibbs to ADO Den Haag for the remainder of the season.

Charlton

Gibbs signed a pre-contract agreement with English Premiership side Charlton Athletic in May 2006 just before Alan Curbishley's departure. In May 2008 it was announced that he would leave Charlton on June 30, at the end of his contract. He never played a game for Charlton due to injuries.

Colorado Rapids

The Washington Post's Steven Goff has reported that Cory Gibbs was interested in returning to the MLS. The Los Angeles Galaxy are reportedly interested in Gibbs and Ruud Gullit commented that Gibbs was a "good option."

MLS commissioner Don Garber stated on his blog on August 8, 2008 that Gibbs signed with the league. It was expected that he'd be selected by Los Angeles Galaxy, who had first option to pick up his contract in the allocation listings, but was eventually selected by Colorado Rapids, after the Galaxy passed to be able to pick Eddie Lewis.

Personal life

Cory married BBC Radio 1Xtra radio presenter Zena McNally on July 4, 2008 in Miami, Florida.

Career statistics

|- |2001-02||rowspan="3"|St. Pauli||Bundesliga||25||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2002-03||2. Bundesliga||21||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||Regionalliga||14||3|||||||||||||||| |- |2004||Dallas Burn||Major League Soccer||21||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2004-05||rowspan="2"|Feyenoord||rowspan="2"|Eredivisie||15||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2005-06||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2006-07||Den Haag||Eredivisie||5||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||Charlton Athletic||Premier League||0||0||||||||||||||||60||4||||||||||||||||21||2||||||||||||||||20||1||||||||||||||||0||0||||||||||||||||101||7|||||||||||||||| |}

International career

Gibbs's return to the U.S. helped his national team career, as he received frequent callups for FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Gibbs solidified his position as one of USA's top central defenders. Since making his first full international appearance June 8, 2003, in a friendly against New Zealand, Gibbs has received 19 caps.

Gibbs was initially a part of the 2006 United States World Cup team, but he reinjured his right knee in a friendly with Morocco on 23 May 2006 and was replaced by Gregg Berhalter. Following surgery to repair cartilage in his knee, Gibbs played only 45 minutes all season for Charlton's reserves. Gibbs returned to international football when he was selected by Bob Bradley for the United States' March 26th match against Poland.