Charlie Davies Announces Retirement

Charlie Davies is a legend. But his playing career will still go down as another of the United States’ biggest “what ifs.”

The 31-year old Davies announced his retirement on Twitter today, ending a playing career that spanned Boston College, Hammarby in Sweden, Souchax in France and several stops in MLS including the New England Revolution for parts of four seasons.

Davies was a member of the Revs from 2013-2016 before being traded at the deadline to the Philadelphia Union in the summer of 2016. Davies played in 101 MLS regular season games between the Revs, Union and DC United, with the bulk of those coming in New England. Charlie made 64 appearances for the Revs in the regular season, scoring 14 goals to go along with 8 assists, not including the 2014 playoffs where Davies scored four goals, a New England playoff record, with one assist as he helped return the Revs to MLS Cup for a fifth time.

Davies’ career however will be marked by several major off-field incidents, the first a car accident in 2009 that nearly killed him and beating cancer in 2016. Davies and his wife Nina also gave birth to twins three months prematurely at the beginning of the 2016 season, with the babies eventually being cleared by hospital staff to go home after an extended stay.

Davies never returned to the USMNT for an international appearance after the car crash, but he made 17 appearances for the US from 2007-09. The mere fact that Davies even returned to play soccer at all is amazing, and it would be hard to find a more amazing career and person involved in the game today.

Best of luck to Charlie, Nina, Rhys and Dakota in their future endeavors. You are more than welcome in The Fort any time.