Manny Lagos

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Manny Lagos
Personal information
Full name	Manuel Lagos
Date of birth	June 11, 1971 (1971-06-11) (age 37)
Place of birth	Seattle, Washington, United States
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Minnesota Thunder (Director of Soccer Operations)
Youth clubs
1990-92	U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1990-96 1992 1994 1996-97 1998-99 1999-00 2001-03 2004-05	Minnesota Thunder → UE Lleida (loan) → Clermont-Ferrand (loan) MetroStars Chicago Fire Tampa Bay Mutiny San Jose Earthquakes Columbus Crew	0? (29) 0? 0(?) 0? 0(?) 21 0(0) 10 0(0) 37 (12) 79 (14) 23 0(1)
National team2
2001-03	United States	03 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 December 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 30 December 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Manuel "Manny" Lagos (born June 11, 1971 in St. Paul,^[1] Minnesota^[2]) is a former American soccer midfielder who last played for the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. He is the son of Buzz Lagos - a noted American soccer coach at both the college and professional levels - and the youngest of eight children.^[3]

Contents 1 Player 1.1 Early career 1.2 MLS 1.3 National and Olympic Team 2 Management 3 Notes

[edit] Player

[edit] Early career

Lagos played college soccer for the NCAA Division-I Milwaukee Panthers from 1990 to 1992,^[4] and was named an NCAA First-Team All-American in 1991. During and after college, from 1990 to 1996, Manny played for his father with the Minnesota Thunder, first as an amateur and a founding member of the club, and later as a professional. Amidst his Thunder days, he also had short stints with Clermont Foot in the French Third Division, and in Spain's lower divisions with Lleida.^[3]

In 1994, the Thunder's last year as an all-amateur side, Lagos led the team through a near-perfect season and was awarded the USL MVP award, having scored 18 goals and 9 assists.^[5] Upon leaving the club for MLS in 1996, he was inducted into the Thunder Hall of Fame with career totals of 29 goals and 12 assists; his brother and teammate, Gerard Lagos (who played for the team from 1990 through 2001) is also an inductee.^[6] In 2006, Manny was elected to the USL Hall of Fame.^[5]

[edit] MLS

In 1996, midway through the inaugural MLS season, Lagos was signed by the MetroStars. He impressed right away,^[7] but his season was cut short after he tore his left-knee's ACL, MCL, and LCL in a single horriffic injury just six games in.^[8][7][3] Lagos made a comeback in the next season, playing in 15 league matches, but still impaired and less effective than before.^[7] Frustrated with his injuries, the Metros exposed Manny in the 1997 MLS Expansion Draft, where he was taken by the Chicago Fire. Nowhere near fully recovered and considering retirement,^[1] he only played one game for the MLS Cup champions in 1998, and went on to make only 9 appearances in 1999, always as a substitute, excluded from the first eleven due to his unreliable health and the Fire's surplus of attacking players.^[3][9]

Lagos' vagabond MLS career took him to the Tampa Bay Mutiny with Ritchie Kotschau on August 2, 1999, part of a trade for Sam George and Paul Dougherty. He came back swinging, scoring 4 goals in 10 games and earning Player of the Week honors.^[9][10] Lagos continued his momentum in 2000, when he scored 8 goals and added 7 assists in 1500 minutes, making him the league's tenth-place leader in points per game,^[11] but he would eventually request a trade for personal reasons, as his wife disliked Tampa and wished to pursue her law career elsewhere.^[3]

He was dealt to the San Jose Earthquakes in January 2001 on a draft-day trade for second-round and third-round picks,^[12] and played for the Earthquakes from 2001 through 2003, starting regularly in every season and winning MLS Cups in the bookend years. He enjoyed what was likely his best season in 2001, playing a key role in the Earthquakes' playoff run by adding 3 goals and 2 assists to regular season totals of 8 and 8.^[13] After his tenure with the 'Quakes, Lagos was traded to the Columbus Crew for a third-round draft pick,^[4][2] and was reunited there with long-time friend and youth soccer, college soccer, and Thunder teammate Tony Sanneh after Sanneh signed with the Crew late in 2004.^[14] Manny played 18 games and scored 1 goal for the Crew that year, but never really recovered from the last of his many knee surgeries,^[1] seeing his playing time dwindle to 5 appearances in 2005. He was waived by Columbus that May to make room for Chris Henderson^[15] and retired in June.^[13]

In his nine years in MLS, Lagos scored 27 goals and added 36 assists, plus 4 goals and 4 assists in the postseason.^[13] Though right-footed, he spent much of his career on the left side of midfield.^[3] Noted for his gangly legs^[1] and long, awkward strides,^[16] Lagos possessed an unusual style on the ball where his technical skill^[17] and knack for dribbling past opponents^[18] belied his superficially clumsy appearance. ^[19][1] He is remembered as a talented player who was dogged by knee injuries throughout his career.^[3]

[edit] National and Olympic Team

Lagos began his international career in the 1992 Summer Olympics, when he scored the second goal in a 3-1 win over Kuwait, the team's only victory.^[20] His first full cap for the senior national team did not come until over nine years later, on December 9, 2001 against South Korea. He earned three caps for the US from 2001 to 2003, scoring no goals.^[21]

[edit] Management

In January of 2006, Lagos was named the Director of Soccer Operations for the Minnesota Thunder.^[8] In this role, he has placed particular emphasis on youth development, community relations, and the team's stadium search.^[1] Manny has also done some sporadic work in broadcasting, serving as a color commentator for XM Radio during the 2006 World Cup.^[1]

[edit] Notes