CARSON, Calif. – When Mike Magee joined Major League Soccer in 2003 at age 17, he had no idea that the league could reach the heights that it has 14-years later.
Magee announced his retirement from the game on Wednesday, ending a career that saw the LA Galaxy forward lift two MLS Cup titles and score nearly 80 goals in over 300 career appearances.
The Chicago native began his career as the youngest player to ever start a match for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (later Red Bulls) and then moved onto the LA Galaxy where he was instrumental in back-to-back MLS Cup titles for Los Angeles. Magee then played two seasons with the Chicago Fire, winning the MLS MVP in 2013, before ending his career back in Los Angeles in 2016.
Now at age 32, Magee admits that when he was a teenager, he could have never imagined that Major League Soccer would grow into the thriving league that it is now.
“I had no idea. Where this league was at and with my lack of solid soccer knowledge as a kid, and signing pro and I just took it a day at a time. I had no idea where this league would go or where I would go,” Magee told LA Galaxy Insider. “The things that I’ve done and seen, I could never have imagined. I could never have dreamt it. It’s hard to believe when you look from 2003 to now how far the league has come. I’ve had some time to reflect on how far the league has come in that time, and if I think back then, I would have said that this [growth] would have been impossible. It’s made my life. For the rest of my life, it’s been incredible to say that I was a part of this.
"I wouldn’t have guessed that. I didn’t take it too seriously in the early part of my career because it was hard to see this happening. It was hard to see where the league is now and it’s hard to believe that you could play for a team and organization as incredible as the LA Galaxy. It’s hard to put into words, but for the rest of my life, I’ll be smiling knowing that I was a part of this league.”
