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Maurice Edu

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Maurice Edu
Personal information
Full name Maurice B. Edu, Jr.
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Centre midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Rangers
Number 7
Youth career
2004–2007 Maryland Terrapins
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2007–2008 Toronto FC 38 (5)
2008– Rangers 91 (9)
International career‡
2007–2008 United States U23 6 (0)
2007– United States 32 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 7 April 2012
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 29 February 2012

Maurice B. Edu, Jr. (born April 18, 1986) is an American soccer player who plays for Rangers in the Scottish Premier League and the United States national team.

Early life

Edu grew up in San Bernardino, California. His parents were immigrants from Nigeria. His father, Maurice Sr., was a mathematics teacher, and his mother is a chemistry teacher. Edu has three sisters and a brother.[1]

Club career

Maryland Terrapins

Edu was at the University of Maryland, College Park from 2004 until 2006 and played three years for the Maryland Terrapins, including a role on the 2005 squad which won the NCAA College Cup national championship. He forfeited his final year of NCAA eligibility to enter the 2007 MLS Superdraft as a Generation Adidas player. He was named a first-team All-American in 2006.

Toronto FC

Edu cut short his time at college to join Major League Soccer and was drafted by Toronto FC as the first overall pick of the 2007 MLS SuperDraft. He made his MLS debut on April 25, 2007, against Kansas City Wizards, and he scored his first professional goal in the seventy-fifth minute of a game against Chicago Fire on May 12. During that first season he made twenty-five appearances in MLS and scored four goals. He ended his debut season by winning the MLS Rookie of the Year award and earning his first senior national team cap.

Rangers

On August 16, 2008, Edu flew to Glasgow to hold talks with Scottish Premier League team Rangers after a fee of £2.6 million, was agreed with MLS.[2][3] Edu signed a five-year contract with Rangers on August 17, 2008, but had to wait until five days later to officially join after successfully gaining a work permit.[4]

Edu Playing for Rangers against St. Mirren in March 2011

Edu made his debut for Rangers in a league match against Kilmarnock on September 13, 2008. The team won 2–1 thanks to a Kris Boyd double. Edu scored his first goal for Rangers on April 8, 2009, in a league match against St. Mirren and then followed his goal up with another against Hibernian in a 3–2 win at Easter Road eleven days later. He went on a run of games towards the end of the season including his Old Firm debut against Celtic on May 9 at Ibrox in a 1–0 Rangers win. He ended his first season in Scottish football by winning a league championship medal - having played in twelve of Rangers' thirty-eight games in the 2008-09 SPL season. However, a torn cruciate knee ligament saw him miss out on the Scottish Cup final.

After recovering from his injury, Edu returned for Rangers as a 74th minute substitute in a 4–1 win against Hibernian on December 27, 2009, but only played four games before being sidelined for another month with an ankle problem. He had complained of racist abuse from two Rangers supporters after the club's embarrassing 4–1 home defeat to FC Unirea Urziceni in October 2009.[5] A turnaround in his fortunes began when he came off the bench to score a 93rd minute stoppage-time winner against Old Firm rivals Celtic on February 28, 2010, as Rangers won 1–0. This goal gave Rangers a ten point lead in the league with a game in hand. On March 21, 2010, Edu came on as a half-time substitute when Rangers beat St. Mirren to win the League Cup Final. His domestic season ended with him being awarded a second league medal having appeared in fifteen of the thirty-eight games. During the 2010-11 season, Edu made his Champions League debut against English giants Manchester United at Old Trafford and drew plaudits for his performance.[6] On 20 October 2010, he scored his first Champions League goal against Spanish side Valencia, converting from a Vladimír Weiss corner, but scored an own goal to equalise for Valencia minutes after the restart in a game that finished 1-1.[7]

Edu made his 100th appearance in all competitions for the Gers on 5 November 2011 in their 3-1 win over Dundee United.[8]

International career

Edu made his international debut for the United States against Switzerland on October 17, 2007, and won his second cap a month later against South Africa, where he registered an assist on Steve Cherundolo's winning goal. Edu was included in the U.S. team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He played in all three of the group matches and deputized as a center back. Edu drew a penalty in the final game of the group stage against Nigeria which Sacha Kljestan took and finished. However, the U.S. were knocked out of the group stage after that loss. Edu scored his first international goal for the U.S. during of a friendly against Czech Republic on May 25, 2010.

Edu made only one brief appearance for the national team in 2009, as a stoppage-time substitute in a World Cup qualifier against El Salvador. That was his solitary game in the final stage of qualifying for South Africa. Despite this he was selected as a member of the 23-man roster for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On June 18, against Slovenia, he volleyed in a free kick from Landon Donovan in the 85th minute with the game tied at 2–2, but referee Koman Coulibaly disallowed the goal. Coulibaly's decision was heavily criticized by commentators and columnists alike who believe that the United States committed no fouls on the play and were in fact the ones who were being fouled for the most part.[9][10][11][12][13]

Career statistics

Club

As of 7 April 2012

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2007||rowspan="2"|Toronto FC||rowspan="2"|Major League Soccer||25||4||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||25||4 |- |2008||13||1||3||1||colspan="2"|—||colspan="2"|—||16||2 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008–09||rowspan="4"|Rangers||rowspan="4"|Scottish Premier League||12||2||3||0||1||0||0||0||16||2 |- |2009–10||15||2||4||0||1||0||0||0||20||2 |- |2010–11||33||2||3||0||3||1||8||2||47||5 |- |2011–12||31||3||2||0||0||0||4||0||37||3 Template:Football player statistics 338||5||3||1||0||0||0||0||41||6 Template:Football player statistics 491||9||12||0||5||1||12||2||120||12 Template:Football player statistics 5129||14||15||1||5||1||12||2||161||18 Template:Football player statistics end

International

International statistics

As of 29 February 2012
National team Year Apps Goals
United States
2007 2 0
2008 8 0
2009 1 0
2010 8 1
2011 12 0
2012 1 0
Total 32 1

International goals

Scores and results list USA's goal tally first.
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. May 25, 2010 Rentschler Field, East Hartford, USA  Czech Republic
1 – 0
2 – 4
Friendly

Honours

Rangers

Personal awards

Personal life

References

  1. ^ Morgan Campbell: The pro athlete who almost wasn't at The Star, 14 October 2007.
  2. ^ "Edu poised for switch to Rangers". BBC Sport. 16 August 2008.
  3. ^ "On Their Way". Rangers F.C. August 17, 2008.
  4. ^ "Rangers' Edu is given work permit". BBC Sport. 22 August 2008.
  5. ^ "Rangers condemn 'moronic' fans after Maurice Edu racially abused". London: Guardian. 21 October 2009.
  6. ^ Ogden, Mark (14 September 2010). "Manchester United v Rangers: player ratings". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  7. ^ Murray, Ewan (OCtober 20, 2010). "Rangers' Maurice Edu hero and villain in draw against Valencia". Guardian. London. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ McGowan, Stephen (9 November 2011). "SPL title is as good as ours, claims bullish Rangers striker Jelavic". Daily Mail. London.
  9. ^ USA Slovenia World Cup: Maurice Edu Disallowed Goal Video
  10. ^ Brooks Peck. "Referee costs U.S. win, can't stifle massive comeback for draw" Yahoo! News. 18 June 2010.
  11. ^ Controversial Finish Leaves US With Draw, ESPN
  12. ^ Bradley's late goal follows Donovan score as U.S. salvages draw, ESPN, June 18, 2010.
  13. ^ Robbed at the World Cup! Late goal disallowed as US forced to settle for 2-2 draw with Slovenia
  14. ^ http://www.umterps.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/edu_maurice00.html
  15. ^ http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/17254/Maurice-Edu-Named-the-New-Face-of-FIFA-09/
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