Tom Kain

Infobox Football biography
playername= Tom Kain
fullname = Tom Kain
nickname = The Tool


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1963|7|1
cityofbirth =
countryofbirth = United States
height =
currentclub = Retired
clubnumber =
position = Midfielder
youthyears = 1979-1980
1979-1980
1981-1985
youthclubs = Wall Soccer Atoms
Wall High School
Duke University
years = 1986
1987-?
clubs = Union Solingen
Wichita Wings ("indoor")
Kansas City Comets ("indoor")
caps(goals) = 0 (0)
nationalyears = 1986-1987
nationalteam = United States
nationalcaps(goals) = 5 (0)
pcupdate = 31 May 2006
ntupdate = 22 June 2006

Tom Kain (born July 1, 1963) is the Nike Director of Global Marketing (Soccer). He is also a retired U.S. soccer midfielder. He played collegiate soccer at Duke University where he was named the 1985 Hermann Trophy winner as the top collegiate player. He also earned five caps with the U.S. national team in 1986 and 1987.

Youth and college

Kain graduated from Wall High School in New Jersey in 1980. While there he wore number 7, which the school has retired. Wall High School won the New Jersey Group 3 State Championship the three years he played. He had 56 goals and had 40 assists during his junior and senior years at Wall. In 1999, he was named by "The Star-Ledger" as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1980s. [Jandoli, Ron. [http://web.archive.org/web/20030110132039/http://nj.com/hssports/ledger/index.ssf?/hssports/century/stories/bsoccerdecades.html "The Century's Best -- Boys Soccer: Top 10 Players of each decade"] , "The Star-Ledger", November 7, 1999, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 10, 2003. Accessed September 11, 2008.]

After high school, Kain played for Duke University. His outstanding play for the Blue Devils led to his selection as an All American each of his four years. He attained first team All American status in 1983 and 1985. That year, he also won the Hermann Award as the outstanding men's collegiate soccer player. His school record of 51 career goals stood until broken by Ali Curtis in 2000. During his tenure with the Blue Devils, the men's soccer team went 68-13-7.

Germany

After graduating from Duke, Kain achieved a remarkable first, the first native American to play professionally in Germany. He spent one year at Second Division club Union Solingen, but never played a game. The next year, Paul Caligiuri also moved to Germany and became the first American to actually play a game there.

MISL

He returned to the U.S. and played indoor soccer for the Wichita Wings and Kansas City Comets of Major Indoor Soccer League.

National team

In 1981, Kain was a member of the U.S. U-20 national team at the U-20 World Championship. ^{[http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=104/edition=191109/teams/team=1888304.html]} The U.S. went 0-1-2 in group play and did not qualify for the second round.Kain also played 6 games with the United States men's national soccer team between 1986 and 1987. However, he has only 5 official caps as his last game with the team, a September 5, 1987 Olympic Qualifier is not considered a full international.

Post-Playing Career

He retired from active playing at the age of 27 while with Kansas City and was hired by Adidas. He steadily rose through the company's ranks and became its Director of U.S. Soccer by his mid-thirties. Nike eventually lured Kain away from Adidas and he remains with Nike today.

His success at Adidas and Nike led to SoccerAmerica selecting him as their #24 most influential person in U.S. soccer.

Kain currently resides in Portland, Ore., with his wife Patricia, who's expecting their fourth child in January.

In 1996, Duke University inducted Kain into its Athletics Hall of Fame.

References