William Gildea is retiring from the Washington Post.

[dcajedi]

For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the guy who does a lot of pro-soccer columns, especially when there's a big event in town such as the World Cup.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20439-2003Dec21_2.html

Thanks for all you've done, Mr. Gildea; you are a wonderful writer and have done a tremendous amount to grow soccer in this area. You will be missed.

[iowa007]

sportswriter William Gildea, who will still write some columns

so hopefully he will still write some colums about soccer, if anybody knows him, please give him a call and encourage him to continue writting.

-iowa007


maybe he can freelance and write articles for bigsoccer, yahoo, or cnn, or even soccer america. how about the USSF?

[seahawkdad]

Gildea has also written some insightful soccer columns from overseas. Let's hope he'll still be contributing.

Another retiree to whom we owe some thanks is George Solomon, who saw the growth of interest in soccer (and, I would guess, received continued prodding to do so from a certain reporter--rhymes with 'cough'-- to whom we also owe a lot) and started opening up the sports section to increased coverage.

So William and George...here's to you both. Many thanks.

[stevengoff]

Bill is NOT retiring; he accepted the well-publicized buyout but will continue to work for the paper on contract, which means periodic features and columns (mostly non-soccer). However, he is very excited to go to Germany for World Cup '06.

[nancyb]

Will he need a stringer for that assignment?

[Serie Zed]

Or a lackey, gofer, or suitcase toter?