Check Ramiro out at the :21 second mark... goal #9 on the 1996 top 10 goals list: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fveG427BhZk"]San Jose Earthquakes 100 Greatest Goals 1996 - YouTube[/ame] Also interesting to see Wynalda let someone else take the free kick .
If Corrales counts as an original despite not being continuous, and Thornton counts as an original despite not being continuous, then what about Hejduk? He was gone longer, but not much longer.
Chet North never played, but he's been on the Kansas City bench for all 16 seasons. Even that list has to be extremely short at this point.
Yup. Completely spaced on him. Kinda ironic, no? And with his lung capacity and his locker room presence, he might out last them all.
San Jose Merc News had an article toward season end stating that there were only 3 1996ers left, and that Ramiro Corrales hoped to outlast the others.
So, down to Hejduk, Corrales, and Thornton? All USMNT guys, as well. All non-continuous, as well. But continuous and original are not the same thing. I think all three pass muster as 96ers. And, as an aside, I'd like to mention one player who played in 96, though not from the beginning of the year, who could still play in MLS, if he so chose. Brad Friedel.
There are very few players from the 1996 MLS season still active, regardless of what definition you use. We might as well throw all of them into the list.
More generally, I wonder what the list of '96 MLSers still playing professionally anywhere looks like.
That's a really good point. I took note of the Merc article because Ramiro is suffering a back problem similar to mine, and I'm almost 30 years older than he is. Pro sports really takes its toll, and these 96ers have played it for 15 years! As an aside, it shows how Beckham is a physiologic one in a million.
Corrales is a marvel. He just keeps going - maybe he slows down a little bit each year, but he continues to start most of the games, and he plays a pretty physical game with those long somewhat wiry legs that somehow just keep going. But right, Becks is a few years older than Corrales - even more of a marvel. His senior professional career at ManU started in 1993.
Of course (as JazzyJ is well aware ), on the Quakes boards there is a long-simmering discussion about whether Corrales SHOULD be starting most games...
I would love to see how the allocation order for Brad Friedel is handled if he were to come back. He actually transferred mid-contract from the Crew to Liverpool back in 1997, so I think according to rules back then the Crew held on to his MLS rights were he to come back. Would that carry over after so long?