Brian Quinn to Try Out for U.S. Team
A month after being sworn in as a U.S. citizen, Sockers midfielder Brian Quinn, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, has been asked to try out for the U.S. national team as it prepares to play the Republic of Ireland in Boston on Friday.
“This is an unbelievable script,” Quinn said a day after the Sockers clinched their ninth indoor championship. “I couldn’t write it better myself.”
So Quinn on Tuesday will fly to Boston and begin training. He said he is uncertain he can contribute to the team.
“I just haven’t put it in my thought process yet that I would even have a chance at playing,” said Quinn, who Friday turned 31. “For Brian Quinn, it is a new challenge. I have no illusions of grandeur.”
After Quinn gained his citizenship, he said a goal would be to play for his new country in the 1994 World Cup. To do that, he would have to play almost full-time with the national team.
“Obviously something could be worked out so I could play for (the national team and the Sockers),” Quinn said. “Fernando Clavijo (of the St. Louis Storm) and others have done it.”
Quinn was approached on the matter by John Kowalski of the United States Soccer Federation while in Cleveland for the MSL championship series. Kowalski also spoke to Sockers Kevin Crow and Michael Collins.
Crow said he told Kowalski he was interested in sitting down with the federation to see what they had to offer. He has made it known he is ready to retire from the sport and begin a more lucrative career in the business sector.
