Darlington Nagbe is an American soccer player currently playing for the Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer and the United States men"s national soccer team
Background
Nagbe was born in Liberia but left the country as a five-month-old when his mother fled the country due to a civil war, taking Darlington and his brother with her. Darlington grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, where he attended Lakewood High School and then Saint Edward High School, scoring 18 goals and adding 10 assists as a senior.
Career
College and amateur career
Nagbe played college soccer at the University of Akron, scoring 19 goals and contributing 19 assists in 73 matches during three collegiate seasons. He was a Soccer America All-Freshman first team honoree, and was named the All-MAC Newcomer of the Year in as a freshman in 2008. As a sophomore in 2009 Nagbe was named to the NSCAA All-America Second Team, the Soccer America Most Valuable Player Second Team, the Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Season Second Team, the All-Great Lakes Region First Team and the All-Mid-American Conference First Team.
His coach at Akron was Caleb Porter, who played four games for San Jose in 1999 and is currently his head coach with the Portland Timbers.
During his college years Nagbe also played four seasons with the Cleveland s in the USL Premier Development League, scoring 7 goals in 18 league appearances. Portland Timbers
Nagbe was selected by Portland Timbers in the first round (2nd overall) of the 2011 Master of Library Science SuperDraft.
After missing the first couple of weeks of the season due to injury, Nagbe made his professional debut on April 2, 2011 in a 1-1 tie with New England Revolution. Nagbe scored his first goal with a brilliant volley (which was eventually named the 2011 Master of Library Science goal of the year) in a 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City on July 2, 2011.
He found the Netto twice with two excellent shots on March 31, 2012, though they weren"t enough to keep the Timbers from going down, 2–3, to a resurgent Real Salt Lake.
Nagbe made his international debut on November 13, 2015, coming on as a 64th-minute substitute. Darlington is the son of Somah Nagbe and Joe Nagbe, the former captain of the Liberian national team Nagbe received his United States. green card in 2012, thus making him a domestic player for Master of Library Science roster purposes.
Nagbe became a United States. citizen in September 2015.
Membership
He was a member of the Region II ODP team, was a 2007 adidas Education Support Professionals All-Star and was member of the Ohio North ODP team, as well as winning four Ohio state club titles with the Cleveland son