Martin Nash Has Officially Retired

Martin Nash Announces his Retirement from Professional
Soccer.  Flanked by Club President Bob Lenarduzzi, and
Club Manager Teitur Thordason. (Photo-Pierce Lang)

and in other news... The Vancouver Whitecaps have HIRED Martin Nash as a Staff Coach, in particular the Whitecaps are looking to involve more positional coaching in their Residency Groups and Senior Squad. Oh yeah and he'll also have a hand in Scouting.

His first task as a scout is a trip across the boarder to Seattle to check out their first round playoff match against Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy.

It was a glossy eyed affair that you could tell wasn't easy for the soft spoken Nash to get through.

He said he owed it to his family who have sacrificed so much for him to get this far with his career. It wasn't an easy decision for him to make, "There were a lot of long discussions with a lot of different people" he spoke with his wife, his brother, his kids. He wanted to go out on a "high" and did it on his own terms. The option was there for him to keep playing and be a part of the Whitecaps first MLS season, but he felt it was just time to step away.  In the end it was definitely the right decision.

Bob Lenarduzzi got up and reminisced about his first memory of Martin playing with the 86'ers. How they came oh so close to qualifying for the olympics when Bob was the coach.  He remembered Martin's first international cap at Swangard. And how he immediately made an impact the minute he stepped on the pitch.  He came right out and called him "dominant". We saw flashes of it this season, but as time has crept up on Nash, those flashes started to become shorter, and shorter, and the long season began to take its toll on his body.  Bob reconfirmed that Martin was going to be on the squad next year for MLS if he wanted to.

Teitur then stepped up to the scrum and laid it all out there. He gave high praise to a captain who stepped up and took on a leadership role the season after the Icelandic Coach arrived. He might not have necessarily seen those qualities during the first season but they were quite evident the last 2 years. "He is a huge reason why we were able to keep it together this season"  Teitur confirmed the speculation that Nash was no longer able to play a full 90 minutes; "with the number of games we are playing, the load when your 35 years of age you know, you see that it gets more difficult to recover between games". While Thordason will miss his passing and leadership qualities he looks forward to working along side him.


Nash leaves behind a large void in the marketing and promotional department. When asked who was going to fill that void, Lenarduzzi said, "Oh, I think we'll do ok in that regard; there will be more to come on that"