Extra Time: Steve Ralston's MLS Rise

In a world of early player identification in the US Youth Soccer system, Steve Ralston's journey to Major League Soccer's first ever Rookie of the Year award was an unlikely one. As he shares with Founding Futbol, he didn't even start on his high school team. A few years later, he was drafted 18th overall in the 1996 MLS College Draft by the Tampa Bay Mutiny; Ralston played in 31 games as a rookie and launched what would become a special professional career. By his second season, the midfielder earned All-Star honors. By 1999, Ralston was named Team MVP, MLS Best Eleven, and MLS Fair Play Award winner after leading the league with 18 assists. He also became Tampa Bay's all-time leading scorer as well as the first MLS player to play 10,000 minutes. He ended his career with 135 assists, the most in league history at the time, and now second behind Landon Donovan on the MLS all-time record list. He joined Founding Futbol to discuss the early days of MLS, his outstanding career and ...