The Best Midfielder In The World Is Retiring And You Will Have Never Heard His Name Before

The Man Who Once Outclassed a Ballon d'Or Winner

When Darlington Nagbe fled war-torn Liberia at five months of age, there were no guarantees ahead of him.

Football was the only reason his family had managed to escape a country that would spend the next 13 years wrapped up in two civil wars. His father, Joe Nagbe, is Liberia’s record appearance holder, and was playing for AS Monaco at the time.

Over the next decade, the Nagbes would follow their footballing breadmaker’s career around Europe, from the South of France to Switzerland and Greece.

To put it plainly, for the first 11 years of his life, Nagbe was a misfit who never stayed in one place long enough to settle in. His only form of communication, like his father, was football.

Then, his parents split, and all of a sudden, he found himself on the other side of the world in a country that adored almost every sport other than the beautiful game he’d grown to love in Europe. The United States. Nagbe is an Ohio boy at heart; it is, after all, the place where he was finally handed the opportunity to live a stable childhood.

Therefore, it's fitting that after 15 seasons and over 550 appearances on US soil. Ohio is the place where he will now retire.

Darlington Nagbe is arguably one of the greatest American soccer players in history... 🧵
(📸 @RichIMpossible ) pic.twitter.com/SKVqw3zJNn

— Forty-One Magazine | Concacaf + Culture (@FortyOneMag) December 11, 2023

States Loyalty

“I would hear other guys talk about how they dreamed of playing in Europe, and I just wasn’t interested in that. I had done my time in Europe. For me, it was Ohio or nowhere.” Nagbe wrote in an article for The Players' Tribune. “All I wanted was to play for the Columbus Crew.”

Anyone who had followed the diverse midfielder's career knew Nagbe could’ve made it in Europe. He almost did in the winter of 2016, when Celtic invited him to a Champions League game against Barcelona. Names like Virgil Van Dijk, Jeremie Frimpong, Victor Wanyama and Moussa Dembele all made a name for themselves at the Scottish Giants. Celtic Park is a perfect stage to display potential talent due to its regular hosting of Champions League football.

Ultimately, the deal fell through, and speaking to the Scottish Sun a year later, Nagbe made it clear that he was happy to stay in America. “I’m here at Timbers right now, and if it doesn’t happen, then I am looking forward to playing again for Portland.”

His faithfulness to the country that took him in as a 10-year-old was furthered when he gained US citizenship in 2015, allowing him to become a USMNT regular under Jurgen Klinsmann and then Bruce Arena.

Ever-present. Everlasting ✨

Our captain Darlington Nagbe becomes just the tenth player in League history to feature in 400 MLS regular season matches.#Crew96 ✘ @darlingtonnagbe pic.twitter.com/frWyV8G9HX

— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) June 19, 2024

World Class Credibility

Nagbe is not only a unique player but also an extremely hard one to replace. His abilities whilst in possession of the ball have always been a class above the rest in the MLS, making him an utter nightmare to dispossess.

CIES Football Observatory statistics for ball retention rate under high pressure in the first six months of the 2023/24 campaign revealed that Manchester City’s Rodri had the highest percentage in Europe (92.1%). He did not, however, have the highest percentage rate in the world; the Spaniard was beaten to the number one spot by Nagbe himself (93.4%).

Whilst Rodri went on to claim the Ballon d’Or later that year, partly due to his performances whilst in possession. Nagbe quietly continued to fly under the radar, truly in his own lane as the greatest footballer on the planet when it came to retaining the ball under pressure.

Frank de Boer, one of Nagbe’s coaches at Atlanta United, once commented on the midfielder’s skill on the ball and comfort in tight situations. “Not many in this league and also in Europe have that, like Frenkie De Jong, Sergio Busquets, those players, they scan their environment well, and he has the same,”

“He’s like the cement between stones,” the former Barcelona and Ajax player summarised Nagbe superlatively. It comes as no surprise that the four-time MLS Cup winner is the most fouled player in the league's 30-year history. A frustrating individual to line up against, but a dream to play with.

High praise from Aidan Morris for MLS legend Darlington Nagbe. 🫶

Watch our new show Club & Country on MLS YouTube 📺 pic.twitter.com/tDJoHEtMOT

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 9, 2025

Gerardo “Tata” Martino was another who coached Nagbe at Atlanta. The man who previously managed Argentina and Barcelona described him as a player who understood every moment of a match. “He knew when to speed things up, when to play laterally, and he was always very accurate in his passing. It was very easy to construct each of our attacks.”

The Nagbe craze stems even further than his former managers. The early stages of his MLS career aligned with the two years that Steven Gerrard was in the league. After a match against Nagbe’s Portland, the former Liverpool and England legend approached the Timbers’ head coach, Caleb Porter, and shook his hand before exclaiming ‘Who the f*** is that kid?’.

An Exemplary Proffesional

Gerrard was right to be shocked. The reality is that Nagbe is a name that the majority in Europe haven’t heard of due to his loyalty to the trio of cities that hosted his talents. Whether it was on the wing or as a box-to-box midfielder, neither Atlanta nor Portland have been able to win the MLS Cup since he departed, and Columbus may soon discover a similar fate.

Upon his retirement, to many, his career will be a colossal question mark, as one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’ in the American game. All that he leaves behind to answer those queries are the stories he told on the pitch and the pictures he painted in the MLS as a refugee who came and conquered a league that many stay in for a matter of years. Adored by millions along the way.