Dale Mulholland

Playing career

His most notable career achievement was breaking into the USSR professional soccer league after pounding down the barriers and never taking ‘no’ for an answer. He did so during the seemingly unbreakable era of the Soviet Union in a period referred to as Glasnost while riding the wave of Perestroika that ultimately saw the collapse of the USSR Empire. Originally, he transferred from the Orlando Lions in 1989 to the Sing Tao Tigers of Hong Kong before he contracted for two years with Lokomotiv Moscow of the Soviet First League starting in 1990 and became the first and only American ever to do so. Simultaneously, he sent his Russian teammate, the former USSR jr. national team player, Alexander Golovnya, to take his place in Orlando in a ‘player swap’ of sorts before transferring back to the US and the Miami Freedom of the APSL (American Professional Soccer League) in 1991 for a season.

Upon the completion of the APSL season, Mulholland was sent to the UK to West Brom Albion (then under manager Bobby Gould) but within two days found himself shanghaied by former England International Tony Morley to test at Aston Villa where he trained under Ron Atkinson and Andy Gray during the winter of 1991 before heading back again to live and play behind the Iron Curtain only this time with historically famous FC Dukla Prague in the Czechoslovakian’s top flight of football. There he contracted until 1995.

One of his teammates at Dukla, Pavel Nedved, went on to become one of the world’s most famous players in recent history winning the European and World’s Player of the Year Award while Mulholland seemed to drift on in relative obscurity in Eastern Europe rejecting offers from GAK Graz, Austria and other semi-well known clubs in Central Europe. Additional offers were made by FC Magdeburg of the former DDR (East Germany) and other notable Eastern European teams all rejected either by him or his club and so Mulholland never made it into Western Europe as expected and although being invited by Bora Milutinovic to the general player’s selection camp, disappointingly did not get selected to the US National Team roster for the 1994 World Cup.

Management career

Reportedly, a contract dispute over the US equivalent of $100,000. in Deutsch Marks with the Dukla Prague club officials was the career stall that ended in the court of FIFA, eventually winning the case in full, and releasing him in 1994 to sign anywhere as a pre-Bosman transfer-free player. While the dispute was going through the courts, Mulholland went back to the US to revive his boyhood club, the Seattle Sounders, formerly of the defunct league the NASL (North American Soccer League).

Working alongside Alan Hinton and his boyhood friend and former junior soccer and collegiate teammate Grant Gibbs, and accompanied by business manager Ken K. Nakamura, together they revived the club with the financial backing of Scott Oki and C. Neil Farnsworth, both former Microsoft executives, and brought the club back from the graveyard of US soccer history where it has now flourished since 1994 mainly due to the solid foundation that they set up during the rebirth and reformation of that club. The current Seattle Sounders FC now playing in the MLS (Major League Soccer) have been in existence longer than the original NASL club which played from 1974-82. It has also been noted that Mulholland was the individual who coined the name of the A League which was the precursor of the MLS.

After nearly two seasons serving in management and officially as the Instructional Director for the Sounders, preparing the team and teaching 1,000’s of children the basics of soccer, Mulholland seemed to have had enough and his wanderlust sent him back to Europe apparently searching for one more big signing and a final club to settle and play but oddly he found himself in such teams and such places as Dinamo Zagreb, Croatia and Tero Sasana, Thailand, and Hapoel Ramat Gan, Israel before finally settling down in Jakarta, Indonesia where he has lived and worked in soccer at all levels for the past decade.

Coaching career

After a few more years traveling the world's football circuit with the famous and the obscure, Mulholland finally landed in Jakarta, Indonesia after being invited by the AFC’s (Asian Football Confederation) top instructor, Bernhard Schumm of Munich, Germany, to try to settle down and make a career as a coach in the world’s most beautiful game. Schumm said that he thought Mulholland possessed an unbeatable enthusiasm and had developed outstanding organizational skills over the years combined with a unique perspective which together could serve as an asset for Asian soccer development and specifically Indonesia. "He was starting to work as a player’s agent offering and selling players when he contacted me and I said that that type of business is too unstable to last long. And so I got him into coaching."

He seemed to have taken Schumm’s advice, earned his complete set of AFC international coaching licenses in a two-year accelerated program rather than the normally required three-year period, graduating Magna Cum Laude and finally retired as a full-time professional player in 2000. In addition to receiving the AFC A, B, and C licenses, he holds ASEAN (The Association of South East Asian Nations) and the PSSI’s (Indonesian FA’s) highest coaching honours and qualifications as well in addition to Arsenal Soccer Schools Coaching Modules and SuperSkills Soccer full contingent of certifications.

2007-11

Served as the Director of Coaching / Head Coach for the Arsenal Soccer Schools franchise for Indonesia, Mulholland seems to have immigrated there, continues to enjoy actively participating in the local men’s league with the Jakarta Vikings and formerly playing and managing with the local men’s club, 6 times local champions, the Wanderers FC in the JIFL (Jakarta International Football League). Rumours abound that he has been seen to make some local cameo appearances in movies and television commercials in Indonesia usually playing various humorous characters. And it is reported that he often writes satirical soccer related articles under a pseudonym for specific news agencies/services.

20011-onward

Currently heading up the growth and expansion of SuperSkills Soccer [1] which concentrates on skill and agility enhancement in player development and utilizes the sport of 1v1 Soccer to create permanent positive progression in every player that becomes part of SuperSkills.