WHIPPANY, NJ – Michael Bradley was officially unveiled at the Red Bulls Training Center Thursday afternoon, and from the looks of it he can’t wait to get started on taking the reins after former Head Coach Ibrhaim Sekagya was promoted to join Sandro Schwarz’s staff with the first team on June 10th.
The former Toronto FC, US Men’s National Team captain brings a more than enough experience as a player since his career began since he was 16 years old, when he was selected after entering the 2004 MLS SuperDraft, selected thirty-sixth overall by the MetroStars, who was coached by his father, Bob Bradley.
Bradley didn’t see any playing time in his rookie season, missing out with a foot injury, but gained a starting spot in 2005, playing 30 out of 32 matches for the team. Just weeks after his father was fired as the club’s coach, he headed in his first professional goal in a victory over Chivas USA on the last day of the 2005 season, sending the team to the playoffs.
His stellar career was spent playing in the Dutch Eredivisie with Heerenveen, German Bundesliga with Borussia Mönchengladbach, English Premier League with Aston Villa, and Italian Serie A with both Chievo and Roma.
He returned to MLS with Toronto FC in 2014, making over 300 total appearances and lifting the MLS Cup as captain in 2017, before retiring with the club in 2023. A former captain of the United States national team, Bradley made over 150 international appearances between his senior debut in 2006 and 2019.
He was selected to the squad for several major tournaments, including five CONCACAF Gold Cups and two FIFA World Cups, winning two of the former and was also a member of the sides that finished runners-up at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and reached the semi-finals of the Copa América Centenario.
Despite the vast professional and international experince he posses he’s eager to put it all to the test to lead a young and hungry New York Red Bulls II side that is currently sitting in first place of the MLS NextPro Eastern Conference standings. He talked about his goals and aspirations with the club:
“It’s two-fold. The first part is now, as a young coach, having the opportunity to be on the field every single day with a group of my own and to take my ideas for the game, my ideas of culture and environment, and now bring them together in a way where the football comes to life for the group, and that now we can continue. I don’t want to say create. Continue, because, again, Ibrahim (Sekagya) has done a fantastic job in terms of the starting points and the way that this group has developed, but we can continue to have a team that has mentality and spirit and plays football with real personality and ideas.“
“As I said, that’s a big part of it. And the second part is the talented young players that you get to work with. There’s no better age than the age of these players. They’re they are so close to now taking the next step in their football career. Some of them have had the taste already of first team football of now the next level, and they come in every day just so eager and so motivated to work, to train. And so it’s how can I help them even more?“
Whether that experience as player translates into developing players ready to take the next level in their careers while successfully guiding the team to its first league title since 2015 is yet to be seen, but one thing is for certian, for New York Red Bulls II, the Michael Bradley era has officially begun.