Tim excelled in several sports through high school but “soccer” was by far his preferred game. He says, “I knew I wasn’t going to play for the NBA.” He was recruited to the MetroStars out of high school and proceeded to play in his signature winning fashion.

Tim’s goalkeeping was so outstanding that their Goalkeeping Coach, Tony Coton, recruited him for Manchester United. Even with the press making rude and tactless remarks about Tim’s Tourette’s he did the unprecedented and started playing immediately. Tim didn’t let his new team or the fans down. Showing the American determination to be number 1 Tim ignored the press and hit the pitch with an intensity of focus that has propelled him to fame.

Unlike the flashy styles and egos of many great goalkeepers, Tim feels that stopping the ball is more important than looking good at it. The American puts it simply, “if it looks great, fantastic. If it looks ugly and works, that’s OK. I just try and stop it. That’s it.” Such an attitude is why this American is at the head of England’s prime sport.

Speaking recently about the back to back wins over his former teammates at Manchester United in the USA Internationals, Tim is quoted as commenting, “We’ve been playing really confidently.” Despite a string of player injuries and replacements, this can-do attitude has quickly forged a team that is quickly forming up to take on all comers.

Tim went on to explain, “We felt that we got stronger as the game went on. We thought they were going to create problems because they’re so good but we dealt with everything they threw at us.” Confidence is at the heart of the principle of attraction. A team that can keep its mind focused on the fact that they are only as weak as they allow themselves to be have a much greater chance of excelling against even the most skillful opponent.

In life as in sports, Tim Howard has always encouraged the winning attitude. Be it on the football pitch or working with handicapped children, Tim shows that mental fortitude and self confidence will help put a person’ mind on the winning track. You can’t win games by convincing yourself you are defeated from the start and you can’t win in real life situations without a belief in yourself either.

Tim has beaten many odds placed against his success. Even when a particular day or game doesn’t go perfect, he doesn’t allow a defeatist attitude to stop him from putting forth all the effort of a person who has decided they are going to win every time.

Rather than try to hide his problem, Tim has traded in on his fame as a means to increase the awareness of the affliction. He has leveraged his popularity so that he can be a platform by which children with Tourette’s can be encouraged to continue seeking to be all they can be. His work with the Tourette Syndrome Association among others brought Tim the Major League Soccer Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2001.

He doesn’t see himself as handicapped by Tourette’s. He does feel that God has granted him the ability to promote understanding of the condition through his sporting popularity. Unlike many top-level goalkeepers who opt for flamboyant lifestyles, Tim and his wife strive to live a calm, peaceful life. He sums up his success this way, “Today, I am blessed to be living a dream. And yet, if it all went away tomorrow, I know I would still have peace. That probably sounds crazy to most people, but that’s the kind of peace Christ gives.”

It has given much to Tim Howard and he in turn gives it back day by day as he works to encourage others to let God into their lives and hearts.

Despite this early handicap, it was observed that Tim had great potential for sports. By high school, he was excelling not only on the football pitch but in baseball and basketball. With the help and coaching of numerous people beginning with Tim Mulqueen, the Assistant Coach of the USA’s U-17 National Soccer Team, he has earned his place in the sports world. Adding to the physical prowess he has demonstrated Tim has also made an indelible mark in the world as a humanitarian.

Rather than suppress the fact he has Tourette’s, Tim has dedicated his life to helping children who suffer the affliction along with him. His success with this work earned him the Major League Soccer Humanitarian of the Year award in 2001. Through his continued efforts with Athletes in Action, Tim continues to score real life points as he leverages his sports popularity to show disadvantaged children that it is possible to overcome adversity and find their way to success in whatever field of endeavor they dream of pursuing.

But that is part of the goalkeeper’s job. The backline needs someone to assess what is going on up field and organize the defense around the goal. Tim feels it is up to the goalkeeper to make sure they are all “on the same page” when organizing their position and defensive play. That is where the goalkeeper needs to be loud and clear. He needs to keep talking and having them talk back.

“I can certainly take criticism as well as I can give it, at least I think so anyway,” says Howard. It is his belief that all the defenders need to keep in communication. That way they can share in the praise when it’s deserved. “Obviously you have to be a shot-stopper – that’s the essence of being a goalkeeper,” he goes on, “The communication part of keeping is very important.”

Even when a goal is conceded, Tim Howard doesn’t look to cast blame elsewhere. “I try and look at myself first to see where I went wrong because I ask a lot of myself.” It is a part of the winning strategy he uses. Even mistakes can be turned into experience and that is what keeps him motivated to be the best goalkeeper in the League.

In high school he was a standout soccer player who also excelled in basketball and played very effective baseball as well. His raw talent drew the notice of Tim Mulqueen, the then Assistant Coach of the United States U-17 men’s national soccer team. Through excellence on the playing pitch, Tim proved himself an above average goalkeeper and by 1998 had been recruited by the Major League Soccer Team, the MetroStars. Tim quickly became a fan favorite and at 22 became the youngest player ever to win the Major League Soccer Goalkeeper of the Year Award in 2001.

Good talent is hard to find and this accolade brought him to the attention of Sir Alex Ferguson and Tim transferred to the Manchester United Team in 2003. He continued his winning ways as goalkeeper for one of the largest and most famous clubs in the world. In 2004 he became the first American to win the FA Cup while playing for Manchester United. A faux pax later that year seemed to slow Tim down a bit, but it is hard to keep a champion down. Denied a chance to redeem himself at Manchester, Tim finally headed to Everton, one of the Premiere Soccer Teams in the UK based in the City of Liverpool, and has since regained the accolades and praise as one of the best goal keepers in the world despite being an American.