Clint ”Deuce” Dempsey announced his retirement from professional soccer last month.

Dempsey retires with 57 goals for the US national team. He is tied as the nation’s all-time top scorer along with Landon Donovan.

It would have been great to see Dempsey break Donovan’s record but unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

The 35-year-old picked the right time to end his career. He clearly looked burnt out during recent times for the Sounders and was struggling to force his way into the starting XI. If he had carried on, he may have tarnished his legacy.

There exists much debate over who is the best between Donovan and Dempsey. While many feel that Donovan is the best of the two, I personally lean towards Dempsey.

Donovan never really managed to make an impact in Europe apart from his two loan stints with Everton. The former LA Galaxy man had to fail spells in Germany with the likes of Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich.

On the other hand, Dempsey is one of the few Americans who actually went on to gain tremendous respect while his time playing in England. To date, Dempsey is still the Cottagers all-time leading goal scorer in the Premier League with 50 goals from 184 appearances.

After scoring 23 goals during the 2011-12 season, he earned a move to Tottenham during the summer of 2012, where he enjoyed moderate success before moving to Seattle Sounders in the US during the following summer.

If Dempsey had stayed at Tottenham, he could have achieved his goal of playing Champions League football but instead, he opted to return to the States while still being in the prime of his career.

Dempsey retires as the only man to have scored for the US during three different World Cups, he found the back of the net in 2006, 2010 and 2014. If the US had qualified for the 2018 World Cup, he probably would have played in his fourth World Cup.