Delvin Christopher "D.J." Countess (born January 9, 1982, in Sacramento, California) is a Football (soccer) goalkeeper.
Club career
Countess attended UCLA in his home state of California where he had an outstanding season as a freshman, with a 1.02 goals against average, good for a second in the Pacific Ten Conference.
Upon completing his freshman year, he joined the Major League Soccer (MLS) Project-40 program. In August 2001, he joined New York MetroStars. During his first year he served as the primary backup to Tim Howard, who later went on to play for Everton in the English Premier League. Countess was traded to Dallas Burn prior to the start of the 2002 season. However, shortly after an impressive debut match, he suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to miss the remainder of the season. He bounced back in 2003, starting in 24 league matches and was named the clubs Defender of the Year after tallying 115 saves. He also tied an MLS record that season by facing a total of 10 penalty kicks; and he set the league record by saving four, including two in a single game which was also another league record. In 2004 he was traded to Chicago Fire, where he spent the 2004 season as the primary backup to Henry Ring. Countess made only two first team appearances. Real Salt Lake, then coached by Countess youch coach, John Ellinger, took Countess as a second draft pick in the 2004 MLS Expansion Draft. Countess started in 27 matches for the expansion team but his option was not picked up following the season.
Though several MLS clubs expressed interest in acquiring him in early 2006, Countess opted not to return to MLS and to instead pursue a career in Europe. In mid 2006 he had trials with French clubs Auxerre and FC Metz, and Swedish club Östers IF. All three teams expressed interest but it was Östers IF who then played in Sweden's top division the Allsvenskan that signed Countess to a contract until the end of the 2006 season. Up toOctober 2006, he had started in three matches for the club. In early 2007, he signed for Provincial Osorno, in the Chilean 2nd division, . After helping them win promotion to the , in July 2007 he moved to Argentina to play for newly promoted Atletico Tigre in the Argentine Primera Divisionhttp://www.futbolpasion.com/transferencias.cfm?campeonato=ap07 Transfers Apertura 2007. After Tigre's first five matches, Countess hadn't even seen the bench, sparking rumours of an impending loan or transfer elsewhere.
International career
Countess has played at various levels for the United States national team playing a total of 72 games for the U-17's, U-20's and U-23's. He was in goal for the USA when they finished fourth at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship in New Zealand; and for the USA in the 2001 U-20 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina. In 2004 he played in the US U-23 Olympic team that failed to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
DreamKeeper Foundation
Countess has been involved in humanitarian work throughout his career. While playing for Real Salt Lake he established the DreamKeeper Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing funding for Utah children in need of medical care.
References
External links
Other pages about Non-Argentine footballers in Argentina
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article D.J._Countess
