DAMARCUS BEASLEY helped Rangers to two SPL titles and scored in one of the club’s most famous European victories.
But 13 years after the USA legend’s departure from Ibrox, his life is now very different.
Keith Campbell – The Sun GlasgowBeasley spent three years at Rangers[/caption]
Kenneth RamsayHe won a Scottish Cup and two SPL titles with the Light Blues[/caption]
GettyBeasley’s career is very different these days[/caption]
Beasley, now 41, joined Rangers in the summer of 2007 with Walter Smith snapping him up for just £700,000 from Dutch giants PSV.
He brought with him a wealth of experience, having played more than 100 times for Chicago Fire and coming off the back of a loan spell with Manchester City.
Beasley, who won 126 caps for the United States, has also already played at two World Cups – he would go on to appear at a somewhat unprecedented FOUR World Cup tournaments.
A quick and talented winger, Beasley’s spell at Rangers would ultimately be ravaged by injuries.
But he still managed to make a sizeable impact.
Having scored his first Gers goal in a 2-1 win at Kilmarnock in August 2007, he went on to net in one of the club’s finest ever European wins.
Beasley slotted home the third goal in the remarkable 3-0 win away at French champions Lyon in the Champions League in October.
An injury suffered in another Champions League match against Stuttgart kept him out for the majority of the season – including the Uefa Cup Final – but he did return to start the Scottish Cup Final victory over Queen of the South.
Beasley returned to fitness and earned an SPL winners’ medal in the 2008/09 season.
He would score twice the following campaign as Smith’s Rangers retained their league championship.
But having seen little game time, Beasley’s time at Rangers would come to an end in 2010 as he headed to Hannover in Germany.
He subsequently spent three years with Puebla in Mexico before finishing his career with a successful six-season stint back in the MLS with Houston Dynamo, retiring in 2019 at the age of 36.
While in Glasgow, Beasley also had his car BLOWN UP.
In February 2010, his BMW was targeted outside his home in Glasgow’s West End.
Speaking about the incident three years ago, he explained: “It was outside my house – they blew up my car.
“It’s not funny – it’s crazy that it happened but I can’t talk about the reason it happened.
“It was all on camera. They had CCTV on the street. My car was parked outside my apartment.
“They had a bottle of kerosene – you couldn’t see what it was on the video.
“They broke my window, threw it in the car, then up it went.”
Following his retirement almost five years ago, Beasley’s career has taken a very different direction.
Born and raised in the city of Fort Wayne in Indiana, Beasley returned to his home city as an OWNER of their football team in 2020.
Fort Wayne FC were announced as one of the newest teams to join the USL setup that year and Beasley was revealed as part of their ownership group.
He said: “Being involved with a group to bring professional soccer to my hometown is truly a dream come true.
“I’m extremely excited to get started with this new challenge and to work side by side with the Fort Wayne community.”
Fort Wayne won their conference last season, finishing top of USL League Two’s Valley Division.
Their play-off campaign was, however, ended at the first hurdle by Flint City Bucks.
As well as being a co-owner, Beasley is one of the club’s Director of Football Operations, a post he took up in 2021.
Fort Wayne head coach Mike Avery reports directly to the former Rangers man.
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