U.S. soccer player Clint Mathis garnered international notoriety for his Mohawk hairstyle during the 2002 World Cup.
With that said, don't expect a similar flamboyant hairstyle when Mathis takes the field for Real Salt Lake in the franchise's inaugural game in 99 days,
"He's got a girlfriend now," said RSL coach John Ellinger. "He's much more mature."
Odds are good, however, that Mathis will make some kind of splash on April 2 when RSL visits the NY/NJ Metrostars — a game that will no doubt be hyped as Mathis' return to the MLS, as much as Real Salt Lake's first game.
A fashionably clean-cut Mathis was formally introduced as Real's newest player at a Thursday press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe. Mathis' addition gives the expansion franchise one of the most recognizable and charismatic players American soccer has ever produced.
"I am very excited to be here in Salt Lake, playing for John Ellinger and performing as part of a world-class team," said Mathis.
Make no mistake about it, if Ellinger weren't calling the shots in Salt Lake City, Mathis would still be playing in Europe. He probably wouldn't be suiting up for Hannover 96, the German team he joined last January after a six-year career in the MLS, but several other European teams were still interested in Mathis' services despite his recent fallout with Hannover's coach.
None of those teams were coached by Ellinger, however.
Ellinger's first dealings with Mathis came in 1997, when Mathis was a member of the under-20 U.S. National Team that participated in the World University Games in Italy. During the three-week period, a unique bond was formed between the player and coach. Then, prior to Mathis' move over the Atlantic in 2002, Ellinger and Mathis were both in Florida for a national team training session, and Mathis passingly told Ellinger if he ever became a head coach somewhere, he'd love to come back and play for him.
Neither could've foreseen that exact scenario panning out a year later.
"It definitely sounds stereotypical, but you hear it all the time in sports, John is a players' coach," said Mathis. "I think a lot of times coaches and players butt heads and tend to disagree. You might not always agree with Ellinger, but he's understanding, and he'll listen to you, just like we have enough respect to listen to him."
That, in a nutshell, is why Mathis is back in the MLS. Because in reality, he should still be in Europe.
After leaving the MLS for the German Bundesliga, Mathis started in his first 13 games in 2004 and scored a goal in four of his first five games. His promising beginning quickly turned sour with coach Ewald Lienen.
"He has his opinion, and me and him definitely didn't get along," said Mathis.
Entering the 2004-05 season in August, Mathis and Lienen simply disagreed on too many things, and Mathis was relegated to the bench.
It was a coaching decision that kick-started the chain of events that landed Mathis in Salt Lake City.
During a Sept. 25 game with FC Schalke, Mathis entered the game as a late substitute and scored an 83rd-minute goal that ultimately won the game. During Mathis' goal celebration, he showed up his coach by making a tapping gesture at his wrist, as if pointing to a wrist watch.
"I definitely did something I probably shouldn't have," said Mathis. "That was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back. But at that point, I didn't care about the consequences because it couldn't get much worse."
Well, it did.
During the final two months leading up the Bundesliga's holiday break, and ultimately the international transfer window, Mathis didn't suit up for another game. Mathis didn't agree with Lienen's coaching decision but said he worked even harder in practice those final months to prove a point.
"He knew I should've been playing, and that was enough for me," said Mathis.
It was a blessing in disguise. If Mathis wasn't in Lienen's doghouse, the club never would've allowed him to get out of his contract so easily and return to the MLS.
"It was an experience, one that I would never take back," said Mathis. "To go into a place like Dortmund and play in front of 80,000 people for a club game, that's not a bad experience."
Now Mathis is ready to move on and reacquaint himself with Ellinger.
"Clint is a player who I feel can become the best player in this league," said Ellinger. "He plays with personality, and when he's on, there's nobody better."
No one knows that better than Evan Whitfield, a defender for the Chicago Fire the past two years — someone Mathis said he hated playing against.
"A guy like Clint, he might lull you to sleep and drift off to the side, or withdraw, and then you're not sure where he's coming from," said Whitfield. "But when he gets the opportunity, he'll more than likely put it in the net, an important quality for a striker. We've all seen strikers who get 10 chances a game and don't score."
Goals have never been a problem for Mathis, who has 48 MLS goals and 11 U.S. National Team goals to his credit.
"He has a magnetic charisma, that if you have any kind of one-to-one interaction, you see him as a soft-spoken Southern boy from Georgia who couldn't hurt a fly," said Real Salt Lake general manager Steve Pastorino.
On the field, he's an aggressive, vocal leader.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com