His awareness and his intelligence surfaced when he moved from club to club and carved out his place every time. He lifted trophies in the Netherlands (PSV Eindhoven), Scotland (Rangers) and the United States (U.S. Open Cups with the Chicago Fire in 2000 and 2003 and with Houston Dynamo in 2018). He squeezed stints in the English Premier League (Manchester City), German Bundesliga (Hannover 96), and Liga MX (Puebla) into that prolonged career, too.
Former USMNT captain Carlos Bocanegra – a longtime teammate and Beasley’s first roommate during his rookie season in Chicago all those years ago – knows the difficulty of Beasley’s path after spending a decade playing in Europe. He credits Beasley’s mentality and his technical ability for paving the way forward.
“Those were some big environments,” Bocanegra said. “He was doing the business in the Champions League. That’s a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of competition for spots. He was able to keep his place and be a key factor on numerous teams. I think, nowadays, the Champions League, the Europa League, all of the big games in the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga are on TV now.