Fire defender Arna Friedrich’s pre-season injury devastated the team’s back line for much of the early portion of the season. It was not until Bakary Soumare was acquired from the Philadelphia Union that it began to stabilize. Friedrich, whose injury was only to keep him out for four-to-six weeks, never made his return to Chicago.
Friedrich announced on Sunday that he would be retiring from professional soccer, as his condition was unfit for a player. Friedrich stated that “with two herniated disks in my lower back, I am no longer able to fulfill the demands of a professional soccer player.”
In his career, Friedrich appeared in 337 club games plus five games with Germany’s U21 team, one with Germany’s B team, and eighty-two with the German National Team. Playing for SC Verl, Arminia Bielefield, Hertha BSC, VfL Wolfsburg, and the Fire, Friedrich scored fifteen career goals, plus one strike for the national team.
After playing in just one season with the Fire (2012), Friedrich’s Chicago tenure has come to an abrupt end.
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