It was 1999, and the Columbus Crew player was going to need five ankle surgeries because of injuries he had sustained throughout his career.
It was a career in which he was named a two-time All-American and Hermann trophy award winner while playing for ?Indiana.
The Michigan native and current IU associate head coach was then allocated to the Columbus Crew, where he had the opportunity to play with IU teammate and friend Todd Yeagley.
It was a career in which the midfielder competed in the 1996 Olympics, where he was the leading scorer for the United States with two goals. He turned that performance into a spot on the 1998 United States World Cup team, where he played in all three games and started in two.
“It’s the classic case of a good honest Midwest kid who went through all the channels and made it big,” Yeagley said. “He did it by working hard and doing all the small things it takes to make it.”
Throughout his career, Maisonneuve, or Maiz, as his friends call him, had dealt with injuries. ?Particularly ankle injuries.
Perhaps it was his style of play, never afraid of going to ground in order to win the ball from the opponent. But he had always recovered.
After the World Cup, he didn’t ?recover.
Assuming the pain would eventually go away, he continued playing. After the 1999 MLS season, the pain became insufferable and he was forced to succumb.
Doctors told him his goal should be walking without a limp after the surgeries and that his career was over. Maisonneuve had other ideas.
It was not easy. He had to sit out the 2000 season and watch his Crew miss the MLS playoffs for the first time in club history.
Not only did Maisonneuve return to soccer in 2001, he returned in top form. He started all of the Crew’s 22 games in 2001, the only Crew player to even play in all 22. In those 22 games Maisonneuve scored a career-high six goals and recorded a career-high 16 points.
Maisonneuve finally called it quits after 2004 and ended a nine-year MLS career, all spent in Columbus. The only player to play for one team longer was Cobi Jones of the Los ?Angeles Galaxy.
“When it was time to retire, my body was done,” Maisonneuve said. “To train at that level every single day, I just couldn’t do it anymore because my body was breaking down.”
Despite all that success, despite being a three-time MLS All Star, one thing eluded Maisonneuve in his MLS career — a MLS Cup.
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During his time playing under IU Coach Jerry Yeagley, there were few awards Maisonneuve failed to ?garner.
In addition to being a two-time All-American and winning college soccer’s equivalent to the Heisman, Maisonneuve also won Big Ten Player of the Year twice and led Indiana to back-to-back Big Ten ?Championships.
He finished his IU career with 44 goals and 22 assists for a total of 110 points. During his four-year career IU went 73-15-7.
Those 44 goals rank 10th all-time in IU history, and his 110 points rank 11th.
Maisonneuve never won a College Cup, however.
“The relationships I built with my team were amazing, and we did some good things,” Maisonneuve said. “But to walk away not having a ring with the group that we had for so many years was tough.”
Maisonneuve did not arrive in Bloomington as a star. That was his friend and current IU Coach Todd Yeagley.
Yeagley scored a team-leading 12 goals and notched 11 assists totaling a team-leading 35 points his freshman season. That performance won him Big Ten Freshman of the Year and the honor of second team ?All-American.
Maisonneuve scored five goals with two assists during his freshman campaign. Those statistics are not indicative of his final three seasons.
In 1992 Maisonneuve would score a team-leading 12 goals with three assists totaling 27 points, also a team high. Maisonneuve would lead the team in points each of his final three years in Bloomington.
Still, in 1994 when Maisonneuve was named the top collegiate soccer player, he missed the largest award.
He managed to reach the College Cup Final for the first time in his career, but his IU team lost 1-0 against Virginia.
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Nearly two decades after that title game loss, Maisonneuve’s quest ended.
After assistant coaching stints in Bradenton, Fla., with the U17 and U20 National Teams for four years and a two-year stretch with Louisville, Ky., Maisonneuve received a phone call.
The phone call came from Yeagley, who in 2010 had just accepted an offer to become IU’s new head coach after one year at Wisconsin. Yeagley knew he needed to stage a homecoming for an old friend.
“When Todd took the job, he called me up and said, ‘Why don’t you come back home?’” Maisonneuve said.
Maisonneuve came home and prospered. In their first season coaching together they won the Big Ten Tournament.
That year as well as 2011 IU advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
Another member of the 1994 team that lost in the finals was Ernie Yarborough. Yarborough was with Yeagley at Wisconsin and when Yeagley returned home, so did ?Yarborough.
Finally in 2012 the trio finished the job they had started.
“To come back to win it with Todd and Ernie, two of my teammates from ’91-’94, it was special,” Maisonneuve said. “Really special.”
Maisonneuve has not stopped playing. During practices Maisonneuve inserts himself in drills and scrimmages to get a better understanding of how his players play.
“He just makes the game so much easier, just shows you how simple the game can be if you calm down,” IU senior Dylan Lax said. “Over my five years playing with Maisonneuve he’s allowed me to become a better soccer player.”
IU senior Patrick Doody calls Maisonneuve their best player and wishes he could still suit up for the Hoosiers.
Maisonneuve said being on the field allows him to gain a better understanding of how players play.
“You see things a little different when you’re on the field,” Maisonneuve said. “Sometimes from the sidelines you can see certain things, but ... it’s just different when you’re playing with them.”
Maisonneuve also makes himself readily available for any questions players may have about the international or professional game.
A few years ago a group of players led by Jacob Bushue decided that this availability was not enough, so they took to eBay in search of a videogame over a decade old, FIFA: Road to World Cup ‘98.
“They said, ‘Coach, your ?rating isn’t very good and you’ve got a beard and it didn’t look anything like you,’” Maisonneuve said. “I’ve never seen it but my wife wants to get it for my son, which would be pretty comical.”
Playing at practice also allows him to continue playing the game he loves. A privilege nearly taken away from him more than a decade ago.
“My injury was crazy,” Maisonneuve said. “It made me retire five years before I really wanted to, and it kept me out of a lot of good years of really good soccer. But I look back at it and it was probably the situation in which I probably grew the most in life. It just made me see things in ? different perspectives.”
Follow reporter Michael Huges on Twitter, @MichaelHuges94
