With one well-timed leap, John Brooks jumped up from an anonymous reserve defender on the going-nowhere US roster to the most buzzed-over name on a team that suddenly has a chance to advance to the next round of the World Cup.
Brooks, who entered Monday’s match as a substitute at halftime, pounded in a header in the 86th minute for the go-ahead goal in the 2-1 victory over Ghana.
As the camera pulled in on Brooks, in seeming disbelief over his dramatic strike, US soccer fans — from the tried-and-true to the newly minted — were asking: Who is this guy?
Here are 10 things to know about America’s new soccer hero:
1. John Anthony Brooks Jr., 21, was born and raised in Berlin, the son of an American serviceman father and a German mother. He has never lived in the United States.
2. Brooks was eligible to play for the US or the German national teams, but has said it was an easy choice. He is one of five US-German dual nationals wearing the red, white and blue. “The US really wanted me, so it was not a hard decision to play for the USA,” Brooks said last year. “I talked a lot to my family. … Since I decided to play for the US, they have been very happy, congratulating me and wishing good luck.”
3. Brooks has a tattoo on each elbow: Germany on one and Illinois on the other (his father is from Chicago).
4. Brooks came up through the ranks of his hometown team Hertha Berlin, and spurned interest from Germany’s top team, Bayern Munich, to sign a four-year contract in 2011.
5. Brooks got his back inked up this past April, and was forced to miss a match against Bayer Leverkusen to avoid irritation. Hertha coach Jos Luhukay was unamused. “I don’t have any understanding for that,” he said.
6. At 6-foot-4, Brooks is the second-tallest player on the squad, next to fellow defender Omar Gonzalez. “With John, I saw, we saw, very early that his passing is amazing. He’s very calm for his age. Obviously he’s very strong in the air because he’s so tall,” US coach Jurgen Klinsmann said.
7. Brooks was making just his fifth career appearance for the senior men’s national team, and it was his first goal in any kind of international competition.
8. Brooks has been rumored to be in line to transfer to a club in England, with Aston Villa, Stoke City, Everton, West Ham and Newcastle reported as possibilities.
9. He’s pretty new to social media: He joined Facebook in February, and has tweeted just 23 times — sometimes in English, sometimes in German — since beginning in April. This is by far his best post:
10. Brooks missed the opportunity to meet Joe Biden when the vice president swung through the US locker room after the match. He was one of two players selected for random drug testing.
Not a fact, but up for debate:
https://twitter.com/kellymillspaugh/status/478689037616562177/