A couple of injury-ridden seasons into his professional career, Walker Zimmerman thought he would have to leave FC Dallas, the club that selected him No. 7 overall in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft, to play in Sweden.
Standing in the lobby of a Swedish hotel, his bags all packed, he was waiting for a ride to the airport to fly out to Abu Dhabi for preseason training. The teammate we would drive with never showed up.
“You’ll text: 'hey, what’s up? where are you?'
'Coach said you aren’t signing with us anymore. It fell through.'
"When you call your agent, you’ll find out that everything cratered in the middle of the night” wrote Zimmerman in a letter to himself for the Players' Tribune.
That deal falling through may have been the best thing to happen to Zimmerman. After appearing in just 17 matches over his first two seasons with FC Dallas, he appeared in 20 matches in season three. Then ins his fourth season, he appeared in 30 matches with four goals and two assists.
His career trajectory has just kept rising.
Since that failed signing in Sweden, Zimmerman has been with teams that have won two Supporters’s Shields (FC Dallas and Los Angeles Football Club), one U.S. Open Cup (FC Dallas), a CONCACAF Gold Cup (U.S. Men’s National Team), and a CONCACAF Nationals League (USMNT).
His individual honors include being a four-time Major League Soccer All Star, a four-time MLS Best XI selection, and a two-time MLS Defender of the Year. He was also the captain for the U.S. Men’s National Team during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In 2020, he was traded to MLS expansion side Nashville SC and on February 29, 2020, he scored the first goal in club history.
Last year, Zimmerman signed a contract extension with Nashville SC that also made him a designated player, just the fourth American defender ever to sign a DP deal in league history.
“I think Walker’s probably even more valuable to us than other teams in the league,” Nashville SC general manager Mike Jacobs told The Athletic when the deal was made. “Keeping Walker in Nashville, he has value to our club on the field, he has value to our club off the field. He was our Tom Brady.”
Zimmerman has started and captained each of the last three matches for Nashville SC in Leagues Cup 2023. He’s scored two goals in his four appearances, including the opening goal of Nashville’s wild round of 16 win over Club América. In the club’s two penalty shootouts, Zimmeran has converted both of his kicks.
Standing in that Swedish hotel lobby, alone and sad about a career opportunity lost, Zimmerman had no idea what was in story for the rest of his career. But it would be the last career opportunity he’d miss.
