{{short description|American soccer player (born 1956)|bot = PearBOT 5}} {{BLP sources|date=February 2009}}
{{Infobox football biography | name = Craig Capano | fullname = Craig Capano | image = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1985|7|7}} | birth_place = [[Hyde Park, New York]], U.S. | height = {{height|ft=5|in=7}} | currentclub = | clubnumber = | position = [[Midfielder]] | youthyears1 = 2001 | youthclubs1 = [[Chicago Sockers]] | years1 = 2002–2006 | clubs1 = [[Chicago Fire S.C.|Chicago Fire]] | caps1 = 22 | goals1 = 1 | nationalyears1 = 2004 | nationalteam1 = [[United States under-20 men's national soccer team|United States U-20]] | nationalcaps1 = 4 | nationalgoals1 = 1 | pcupdate = 3 March 2007 | ntupdate = 9 December 2020 }}
'''Craig Capano''' (born July 7, 1985) is an American [[soccer]] player, who last played for the [[Chicago Fire S.C.|Chicago Fire]] of [[Major League Soccer]].
Capano was selected 17th overall in the [[2002 MLS SuperDraft]] by the Fire, (the youngest player ever drafted by the Fire at the age of sixteen) having elected to forgo college to focus on his professional career. Before joining the Fire, Capano had spent two years at the USSF's [[Bradenton Academy]] training with the U-17 [[United States men's national soccer team|U.S. national team]].<ref>{{cite news|publisher=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]|author=Timmerman, Tom|title=YOUNGSTER TAKES CHARGE ON FIELD FOR AMERICAN SQUAD CAPANO IS ONLY 15, BUT HE'S THE POWER BEHIND MANY KEY PLAYS|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB9E0F8A15AA4FA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|date=2001-04-22|accessdate=2009-09-10}}</ref>
Capano saw little playing time with the Fire, playing 92 minutes over four games in his first season and 122 minutes over 5 games in his second. In 2004, his third season, he appeared to have reached a turning point, earning 440 minutes, scoring his first MLS goal, and being widely rated as one of the team's better players when he was finally given consistent playing time toward the end of the year. However, he saw no time in 2005 after undergoing surgery on March 7, 2005, to repair a tear in his left anterior cruciate ligament, or in 2006. He was waived at the end of the latter season.
Despite playing little in MLS, Capano was a vital player for the U-20 US national team, along with other notables such as [[Eddie Gaven]], [[Freddy Adu]], [[Danny Szetela]], and [[Jonathan Spector]]. He played in all four games of the 2004 Northern Ireland Milk Cup and served as the U-20 Men's National Team captain that July, helping the squad to finish 6th, also scoring the game's lone goal on April 21 for a 1–0 win over Haiti's U-20.
As of March, 2007, Capano was known to be training in camp with [[New York Red Bulls]]. Throughout his career, Capano - widely seen as a skillful player - has battled the perception that he was too small and slight to forge a successful career in MLS.
==Career statistics== <ref>[http://web.mlsnet.com/history/register.jsp?content=players_c All-Time MLS Player Register] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606190548/http://web.mlsnet.com/history/register.jsp?content=players_c |date=June 6, 2007 }}</ref> {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! colspan=3 | Club performance ! colspan=2 | League ! colspan=2 | Cup ! colspan=2 | League Cup ! colspan=2 | Continental ! colspan=2 | Total |- ! Season !! Club !! League ! Apps !! Goals ! Apps !! Goals ! Apps !! Goals ! Apps !! Goals ! Apps !! Goals |- |- ! colspan=3 | USA ! colspan=2 | League ! colspan=2 | [[Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup|Open Cup]] ! colspan=2 | League Cup ! colspan=2 | [[CONCACAF|North America]] ! colspan=2 | Total |- |[[2002 Major League Soccer season|2002]]||rowspan="6"|[[Chicago Fire S.C.|Chicago Fire]]||rowspan="6"|[[Major League Soccer]]||4||0|||||||||||||||| |- |[[2003 Major League Soccer season|2003]]||5||0|||||||||||||||| |- |[[2004 Major League Soccer season|2004]]||13||1|||||||||||||||| |- |[[2005 Major League Soccer season|2005]]||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |[[2006 Major League Soccer season|2006]]||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |[[2007 Major League Soccer season|2007]]||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- ! rowspan=1 | Total ! colspan=2 | USA !22||1|||||||||||||||| |- ! colspan=3 | Career total !22||1|||||||||||||||| |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capano, Craig}} [[Category:1985 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American men's soccer players]] [[Category:Chicago Fire FC players]] [[Category:Chicago Sockers players]] [[Category:Major League Soccer players]] [[Category:United States men's youth international soccer players]] [[Category:United States men's under-20 international soccer players]] [[Category:Chicago Fire FC draft picks]] [[Category:People from Hyde Park, New York]] [[Category:Sportspeople from Dutchess County, New York]] [[Category:Men's association football midfielders]] [[Category:Soccer players from New York (state)]]