EDSON BUDDLE WAS PRETTY CERTAIN he’d make it big by his early teens, when U.S. Soccer shipped him a pair of Nikes after picking him for a national youth squad. And he did exactly that, earning a spot on a World Cup roster and a Major League Soccer Best XI selection before his 30th birthday.

But Buddle hasn’t yet cemented his legacy in the game. Injuries, trades, and off-field issues have dogged his career and limited his time with the national team, and so his 2013 MLS campaign could be crucial in defining his legacy. Buddle may solidify his place among MLS’ all-time goalscorers or, perhaps, begin the quiet unwinding of a 14-year professional run.

Buddle scored his first goal for his latest club, the Colorado Rapids, last Saturday. Sloppy Toronto FC defending teed him up seven yards out, leaving ample time for Buddle to smash the ball home. The match-winning strike was Buddle’s 94th in league play, third-best among active players and eighth all-time.

It came, however, 10 games into the campaign. Buddle’s start with Colorado has been slowed by a lingering knee injury that shortened his preseason, delayed his debut, and limited him to only four appearances thus far.

But the club is not long removed from a 2010 MLS Cup championship, and second-year head coach Oscar Pareja believes his reconstitution of the club is well underway. He sees Buddle, who will turn 32 on May 2, as an important component.

Buddle has been granted the chance to start afresh with a club that wants and needs him to star, an opportunity he calls the foundation upon which this stage of his career is built. And Buddle also acknowledges that the possibility of becoming only the eighth MLS player to crack 100 goals also appeals to him.

“It is in the back of my mind,” Buddle said during a preseason interview. “If I have the season I want to have, I think I will.”

For both Buddle and the Rapids, 2013 will be a telling measure of a man for whom getting there was relatively easy—but being there has been anything but.

THE NATURAL
There is little wonder that Buddle, who grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., not far from Manhattan, is playing professional soccer. At times called a “natural,” he had the bloodlines—his father, a Jamaican immigrant, was himself a pro player—and a physique that combined size and strength.

He was named for Pele (Edison Arantes do Nascimento), after all. And the oft-repeated story of how Edson's father placed a soccer ball in his son’s crib is indeed true. “I just wanted to give him a head start,” said Winston Buddle, who now trains young players in the New York area.

A soccer career seemed inevitable. Kyle Martino, a longtime friend and teammate who is now an NBC Sports analyst, still remembers playing against Buddle for the first time as a youth not long after both had been tapped by U.S. Soccer. Buddle scored, then turned to Martino with a smile.

“You didn’t know I was a national team player too, did you?“ Buddle said.

“My first impression,” Martino recalled, “was, ‘I hate that guy.’” But he couldn’t deny his opponent’s talent. “I said to myself, ‘That’s the best soccer player I’ve ever seen.’”

They became close friends. Buddle even brought Martino to the games his father arranged in a school gymnasium, invitation-only affairs populated by grown men meting out unforgiving play. “We were no slouches,” said Winston Buddle. “That’s where I knew that if Edson was comfortable playing with us, and me, he’d have no problem at the youth national team level.”

Mitch Murray, who coached both players with the U.S. U-18 national team and today runs the Rapids’ academy, said young Buddle had obvious talent—physical ability, technical skill, precocious understanding of where to go and what to do. He also had an “x-factor,” shorthand for an extra dose of flair and passion.

But he lacked the grades to play Division I college soccer. After high school graduation he followed another Under-18 teammate—a Californian named Carlos Morales—to a junior college about 100 miles from Kansas City, Mo.

“I was like, ‘I’ll go too,” Buddle said. State Fair Community College, a two-year school in Sedalia, had fewer than 3,000 students at the time, and Buddle passed some of his hours working in the cafeteria and in overnight security at the fairgrounds. The State Fair Roadrunners had scrapped their way to the 1998 national title with a roster mostly of Missouri and Kansas players. That victory helped coach Rick Carpenter cast a wider recruiting net that landed national talent.

“My freshman year, it was pretty even competition,” said former State Fair All-American Shawn Cairer. “As [Carpenter] brought in some more talented players that second year, it was much easier to qualify” for the national tournament.

Cairer had no idea who Buddle was when he arrived on campus, but he stood out quickly. “It didn’t take long to realize the quality of player he was,” he said.

Carpenter worked the team hard, and didn’t cut Buddle any breaks: “I was the type of guy that, if he missed class, I’d take him out into the country and make him run back to campus,” he said. The route back was about five miles. Once, Buddle ran the wrong way. “Here’s this kid from New York City out in the middle of cows and stuff,” Carpenter recalled, chuckling.

Buddle played forward and some midfield. Carpenter remembers the freshman putting in a star performance in the game that qualified them for the national tournament, to be played in New Jersey. “He said ‘Coach, I want to go home. I want to see my family,’” recalls Carpenter. “Then it was just, like, sit back and watch.”

Buddle also came up big in the 1999 title match: He assisted on the goal that put the Roadrunners up 2-0, then won the match after the Aztecs of Pima (Ariz.) Community College tied the game, scoring in sudden-death double overtime.

Buddle never returned for a second semester. Instead, at age 18, he turned professional, signing with the second-division Long Island Rough Riders in what was then called the A-League.

The decision didn’t surprise Carpenter: “It wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ with Edson,” he said. “It was a matter of ‘when.’”

The Rough Riders had an experienced roster, but Buddle fit in quickly and finished as the leading goalscorer on a playoff team. Head coach Paul Riley, who’d known Buddle as a youth, says he quickly became the best player on the squad.

“He’d always been a physical specimen,” said Riley, a Liverpool native who now coaches youth players. “He needed experience, conditioning, to fill out. You could just see, if he got himself together, he would make it.”

Buddle sometimes turned Rough Riders goalkeeper Paul Grafer into a spectator: "He would play and do some things with the ball or score a goal or use his body in a way that was so advanced for his age and I would be back in that goal... Normally I would have to be focused, organizing the defense, preparing, but sometimes I did indulge for a moment and think, ‘Wow, this kid is special.”

Major League Soccer was impressed too, and in 2001 Columbus selected Buddle with the 27th pick of that year’s SuperDraft. He was 19. The big time had arrived.

SUCCESS AND STRUGGLES IN COLUMBUS
In Columbus, Buddle joined a team that didn’t need him to produce right away: Veteran strikers Brian McBride, Jeff Cunningham, and Dante Washington were called upon to produce goals. “It was great timing for him to come to a team where he didn’t have to be the star,” Andrulis said.

But longtime Crew coach Tom Fitzgerald was relieved of his job after the team struggled early, which elevated Andrulis to the top job and shook up the depth chart.

“It seemed to work out pretty well for Edson and I,” said Duncan Oughton, who also joined the Crew in 2001 after a standout college career. “We were playing a lot. [Andrulis] put time into Edson and I, and he wanted us to get better.”

Buddle managed three goals in limited action. His role expanded in the coming seasons, and in 2002 he was joined by Martino when the Crew drafted him out of the University of Virginia. (They were in Europe with a youth national team during the draft, and the players tracked the selections online. After Columbus picked Martino, he turned to Buddle with a smile and said “Oh, man.”)

Buddle edged out Cunningham for the team’s 2004 goalscoring lead with 11, exploding for four one September night in a wild 4-2 defeat of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. The next month, his thunderous, swinging 25-yard drive in Chicago locked up the Eastern Conference title.

During a postgame chat between coaches, the Fire’s Dave Sarachan called the goal a once-in-a-lifetime shot. “He does that all the time,” Andrulis replied.

The 2005 season might have been another breakthrough for Buddle with Cunningham no longer in Columbus, and he led the team in goals with nine. That accomplishment, however, was marred by his July arrest in Columbus in the early morning hours after the league’s All-Star Game, which was played at Crew Stadium.

Buddle, who was not an All-Star, was stopped July 31 when Columbus officers spotted him hitting the horn and driving the wrong way on a one-way street, according to court records. After he refused a Breathalyzer test, he was charged with operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

In mid-August, Buddle pleaded no contest to the charge. He was fined, his driver’s license was suspended, and he was ordered into a counseling program. The league suspended him for three weeks, reinstating him in early September.

In the preseason interview, Buddle indicated that he has moved on and mostly preferred not to discuss the arrest, or his state of mind at or around the time. He suggested that he shut out people who tried to help him before his arrest, and admitted that sometimes had difficulty reconciling his life as a professional athlete in Ohio with some personal relationships from his East Coast childhood.

“You grow up in New York running around with your friends,” Buddle said. “Hanging out, that’s how you end up getting yourself in trouble—one thing leads to another.”

Still, people close to Buddle were concerned. His father now wonders whether he was ready to be anointed a star in Columbus. Some past teammates said the stress on Buddle was most evident when he wasn’t playing soccer. “Even before some of the things came out, we could notice things were sort of wearing on him,” Martino said.

When Buddle returned from his suspension, he saw the time away from the game as a missed opportunity and at times struggled to regain fitness. “Putting all that energy into getting fit was a bit frustrating,” he said. “I questioned if I still wanted to play.”

He now sees that time, including his arrest, as part of growing up. “I learned more about myself,” he said. “Things that you do, they’ll come back around and you have to fix them. You can’t sugarcoat it—you have to face it head-on.”

After the season, Buddle was traded to New York. Today, he mostly recalls Ohio fondly and likens his years in the shadow of nearby Ohio State University to the traditional college experience he never had. But ultimately, he said, “I think I outgrew it.”

The New York club, meanwhile, had been bought and rebranded by Red Bull and was aggressively looking to remake itself. During a tumultuous season, head coach Mo Johnston was relieved of his job, and Bruce Arena—who was returning home after World Cup duty—stepped in.

Buddle’s part in the 2006 campaign was limited in part due to injuries, and he was traded to Toronto. But he never scored for the expansion club, and was subsequently traded to Los Angeles. Buddle, then 26, was to revive his career on the West Coasy.

THE CITY OF DREAMS
In Los Angeles, Buddle could restore his footing without being the center of attention. Dutch legend Ruud Gullitt was the coach; American star Landon Donovan was the focal point of the offense; and David Beckham was the supernova in the center of it all.

All that star power raised everybody’s game, Buddle said. “It was good for me to see the best,” he said, and he challenged himself to belong after bouncing around the league. “I was trying to find a place to stay, and it pushed me a lot to find that home.”

His father noticed a change not only in his son’s training habits, but also in his embrace of the around-the-clock life of a star athlete. In past years, Buddle would break away from his team during road trips home, but that wasn’t possible with the Galaxy.

“When Beckham came to New York, we couldn't see Edson” because of his son’s constant team commitments, said Winston Buddle.

A rejuvenated Buddle quickly made an impression on Paul Bravo, now Colorado’s technical director, who was then a Galaxy assistant coach. “His first game, he steps out onto the field and, sure enough, bangs in a goal. His legacy in Los Angeles started there,” Bravo said.

The Galaxy struggled in 2008, though Buddle scored 15 goals. He logged two hat tricks in four weeks; in the second, against San Jose, he opened with a pure confidence goal, a volley off a headed-down Beckham pass. When he emerged from a pile of teammates, he was beaming.

Injuries again limited Buddle in 2009, when he managed only five goals. But in 2010 he was in top form, and his early play earned him a spot on the United States’ World Cup roster—something of a surprise, since he hadn’t featured with the team since a lone appearance in 2003. “Edson’s been one of the best players in the league,” then-U.S. coach Bob Bradley said at the time. “We felt that type of form needed to really count.”

Buddle scored twice against Australia during a tune-up match, but he was given only substitute minutes during the tournament itself as Bradley largely preferred players who had contributed more to the qualifying campaign. He remembers South Africa as a blur, the team mostly sequestered away from the World Cup’s hustle and bustle.

More playing time might have added further luster to Buddle’s career year, though he insists he has no regrets. “As a professional, you always want to play more,” he said, but “for me to be a part of that team was a humbling experience.”

When Buddle returned from South Africa, he finished an MLS season in which he led the Galaxy with 17 goals, was named the club’s most valuable player, and was picked for the league’s Best XI. That earned him his only overseas contract, during which he scored nine goals over parts of two seasons for German second-division club FC Ingolstadt.

The move was good for Buddle’s checkbook, but it also allowed him to learn firsthand how soccer worked in Europe, home to the game’s legendary clubs and superstar players. Today, he confesses mixed feelings about the experience.

He struggled at times with the language barrier. He was surprised to find stadiums and training facilities that lagged behind what he’d come to expect with the Galaxy. He also bristled, he said, when told by team officials that he wasn’t working hard enough even as he continued to score. But he appreciated the intensity that was expected during training, and he contributed proudly to a successful battle against relegation to a lower division.

He says now he is grateful for the experience. “The only thing I knew of Europe was what older players told me,” Buddle said. “I had to see it for myself.”

When Ingolstadt released Buddle before the 2012 MLS season, the Galaxy snapped him up. But they had made Irish legend Robbie Keane the third prong of their attack alongside Beckham and Donovan in his absence, and he finished with only three goals for an MLS Cup-winning squad. In December, he was traded to the Rapids for allocation money and a draft pick.

THE LATEST CHAPTER
When Arena, the Galaxy’s head coach, delivered the news, Buddle first thought it was a prank—before he remembered that Arena had traded him before. “I didn’t think he was joking for too long,” Buddle said.

With the longtime strike partnership of Conor Casey and Omar Cummings no longer in Colorado, the Rapids have bet that they can build their offense around Buddle and hope he is eager to be the focal point of a team’s offense once again.

“We needed someone who can lead, who has experience, and can score goals in the big games,” Bravo said. “We know that Edson, if healthy, has the ability to score double-digit goals in this league.”

The 2013 incarnation of Edson Buddle is deeply respected by colleagues, friends, and family. The people around him praise his maturity, dedication, heady game, and approach to training—perhaps unsurprising for a veteran, but nevertheless notable given the relative ease with which he began his career and the challenges he has endured.

Buddle’s hardest times, Martino says, “came at a point in his career where he could make some changes. He cleaned himself up—got his life on the straight path, and saw his game pick back up. A lot of guys don’t make those changes.”

Current and former teammates and coaches call Buddle a jokester, a friendly guy is always ready with a smile. Reserved at first, they say, he is also quick to remember old friends and colleagues. Carpenter still cherishes a telephone call from Buddle learned that Carpenter had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

When Grafer brought a group of U.S. U-17 players to the Home Depot Center’s gym while he was an assistant coach with the squad, Buddle was the perfect host. A decade after they’d been teammates in Long Island, Buddle with Grafer’s players, then pulled Beckham in to do the same.

“He’s been to Germany, played on multiple MLS teams, and he remembers his roots, remembers a guy who he played with,” Grafer said. “That was really high-class for me, and I’ll never forget it.”

The Rapids expect Buddle to lead mostly by example, leaving the vocal stewardship of the team to others. He is comfortable in that role, mindful that the Rapids still have players who won the league in 2010 and a veteran captain in Pablo Mastroeni. “They’re doing something right over here,” Buddle said.

Buddle insists that his primary motivation is to score goals and help his team win, rather than cementing his legacy. People who know him say that is consistent with his character, but also that his competitive zeal manifests itself subtly and that he is quietly competitive and determined.

They also say his place in American soccer history is already well-established. Perhaps Buddle, who said he has confronted concerns at every step of his career, agrees, which could explain why he prefers to focus on the present and today says he is simply grateful for the chance to do his job.

“I do want to be that leader, especially at this point in my career,” he said. “I want to score goals for myself and the team. I’ve done it before—I’ve scored goals for other teams and I want to do that again here in Colorado.”