[MLS] Brian McBride, the most productive American striker in the modern game, has announced that he'll retire from professional soccer at the end of the 2010 MLS season with the Chicago Fire.

The 38-year-old McBride was the No. 1 selection in the inaugural MLS draft and has gone on to score 78 goals in 212 MLS games over 11 seasons for the Columbus Crew (1996-2003) and Chicago (2008-10).

His best MLS season came in his first year with the Crew when he scored 17 goals.

But after loan stints at Preston North End and Everton, McBride enjoyed perhaps his greatest success at the club level with Fulham, where he scored 40 goals, the most ever by an American-born and -bred player in England.

He led the Cottagers in scoring in 2007 with 12 goals and won back-to-back team Player of the Year awards in 2007 and 2008.

At the international level, McBride scored key goals in both wins at the 2002 World Cup. He scored the third goal in the 3-2 upset win over Portugal, connecting with his former Milwaukee Rampage teammate Tony Sanneh, and had the first goal in the 2-0 victory over Mexico that sent the USA into the quarterfinals.

McBride scored 30 goals in 95 appearances for the USA, putting him third on the all-time U.S. scoring list behind only Landon Donovan and Eric Wynalda.

Only Wynalda among American strikers comes close to matching what McBride has accomplished in MLS and abroad at the club level, as well on the national team.

McBride vs. Wynalda (Goals)