Tim Melia

BIOGRAPHY

Timothy Melia was born May 15, 1986. He is a goalkeeper in Major League Soccer.

Melia was born in Great River, New York. Melia attended East Islip High School and played two years of college soccer at the State University of New York at Oneonta before transferring to Lynn University in 2006, where he played his junior and senior years. Melia played for the Long Island Rough Riders in the USL Premier Development League in 2007. Melia signed with the Rochester Rhinos of the USL First Division on April 30, 2008. After trialling with Real Salt Lake during their pre-season, Melia signed with the club on March 16, 2010; he was sent on loan to USL Division 2 side Charleston Battery in April. Melia signed with Chivas USA in January 2012 and joined them during the 2012 pre-season. During his time with Chivas, Melia made six league appearances for the club. In the middle of the 2014 season, Melia was released by Chivas and became the league pool goalkeeper for Major League Soccer since he had a guaranteed contract. In August 2014, Sporting Kansas City called Melia up from the league pool after two of the team's three goalies, Eric Kronbergand Andy Gruenebaum, were injured. He was later called up by FC Dallas and D.C. United on an emergency basis, but he did not make any appearances. In December 2014, after having joined them in the previous season as an emergency pool goalkeeper, he signed with Sporting KC for the 2015 season. After beginning the 2015 season as the understudy to starter Luis Marín, Melia emerged as the starter in May and was the primary goalkeeper for the remainder of the season. For his breakthrough efforts, Melia was named MLS Comeback Player of the Year. Since earning the starting job, Melia has emerged as one of the top keepers in the league, and has led SKC to the U.S. Open Cup titles in both 2015, where SKC prevailed in a penalty shootout, and 2017, a hard-fought victory against the New York Red Bulls. Following a 2017 season where he allowed a record-low 0.78 goals per game, Melia was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, and also earned a spot on the MLS Best XI.