William Smith

**Sir**

William Smith

GBE GCWO GCH
Sir; William Smith; GBE GCWO GCH
Born	William Geoffrey Thomas Jack Smith; May 11, 1979 (age 45); Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	British; American; Spanish;
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (BSS); University of Manchester (MSS)
Occupation	Footballer; Manager;
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Spouse(s)	Anne Hathaway (m. 2012)
Partner(s)	Cameron Diaz (2003 - 2004); Gisele Bündchen (2004 - 2007)
Children	William; Anne;
Parents	King Thomas (father); Jaclyn Smith (mother);
Relatives	Claudia Schiffer; Jodie Foster; (aunt-in-laws); Georgia May Jagger (cousin)
Height
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1992 - 1997	IMG Academy
Senior career*
Years	Team
1997 - 2003	LA Galaxy
2004 - 2010	Manchester United
2010 - 2019	Atlético Madrid
Total
International career
1999 - 2000	United States U20
2000 - 2003	United States
2004 - 2014	England
2012	Great Britain
Managerial career
2019 - 2023	Tottenham Hotspur
2023 -	Atlético Madrid
Honours
Men's football
Representing England and United States
FIFA World Cup
UEFA European Championship
FIFA Confederations Cup
CONCACAF Gold Cup
FIFA U-20 World Cup
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Sir William Geoffrey Thomas Jack Smith GBE GCWO GCH (born 11 May 1979) is an American-English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of La Liga club Atlético Madrid. Known for his explosive pace, exceptional playmaking abilities, strong link-up play, and formidable goalscoring prowess, Smith is generally regarded to be one of the greatest footballers of all time. Nicknamed "The General" for his leadership qualities and commanding presence on the pitch, with a total of 84 senior titles to his name, Smith is the most decorated player in football history and is also one of the few players to have made over 1,000 professional career appearances as well as the only player to have scored over 1,000 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the highest goalscorer of all time. In 2004, Smith was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living footballers, becoming the only male American player on the list. Prior to the discontinuation of the FIFA Confederations Cup and the subsequent introduction of the UEFA Nations League, Smith, along with former teammate Wayne Rooney, are the only two footballers to have won all the available titles at both club and international levels including the Premier League, FA Cup, EFL Cup, William Smith Shield, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, and the FIFA Confederations Cup. Moreover, he is also the only player to have achieved a sextuple with two different clubs, namely with Manchester United and Atlético Madrid. With a net worth of $2.09 billion, Smith is considered to be the richest footballer, active or retired, with his wealth mostly derived from a series of highly lucrative sponsorships as well as the high wages and bonuses he received during his playing years. Along with seven other players, Smith is one of the few to have won the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or alongside compatriots Bobby Charlton and Harry Kane.

The only son of actress Jaclyn Smith and King Thomas, Smith joined IMG Academy at the age of thirteen. After a five-year period, at the age of eighteen, he was selected by Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy with whom he went on to become one of its most talented and successful players, winning three straight U.S. Open Cup titles in a row, the MLS Cup twice in 2002 and 2003 respectively, as well as the CONCACAF Champions Cup twice in 1997 and 2000. By the end of his time with LA Galaxy, Smith had racked up a total of 289 goals in 221 appearances, making him the leading all-time goalscorer both in Major League Soccer and for LA Galaxy. In 2005, he was named in the MLS All-Time Best XI alongside the likes of Landon Donovan and Carlos Valderrama.

In 2003, for a world-record fee of £68 million that was also then a British record and currently an unbroken Major League Soccer record, Smith joined Premier League club Manchester United on a six-year contract. With the club, he went on to achieve unprecedented success, winning the Premier League five seasons in a row, the FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup thrice, the UEFA Champions League four times, and the EFL Cup a total of five times. In this, he notably helped Manchester United to a historic sextuple in the 2008-09 season in a first for a European and English club during which he became the only player in Premier League history to score seven goals in a record 10-0 win over Fulham. With a total of 468 goals in 343 appearances across all competitions, Smith is the leading all-time goalscorer for Manchester United and the second-highest goalscorer in the Premier League behind Alan Shearer along with having the sixth-most assists in the league with 98 assists behind Frank Lampard. On the other hand, Smith previously held the record for the most goals scored in a Premier League season with 41 goals which was later broken by Arsenal's Richard. In 2021, along with Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry, Smith was among the first three players to be inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame.

In 2010, following a hugely successful period with Manchester United, Smith joined La Liga side Atlético Madrid for a then world-record transfer fee of £82.5 million, becoming one of the few players to have broken the world record twice. With the club, he went on to win the La Liga six times in a row, the Copa del Rey four times, the Supercopa de España seven times in a row, the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup eight times in a row, and the UEFA Europa League once during which he helped the club to three separate sextuples. Considered to be the most successful and most talented forward in the club's history, along with Diego Simeone, Smith is considered an instrumental figure in the club's revival amidst an extended period of Real Madrid and Barcelona dominance in the La Liga to become a major force or a "third power" against the two clubs during which they bested both clubs on several occasions in both domestic and European football. With 596 goals scored in 481 appearances across all competitions, Smith is the leading all-time goalscorer for Atlético Madrid as well as La Liga's second-highest all-time top scorer behind Lionel Messi and ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. Among fans and supporters, Smith is famously nicknamed "San Guillermo" ("Saint William") in honour of his role alongside former manager Diego Simeone in kickstarting a period of long-term dominance after a period of mediocrity and underachievement. Since October 2020, Smith has served as the club's life president, having been awarded the honour by club president Enrique Cerezo.

On the international level, Smith began his career via a brief stint with the United States under-20 national team, with whom he won the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in which he scored the lone winning goal in the finals against Japan. The following year, Smith was then promoted to and also captained the senior team, famously known as the '02 Dream Team, in which he won several competitions including the 2000 and 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cups, the 2001 and 2003 FIFA Confederations Cups, and most notably the 2002 FIFA World Cup in which Smith famously scored a hat-trick in the finals to deliver the United States' first and only World Cup title via a memorable 5-0 win over Brazil. In 2003, Smith departed the United States, and in the following year, joined the England national team which he led to an equally historic victory at the 2006 FIFA World Cup where a 5-2 win over Italy in the finals secured England their first World Cup title in forty years since their first title back in 1966. Following this, Smith went on to achieve further back-to-back success with England, winning their first-ever UEFA European Championship title in 2008 by defeating Germany 4-2 in the finals, as well as a second consecutive World Cup title in 2010 via a 5-0 win over the Netherlands, followed by a second consecutive European Championship win in 2012 in which Smith contributed a hat-trick to deliver a 4-2 victory over Spain in the finals. In 2014, Smith went on to deliver a record-breaking third consecutive World Cup title for England via a 4-2 win on penalties against Argentina while also personally becoming the first-ever player to win four World Cups, beating the previous record held by Pelé with three World Cup titles. In addition to his international stints with the United States and England, Smith also briefly captained the Great Britain national football team at the 2012 Summer Olympics which he successfully led to a 2-0 win over Mexico in the finals.

Having made a total of 124 appearances, Smith is the sixth-most-capped England player while otherwise its leading goalscorer with 160 goals. Similarly, although not necessarily the United States' most capped player, having made only 64 appearances in total, Smith is the country's all-time goalscorer with 68 goals. Among others, Smith is also the first and only player to win a World Cup title with two different countries, the first and only one to win four World Cups, the first captain to win more than one World Cup title and two UEFA European Championship tournaments in a row. Moreover, Smith is just the second player after Geoff Hurst to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final and also just the second after Luis Monti to have played in a World Cup final with two different countries. Meanwhile, Smith is the record holder for the most goals scored in both the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship with forty and thirty-six goals respectively, as well as for the most matches played at the FIFA World Cup with a total of twenty-eight matches played from 2002 to 2014. With a total of 228 goals scored on the international level, Smith is the world's all-time leader for international goals and was formerly the all-time leader for international appearances with 188 appearances until surpassed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo. Together with compatriots Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, and Steven Gerrard, Smith is one-fourth of the famous "Ferocious Four", the four core members of the England national team that won three straight World Cups and two consecutive UEFA European Championships from 2006 to 2014 that was popularly known as the "Invincible Lions".

Around November 2019, Smith was appointed head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, succeeding Mauricio Pochettino after an initial poor start to the 2019-20 season. Initially appointed on an interim basis, Smith subsequently won the club's first UEFA Champions League title in his debut season while also achieving a second-place finish in the league, thereby leading him to become the club's full-time manager over the next three seasons where in addition to a FA Cup and an EFL Cup title he won the UEFA Champions League two more times with Tottenham Hotspur as well as the Premier League for two consecutive seasons, becoming the first and only English and American manager to ever win the Premier League since its inception, the first and only one to do so consecutively, as well as one of five English and the only American manager to have won the UEFA Champions League. Considered to be the most successful Tottenham Hotspur manager of the modern era and popularly nicknamed "The Underdog King" by fans and supporters, Smith is well-known for his strict brand of professionalism and sportsmanship, tactical ingenuity, direct and fluid attacking play, as well as his preference for "mind games" through chants and songs. In 2023, he was appointed manager of Atlético Madrid, succeeding longtime head coach and former mentor Diego Simeone. A self-professed "coach of the underdogs", Smith has received a number of honours and awards as head coach including LMA Manager of the Year, The Best FIFA Men's Coach, Onze d'Or Coach of the Year, and IFFHS World's Best Club Coach. At 42 years old, Smith is the joint-youngest manager with José Mourinho to have won the Premier League and is also tied with José Mourinho for the youngest manager to have won the UEFA Champions League at 41 years old.

Throughout his nearly two-decade-long career, Smith came to be the record holder for a number of feats including the record for the most goals scored in a season of both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League with 29 and 20 goals respectively, the highest number of Ballon d'Or awards won with eleven in total (during which he became the first and only American player to win the award), and the single highest number of wins for several other awards including FIFA World Player of the Year (4), The Best FIFA Men's Player (4), The Best FIFA Men's Coach (3), Premier League Golden Boot (5), European Golden Shoe (8), and the MLS Golden Boot (7). Moreover, Smith is the only footballer so far to have received a Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award with a record of three awards won to date. Most notably, in 2019, he was awarded the Ultra Ballon d'Or for his "extremely significant and incomparable contribution to football in the 21st-century".

Since retiring from professional football, Smith has served as president of The Football Association as well as an honorary advisor to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. As one of the most well-known and marketable football icons of his generation, Smith has embarked on a string of product endorsements since his retirement with the most notable instance being Adidas' King Smith sneakers that were introduced in 2015 to massive commercial success and are often considered as a direct rival to Nike's Air Jordans. In addition, he has also appeared in shows including the Apple TV+ sports comedy series Ted Lasso and Netflix documentary The June 30th Miracle: Ten Years On while actor Jude Law portrays him in The Final Tournament. Moreover, he was also featured in Amazon Prime Video's All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur and its subsequent follow-up The Spursy Fantasy.

Since 2012, Smith has been married to American actress Anne Hathaway, with whom he has two children. Often likened by the media to English poet William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, the couple are popularly known together as "Will and Anne" and have starred together in several films including Valentine's Day, Ocean's 8, and Dark Waters. He is the older brother of journalist and politician Jacqueline Smith, the current leader of the Liberal Democrats, and professional footballer Prince Richard who captains the Premier League club Arsenal. His aunt Catherine, Princess Royal is the current owner and chairwoman of Serie A club Inter Milan.

Early Life

The American actress Jaclyn Smith, best known for her role in the 1970s television series Charlie's Angels. She is Smith's biological mother through her nearly two-decades-long relationship with the future King Thomas

Born William Geoffrey Thomas Jack Smith on 11 May 1979, Smith was the oldest of two children of actress Jaclyn Smith and the heir to the British throne Prince Thomas. Having been born out of wedlock and from a largely secretive romantic affair between his parents, Smith, unlike his later half-siblings, was never officially made a prince, and therefore, despite being the firstborn son and a biological descendant of a member of the British royal family, was never included in the British line of succession to the throne. Reportedly named William after his paternal great-grandfather William Bacall, Smith, who officially took his mother's surname, was given three middle names in which two of them were in honour of his parents (with "Jack" being the masculine form of "Jacqueline") while the remaining one was deliberately chosen by his father in honour of the English footballer Geoff Hurst who famously scored a hat-trick in England's 4-2 win over West Germany in the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final. In a 2017 interview with the BBC, Smith said, "In a way, it was almost sort of prophetic or inevitable that for someone named after the only footballer to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final, I would ultimately end up doing the same myself as well. In hindsight, my father was definitely right to name me in such a way and for whatever reason behind it the naming did certainly achieve its intended purpose".

Amidst the need for near-constant secrecy regarding his true identity, so as to avoid attracting unnecessary media attention, Smith nonetheless grew up in relative comfort and wealth under the care of his biological parents who despite never being married to one another agreed to raise their firstborn child together. In later interviews, Smith himself would describe his childhood as "a rather strange one, but nonetheless, one that I have many happy memories of", while also recounting that his father who despite being born of royalty was said to have "greatly encouraged me to be humble and true to who I am, that being the son of a middle-class woman from Houston, Texas". Additionally, his mother's paternal Jewish roots, which mirrored that of his father's maternal Jewish roots, are said to have also greatly instilled in him a considerable sense of Jewish identity although he never did necessarily converted to Judaism and instead mostly identified as a Protestant.

Early on, his father's native English roots, coupled with the United Kingdom having football as its most popular sport, consequently led a young Smith to be exposed to the sport at a rather early age, with Thomas himself even going so far as to set up a small football field at the back of their family home for his son's pleasure. afterward, Smith later noted, "While he wasn't exactly a devout fanatic or the sort when it comes to football, he would absolutely be the most thrilled person in the world whenever I put my feet on the ball". In addition to this, Smith was also taught in other sports such as swimming, tennis, and golfing, in line with his father's own sports-centric upbringing, which came about as a result of his grandfather King Charles III's own deep love for sports. Nonetheless, amidst all this, it was said that academic matters themselves were also given considerable importance, given that up to that point, no member of the British royal family has ever received a "normal" form of education nor has any of them ever officially graduated from either a public or private university. In this, despite his deep athletic leanings, Smith proved to be a fairly intelligent and well-educated student with a knack for discipline and mostly finishing his homework on time. A fairly all-rounder student, his favourite subjects include English, Physical Examination, and Mathematics.

In 1982, when he was around three years old, Smith would be joined by a younger sister Jacqueline, born on 22 June 1983, and who is named after her mother, albeit in a slightly varied way. Consequently, it later became a common practice to refer to Jacqueline as "Jack" or "Jackie" so as to distinguish her from her similarly-named mother with the most commonly used nickname being "Little Jackie". Meanwhile, during a 2017 interview with the BBC, Smith recounted that the two siblings "got along very well" and added that the departure of their father when they were only fourteen and ten respectively led Smith to assume a more leader-like role for the now family of three, stating, "Of course, not long after my father left, my mother finally remarried to another man meaning that in any case we were a family of four once again. Regardless, for as long as I could remember, when it came to Jackie, I was essentially the one protecting her and looking after her whenever possible which was something that I quickly learned from my biological father early on". Later on, Smith has credited such circumstances in shaping him into a natural leader, especially during his subsequent football years, stating, "The fact that if anything, I had to take charge and ensure that those I care about are fine and protected early on meant that when others were perhaps still struggling, I was already familiar with handling people which was admittedly a very helpful extra help for my career".

Teenagehood

"There are only three reasons as to why I love playing football and they are myself, family, and glory. Some do it for the money but I do it strictly for those three things from which I never wavered until the very last moments of my career."

Smith on why he pursued a career in professional football

When Smith was around sixteen years old, amidst pressure upon his father to marry an eligible woman in order to secure the future of the British monarchy, and the fact that Smith's mother Jaclyn Smith was, by virtue of her ex-husband, the actor Roger Davis still being alive at the time, therefore canonically ineligible to marry her beloved romantic partner, the small family of four was thus met with an unexpected setback when Thomas later departed the family, albeit in a heavily reluctant manner, in order to marry the American supermodel Christy Turlington, who the former had been seeing for some time and who was deemed a prospective candidate as a legitimate wife, given that unlike Smith, the former had never been divorced before, a condition that was reportedly the very obstacle to a potential marriage between Thomas himself and his then-romantic partner. Evidently, according to Smith himself, their father's departure was "one of the most difficult things in my life and one that tested our small family of four greatly with something that we could probably not have anticipated". Moreover, it was said that actress Jaclyn Smith herself later cried for "days on end" in the days following her romantic partner's departure although the presence of and support from her two children otherwise proved a comforting counterbalance to the actress's grievances. Therefore, for almost the next ten years or so, the now family of three continued to live in relative obscurity in Los Angeles, California, where the family had already made their home for a few years prior to Thomas' departure.

In the years since their romance officially came to an end, Smith's mother Jaclyn later remarried to American surgeon Brad Allen who Smith later described as a "kind and very caring stepfather" while asserting that "absolutely no one will ever come to replace my own biological father", adding that despite the two enjoying a relatively cordial relationship, both Smith and his sister were still mostly emotionally attached to their biological father, with whom the two longed on reuniting in the nearby future. In this, Smith sought to use his own football career as a means to do so by hopefully making himself noticeable in the eyes of major European football clubs, especially Manchester United, a club that he had supported since childhood and which would crucially allow him to move to England where his father mainly resides.

Club Career

LA Galaxy (1992 - 2003)

Youth Prospect=

An aerial view of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where Smith spent his formative years prior to becoming a professional footballer

Having already shown a deep-seated interest in football at a rather young age, at thirteen, Smith was enrolled by his father at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, one of the country's most well-known sports academy that was first established in 1978. Early on, having quickly earned a reputation as a "hardworking" and "tenacious" youth prospect, Smith was able to quickly impress both his teammates and the officials at the academy, during which he quickly gained a reputation for an excellent playing style as well as a strong sense of discipline, with one of Smith's former educators at the academy later recounting the former as a "very dutiful" and "extremely hardworking" player while another described the California-born teenager as "someone who always wants to achieve all that he could and who also doesn't easily give up in doing so at the first sight of defeat". Eventually, at eighteen years old, Smith was finally granted a much-awaited senior soccer career when he was then chosen for LA Galaxy in just the second season of Major League Soccer.

During an interview with Sky Sports in 2018, Smith revealed that around the time he began his senior professional career as a footballer, he also attended university to simultaneously further his education while concentrating on his growing football career. To that end, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a bachelor's degree in the field of sports science which he later supplemented with a master's degree from the University of Manchester that he pursued after retiring from professional football.

In his autobiography William Smith Unraveled, Smith revealed that upon turning eighteen, at his father's suggestion, he briefly flew to England to personally meet Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to enquire about his chances at the prestigious English football club that he had grew up supporting and had personally longed playing for. To that end, a young Smith was said to have quickly impressed Ferguson so much so that the latter even immediately considered offering him a professional contract for the Premier League's upcoming 1997-98 season where he was envisioned as being part of a lethal attacking trio alongside Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke. In the end, reportedly out of anxiety and nervousness in playing for such a major football club at a relatively young age, Smith ultimately turned down the offer while at the same time promising an eventual move to the club which he later did in 2003 following a successful period with LA Galaxy at a record price of £68 million. Later on, when asked if he regretted not being part of the Manchester United 1998-99 treble-winning squad, Smith said, "In retrospect, I do feel some regret to a certain extent but later on I was part of the squad that won the sextuple which, with no intention of disrespecting the earlier treble achievement, was definitely something bigger and more historic when compared to anything else. To essentially simplify it, I traded silver for gold". Meanwhile, his success at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, where he notably faced future Barcelona legend Xavi, was said to have made him a target of the La Liga giants whose then-manager Louis van Gaal was reportedly so impressed by the young American star's performance in the tournament to the point of wanting to immediately acquire the latter's services although Smith himself opted to remain in the United States until he "made it big" at which point he would only move to Europe.

Senior Team

Immediately after he was drafted by LA Galaxy, Smith soon made his debut in the club's first match in the 1997 season, namely a home match against D.C. United, where he scored his first goal for the club in the 23rd-minute, giving his team an initial 1-0 lead before a subsequent goal by D.C. United midfielder Richie Williams resulted in the match ending in a 1-1 draw. Then, in the following match against Kansas City Wizards, Smith, who initially started as a substitute, was called onto the pitch early on in the twelfth minute as a substitute for midfielder Coby Jones following which he proceeded to score a goal in the 49th-minute, thereby raising the scoreline to 3-3 before following it up with a brace in the 87th minute, with Smith's second goal proving to be the essential tiebreaker that resulted in LA Galaxy achieving a dramatic 4-3 win over their opponents. Deservedly so, Smith himself was then lauded as the man of the match and would proceed to feature almost regularly in the rest of the matches that season, during which he scored his first hat-trick in his professional career in another comeback victory, this time against Dallas Burn who LA Galaxy defeated 4-2 as a result of Smith's hat-trick. By the end of it, with twenty-eight appearances in total that season, Smith had managed to score a total of thirty-six goals, a number far higher than any other players in the league. Consequently, his stellar performance saw LA Galaxy clinch a spot in the playoffs. In this, a hat-trick from Smith allowed LA Galaxy to draw 3-3 Dallas Burn in the second game of the conference semi-finals although they were eventually eliminated 3-4 on penalties. Meanwhile, on 22 August 1997, Smith scored his first goal in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, namely in a 2-0 win over D.C. United, which he promptly followed up on August 24th to narrowly defeat the Liga MX side Cruz Azul 6-5 in the finals to clinch the club's first ever title in the tournament.

The Brazilian football legend Pelé playing for the now-defunct North American Soccer League club New York Cosmos. His two-year presence at the club has been widely attributed to the sudden surge in popularity for soccer in the United States around the late 1970s

Meanwhile, despite having missed out on qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the following 1998 season would prove to be of some success, with LA Galaxy topping the Western Conference table as well as winning the Supporters' Shield that year. In the meantime, Smith personally proved successful in bettering his record from the previous season, scoring a total of forty-five goals in thirty appearances, during which he gained much attention for having scored two hat-tricks in a row on two separate occasions. This, coupled with the American public's vivid memories of Brazilian legend Pelé's time as a footballer in the United States roughly two decades prior during the 1970s, led media outlets to begin drawing comparisons between the young Smith and the Brazilian legend. Then, in the 1999 season, Smith also led the club to win its first U.S. Open Cup trophy with himself notably contributing two consecutive hat-tricks in a row to help LA Galaxy defeat both Rochester New York FC and the Colorado Rapids 3-1 in the semi-finals and finals respectively. In addition to this, Smith also provided the lone goal for his team in the MLS Cup 1999 match against D.C. United although this proved insufficient after a comeback by the latter ultimately sealed the match in their favour with a narrow 2-1 win over LA Galaxy. In the meantime, despite personally scoring a memorable hat-trick for LA Galaxy to break a 1-1 deadlock in the 1999 CONCACAF Champions Cup qualifying playoff match against Mexican club Necaxa, and later two important goals in a 2-1 win over Deportivo Saprissa in the quarter-finals, Smith's club was ultimately eliminated in the semi-finals once again by D.C. United who later won the tournament 3-0 in the finals against Alajuelense.

In contrast, while his initial years at the club had been of mixed success in spite of his consistently promising performance, his last three years at LA Galaxy proved to be a more successful period, with Smith himself captaining the club to three straight U.S. Open Cup wins in a row, as well as back-to-back MLS Cup wins in 2002 and 2003 respectively. In addition to that, following the previous failure in the year beforehand, Smith finally saw much-awaited success in the 2000 CONCACAF Champions Cup where despite scoring just one goal this time around, that being a tiebreaking goal in the semi-finals against rivals D.C. United, he would ultimately win the tournament thanks to the club's 3-2 win over Olimpia in the finals. Then, after previously missing out on the 2002 edition, Smith would return to the tournament for one final time in 2003 where he began with a hat-trick against Motagua in the round of sixteen, thereby guaranteeing a dominant 6-2 victory before promptly following it up with four goals in the quarter-finals against Necaxa who initially appeared dominant with four goals in the first leg but who were ultimately forced into a penalty shootout thanks to Smith's four consequential goals, which later ended in a 4-2 win for LA Galaxy. Following this, a 6-2 win over another Mexican club Atlético Morelia in the semi-finals saw them reach the finals for the second time where they later drew 4-4 with another Mexican side Club Toluca, with the ensuing penalty shootout resulting in a narrow 3-4 loss to their opponents, thereby effectively ending Smith's hope of winning a second CONCACAF Champions Cup title. Meanwhile, despite having won the 2000 edition which would automatically qualify them for the FIFA Club World Championship, Smith and LA Galaxy were ultimately unable to participate in the ensuing 2001 edition after it was unexpectedly canceled by FIFA amidst financial difficulties.

With a total of 184 appearances, Smith had ultimately racked up a total of 227 goals, consequently making him the all-time goalscorer for both LA Galaxy and Major League Soccer, with the runner-up being Chris Wondolowski with 177 goals. In the meantime, with the end of the 2003 Major League Soccer season, Smith promptly announced his departure from LA Galaxy following a six-year-long period with his next move quickly becoming a subject of much media interest and speculation with one media outlet speculating on a rather unusual move to the Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, the parent club of fellow United States international Landon Donovan, who had then been on loan at San Jose Earthquakes, another Major League Soccer side. Nonetheless, several more well-known football clubs were also touted as Smith's likely destination with the illustrious Premier League club Manchester United being a likely candidate, especially given the fact that it was the very football club that Smith himself grew up supporting and which he had also publicly voiced his desire to play for in the near future. Aside from this, La Liga giants Real Madrid were also touted as a likely candidate owing to club president Florentino Pérez's Galácticos philosophy that revolves around signing talented big-name players to the club which saw the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, and David Beckham arrive at the club in recent years.

Florentino Pérez, chairman of La Liga club Real Madrid from 2000 to 2006 and again since 2009 during which he made two unsuccessful attempts to bring William Smith to Real Madrid as part of the Galácticos project

In the end, on 1 August 2004, the BBC would be the first to announce that Smith had signed for the Premier League side Manchester United for a world-record £68 million, the news of which quickly drew much attention to the already well-known and decorated Premier League club, whose fans and supporters later crowded Old Trafford to personally witness the unveiling of Smith as the club's newest player with the stadium itself later said to be at almost full capacity as each seat was taken up by anxious fans waiting to see the rising American-born footballer. In the meantime, Real Madrid chairman Florentino Pérez was said to have been "extremely distraught" and according to some "somewhat livid" upon learning of the news given that the club's scouting agents alongside its well-known players such as Ronaldo and David Beckham have all initially attempted to convince the young American star to sign for the La Liga giants under the premise of playing with some of football's greatest talents around. Later, according to Beckham, despite the allure of potentially playing with some of football's greatest talents in one team, Smith reportedly remarked, "Real Madrid sounds nice but I'm a Manchester United fan and I'm going to sign for that club no matter what". Meanwhile, in his autobiography, Smith revealed that the famous German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, reportedly impressed by Smith's performance at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, attempted to convince him to sign for Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich (which Kahn himself is a part of), stating, "When Oliver heard that I was coming to Europe, he gave me a phone call once and told me to come to Bayern because, with the way I played, he said I could definitely be the American version of Gerd Müller, an undeniable German football legend, and that I would make a great striker to play with while he is the goalkeeper". In response, while admitting his flattery by such a comparison, Smith himself later expressed his desire to "not be the American or English version of some great legend but just myself in all my own glory and success".

Afterward, in 2010, when Smith bid farewell to Manchester United, Real Madrid, having then signed Cristiano Ronaldo from the English club the year before, once again attempted to lure Smith with a contract much luxurious than that offered to his Portuguese teammate but which was once again rejected as the latter subsequently chose Atlético Madrid instead in his move to La Liga. In the words of former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, Smith was, in the eyes of Real Madrid supporters, "the one that got away", and in Pérez's eyes, "the holy grail that he never achieved". Even more so, as Smith himself would later spearhead Atlético Madrid to five straight UEFA Champions League titles, Real Madrid's ultimate inability to ever acquire Smith's services became ever more consequential and hard-hitting, with former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola once stating, "Undoubtedly, all three of us had our own greatest player but Diego, judging by the titles that he won, was definitely the luckiest and as some people would say had struck gold in getting him when others instead failed". Similarly, BBC Sport later dubbed it "The Steal of the Century", adding, "Truly, for someone of his stature at the time, one would mostly ever consider between Real Madrid and Barcelona but instead he did the opposite and will certainly have a rare legacy to speak of for generations".

Manchester United (2004 - 2010)

Early Years

"Without a doubt, bringing him to the club straight from Major League Soccer was one of or if not the best decision I've ever made as manager in my entire life."

Former Manchester United head coach Sir Alex Ferguson on signing Smith for the club

On 1 August 2004, just a day after a friendly match against A.C. Milan, Smith, by then a free agent and on a temporary break from professional football following his historic triumph at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, was officially announced to have joined Manchester United with his transfer to the club said to have then brought "extreme delight" for longtime head coach Sir Alex Ferguson who later remarked in a 2014 interview, "The fact that a recent World Cup champion and the man who scored a hat-trick to defeat the mighty Brazil was just walking around as a free agent waiting for a club to sign him is like a dream come true and the fact that Manchester United was the one who did it will always be something that I'll be proud of for the rest of my life". Soon enough, on 8 August 2004, Smith would make his debut for the club just a week later in the 2004 FA Community Shield match against Arsenal, where he was called in early on in the 19th-minute as a substitute for Paul Scholes, who had to be subbed off following an unfortunate injury on his left thigh. Then, following an initial 55th-minute goal by Alan Smith, Smith himself netted a late goal, his first ever for the club, in the 91st-minute following a successful run down the right flank past Arsenal defenders although this proved not enough to ultimately avoid a narrow 2-3 defeat at the hands of Arsenal who ultimately won the match by a rather thin 3-2 margin.

Nonetheless, not long after his debut at the FA Community Shield match, Smith was then featured in Manchester United's first Premier League match of the season that year, where after once again coming on as a substitute in the 25th-minute, Smith proceeded to immediately make a name for himself in the English football scene by scoring a hat-trick in the 84th minute, thereby allowing The Red Devils to easily beat Chelsea 4-1, after they were initially down by 0-1. Following this, Smith was once again employed as a "super sub" in the next two matches, before an injury during his third league match led him to miss the next few subsequent games. However, shortly after his return, Smith, now a regular starter for the club, once more caught the football world by storm when in his returning match against Portsmouth, Smith scored his second hat-trick to save the club from a 0-2 defeat, something which he came to emulate in the next three matches against Manchester City, Newcastle United, and Charlton Athletic respectively. However, this too ultimately proved not enough to win The Red Devils the Premier League season that year, with the club finishing as runner-up behind rivals Chelsea. Nonetheless, his overall performance for the club, made especially notable by the thirty-five goals he scored, the highest ever that year in both the Premier League and in European football saw him receive both a Premier League Golden Boot award and an European Golden Shoe award that year, which only further raised his image in the wider footballing community. In that same season, Smith also made his mark in the UEFA Champions League, where throughout the course of the competition, he recorded a total of three separate hat-tricks, whilst notably scoring the lone goal in the finals against Liverpool, thereby avoiding a narrow 0-1 defeat, before proceeding to beat their English rivals 4-2 in a penalty shootout, awarding the club their third Champions League title.

Peak of Success and Departure to Atlético Madrid

The Manchester United squad celebrating their historic sextuple triumph

For the following season, Smith continued to display a consistently positive performance, helping The Red Devils to finally win the Premier League albeit by their narrowest margin yet, that is by just one point ahead of runners-up Chelsea. Similarly, the club also found much success in the FA Cup and EFL Cup respectively but otherwise fell short of winning the UEFA Champions League for a second consecutive time following a narrow 4-5 defeat via penalty shootouts to Barcelona in the quarter-finals after both teams were tied at 5-5. Then, following the next two seasons where Manchester United continued to see much consistent success in the domestic scene, Smith's time with the club came to a high point when in 2009 the club became the first-ever European team to achieve a sextuple by winning the 2008-09 Premier League season, the 2008-09 FA Cup season, the 2009 FA Community Shield, the 2008-09 UEFA Champions League season, as well as the 2009 UEFA Super Cup and the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup. In the following season, as well as the season beforehand, Manchester United surprisingly came close to achieving another sextuple if not for an unfortunate loss in the FA Cup in both seasons in a testament to the club's overall dominance at the time. Meanwhile, in 2009, Smith twice made history in the Premier League, firstly by scoring a record seven goals in a historic 10-0 win over Fulham on February 18th and secondly by scoring four goals in a 7-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on September 12th. In this, his seven goals scored, currently an unbroken league record, saw Manchester United once again mark the biggest win in Premier League history, surpassing their own previous record of a 9-0 win over Ipswich in which Andy Cole scored a record five goals. Moreover, having previously set the new record for the most goals scored in a Premier League season with 39 goals in his second season with Manchester United, Smith, over the course of his last two seasons with the club, established a new record of 41 goals in both seasons which would remain unbroken until Arsenal's Richard scored a record 45 goals in the 2022-23 season.

Following the end of the 2009-10 season, after it was reported by the BBC that Smith did not wish to renew his six-year contract with Manchester United, rumours quickly arose regarding his next destination with several of Europe's biggest clubs including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Juventus being touted as his next club. In addition, derby rivals Manchester City, whose new owner Sheikh Mansour once reportedly thought of acquiring the Manchester United forward's services in what was then considered a "direct sabotage" of their biggest rivals, was also briefly considered until Smith himself promptly refuted such rumours, stating, "I'll be leaving Manchester United soon but never for its very own rivals in my entire life". Eventually, in a move that sparked much surprise from many observers, it was announced by the Spanish newspaper Marca that Atlético Madrid had acquired Smith for a world-record transfer fee of £82.5 million (€96 million), an amount that slightly surpassed that of the previous world-record fee of £80 million paid by Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo the previous year, in a lucrative contract that would see him remain with the club for a total of five years with the option of an additional year while also including a €1 billion buy-out clause in a deliberate attempt to ward off encroaching competitors especially city rivals Real Madrid who were similarly interested in acquiring Smith's services for themselves.

During his ensuing presentation ceremony to club supporters at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, Smith spoke of a "bittersweet feeling" of leaving his much-beloved Manchester United which he had long dreamt of playing for since childhood. However, pointing to his new club's "underdog" status, Smith explained that his decision to join Atlético Madrid was to "face a new challenge for myself", adding, "When people talk about La Liga, they always say that Real Madrid and Barcelona are the strongest clubs around and the only ones who can win the Champions League. Now, just as I did before with the United States at the World Cup, I'm going to prove those same people wrong and show that Atlético Madrid is just as strong or even stronger than both clubs and could absolutely win the Champions League as well". Meanwhile, in his best-selling autobiography, Smith later wrote of a "difficult conundrum" that he faced prior to leaving Manchester United, stating, "Without a doubt, I always wanted to play for Manchester United ever since I could walk but as excited and thrilled as I was scoring goals while wearing the red jersey, at some point, the game itself just felt a bit too easy for me when all we could seemingly do was just win titles left and right with almost no one apparently able to stop us. At that point, I stopped myself and asked whether I wanted to be a long-lasting servant of the club who could just win anything with just one goal or someone who was always challenged by equally strong opponents of the highest levels of the game who could be challenging me to be better than I previously was each time. In the end, I chose the latter".

"Out of all the players that left during my time, Smith leaving was definitely the hardest I had to take and the most difficult one that I had to come back from. Truth be told, we were never the same without him anymore."

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson reflecting on Smith's departure from Manchester United in 2010

By the time of his departure, Smith's total goal tally of 471 across all competitions established him as the all-time goalscorer for Manchester United while his 225 goals scored in the Premier League currently makes him the second-highest all-time goalscorer behind Alan Shearer with 260 goals with Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane almost coming close to surpass him with 221 goals. Meanwhile, until 2023, Smith formerly held the record for the most goals scored in a Premier League season with 41 goals until Arsenal's Richard surpassed it with 45 goals in the 2022-23 season. Since then, Smith has remained a hugely popular and highly celebrated figure among Manchester United supporters who famously nicknamed him "The Red Prince" due to his royal lineage and the club's traditional red colours. Moreover, together with Wayne Rooney and Eric Cantona, Smith is considered to be one of Manchester United's greatest forwards of the Premier League era and, among some supporters, is even considered to be the successor to the late Bobby Charlton. As of current, Smith is the only American player to have won the Premier League and only one of two Americans to have won the UEFA Champions League alongside Jovan Kirovski.

Following the end of the 2022-23 season, the departures of goalkeeper David de Gea and defender Phil Jones, the last few players remaining from the Ferguson era, left Manchester United without a Premier League winner for the first time in three decades. However, after almost eight years away, the club later re-signed academy graduate Jonny Evans, who was part of the historic 2008-09 sextuple-winning squad, making the Northern Ireland defender the only player at Manchester United so far to have won both the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, titles which Manchester United last won in the 2012-13 and 2009-10 seasons respectively.

Atlético Madrid (2010 - 2019)

Debut season & Europa League triumph

On August 30th, Smith made his La Liga debut in a home match against Sporting Gijón in which Smith, despite not scoring a goal himself, played an active role in the club's dominant 4-0 win over their opponents. Nonetheless, in the following match against Athletic Bilbao on September 11th, Smith soon made his mark at the club by scoring a hat-trick in the 76th minute, allowing Atlético Madrid to easily defeat their opponents 5-1. However, throughout the next few matches or so, Smith experienced a temporary goal draught that saw the club lose to both Barcelona and Sevilla while otherwise drawing with Valencia although this soon came to an end when Smith subsequently scored just his second hat-trick for the club in a dramatic 3-2 win over Villareal who initially led 2-0 by the 52nd minute before a subsequent hat-trick from Smith in the 58th minute turned the match upside down in Atlético Madrid's favour. Then, a third hat-trick followed in a November 13th fixture against Osasuna along with his first brace for the club just a week later against Real Sociedad, the latter which he wasted no time in following up on by scoring a fourth hat-trick in a dramatic 5-3 win over Espanyol. A fifth hat-trick followed in a 3-0 win over Racing Santander although this itself was followed by a heavy 1-4 defeat to Hércules and an ensuing 4-0 win over Mallorca. Following this, amidst a string of poor performances which saw the club lose once again to Barcelona by 3-0 via a Lionel Messi hat-trick, Smith nonetheless proved vital in scoring a decisive 47th-minute goal that helped them draw 2-2 against Valencia. Then, after scoring two consecutive hat-tricks that allowed Atlético Madrid to defeat Sevilla and Getafe 5-2 and 4-1 respectively, Smith soon scored his first goal against La Liga giants Real Madrid in a 2-2 draw on March 29th, which he followed up with a tiebreaking brace in the 69th minute against Espanyol, who the club ultimately defeated 4-2 thanks to a separate brace from Sergio Agüero in the 61st minute. In the end, Smith would cap off his first season with Atlético Madrid through yet another hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Deportivo La Coruña, a brace in a 2-3 loss to Málaga, and his final brace of the season in a 6-3 win over Mallorca on the final day at which point he finished as the club's leading goalscorer with 34 goals in 36 appearances, the second-highest behind Cristiano Ronaldo and ahead of Lionel Messi. In the meantime, with a total of 74 points, Atlético Madrid also qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage alongside giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, which hosted the 2011 Europa League Final between Atlético Madrid and Porto

Separately, on December 22nd, Smith also made his Copa del Rey debut in a much similar fashion, scoring a hat-trick in the second leg of the round of 32 to mark a final 9-1 win on aggregate against Universidad de Las Palmas although he did not otherwise score any further with Atlético Madrid subsequently losing 4-1 on aggregate to Real Madrid. Meanwhile, on September 16th, Smith scored his first two goals in the UEFA Europa League in a 3-1 win over Greek side Aris, which he soon followed up with another brace in a 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen, followed by one goal in a 3-1 win over Rosenborg and another single goal in a 3-3 draw against Aris. Then, following a narrow 6-5 win on aggregate against Dynamo Kyiv, Atlético Madrid, courtesy of a hat-trick from Smith in both legs of the round of 16, marked a dominant 11-3 victory over Manchester City before proceeding to demolish Portuguese sides Braga and Benfica 6-3 and 6-2 respectively as well as another Portuguese side Porto 4-0 in the finals to win their second UEFA Europa League title in a row after their first one that was achieved by a 2-1 win over English side Fulham, thereby qualifying them once again for the UEFA Super Cup in which Atlético Madrid narrowly defeated Barcelona 3-2 to follow up on their previous 1-0 win over Smith's former club Manchester United in the previous edition.

Diego Simeone Era

"From the beginning, I knew that together we're going to do something special and remarkable at the club, and during those five years we certainly did a lot."

Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone on his five-year partnership with Smith

In his second season with the club, Smith began rather promisingly, scoring an important tiebreaking goal in the opening match against Osasuna and a hat-trick in a 7-0 win over Racing Santander although this was soon met by a heavy 0-5 loss to Barcelona. Nonetheless, in the next two matches against Sevilla and Granada respectively, Smith proved to be a vital player, scoring one goal on both occasions to break the 0-0 deadlock each time and later a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Rayo Vallecano that followed a previous 1-4 defeat to Real Madrid in which at least five Atlético Madrid players were booked while two, including goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, were sent off. Then, on January 7th, his first match under newly-appointed manager Diego Simeone, Smith scored a memorable brace to mark a 2-0 win over Malaga following a previous poor run of form before going on to score at least two further consecutive braces against Villareal and Real Sociedad respectively and later a hat-trick in a 4-0 win over CA Osasuna. Soon enough, in what was seen by many as a "return" to his full potential under the new management of the tactically sound Diego Simeone, Smith scored at least two further goals to break deadlocks against Valencia and Sporting Gijón respectively before soon following it up with a brace in a dramatic 3-2 win over Barcelona, his first since arriving in La Liga. Following this, two consecutive hat-tricks were also produced in wins against Sevilla and Granada respectively, followed by a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Mallorca and a brace in a narrow 3-4 loss to Real Madrid in which a late 88th-minute goal from José Callejón which followed a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick beforehand saw the latter narrowly edge over their opponent. Nonetheless, a hat-trick in the final match against Villareal, who consequently lost 0-4 to Atlético Madrid, saw Smith rack up a total of 40 goals in 34 appearances, breaking his own personal record of 39 goals for Manchester United in the Premier League although this itself was far surpassed by Lionel Messi's 50 goals that season.

In the meantime, despite a brace from Smith in the second leg, Atlético Madrid were otherwise eliminated from the Copa del Rey following a 3-4 loss on penalties to Albacete although they did made much progress in the UEFA Champions League, topping their group and advancing all the way to the finals where they later defeated Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich 2-0 to win their first-ever UEFA Champions League title during which they notably overcame rivals Barcelona 4-2 on penalties following a 4-4 draw in the round of 16 which preceded a narrow 4-3 win in the quarter-finals against AC Milan and a dramatic 5-3 win over Chelsea in the semi-finals. Following up on this, the club then defeated fellow Spanish side Athletic Bilbao 5-2 in the UEFA Super Cup via an 83rd-minute hat-trick from Smith and later Brazilian club Corinthians 4-2 on penalties following a 2-2 draw in the FIFA Club World Cup, also a first for the club.

For the 2012-13 season, his first full season under Diego Simeone, Smith started off rather promisingly, scoring a hat-trick in a 7-3 win over Rayo Vallecano along with a goal in a dominant 5-2 win over Real Betis. Soon enough, despite subsequent losses to Valencia and Real Madrid, Smith himself enjoyed a consistent goalscoring form with 16 goals in 15 appearances that led to Atlético Madrid briefly enjoying a streak of nine unbeaten games. Then, following yet another impressive performance in a narrow 3-4 loss to Barcelona on December 16th, Smith soon scored his first hat-trick of the season in a 4-0 win over Celta Vigo, followed by another one in a 3-3 draw against Athletic Bilbao, and a third one which crucially helped them defeat Rayo Vallecano 4-2. Then, Smith also provided decisive tiebreaking goals against Valencia and Getafe to initially make it five games unbeaten and later six games unbeaten when a hat-trick from the former in an April 27th fixture saw him defeat Real Madrid 4-2 for the first time since arriving in the top Spanish football league at which point by season's end Smith had scored a total of 40 goals for the second consecutive time, making him once again the second-highest goalscorer that season behind Lionel Messi whilst Atlético Madrid finished second with 86 points behind Barcelona, their best finish in two decades since they last won the league in the 1995-96 season.

In the meantime, Smith also proved to be a much valuable component in the club's Copa del Rey victory that season, during which he scored a hat-trick in the second leg of the round of 16 to defeat Getafe 6-0 on aggregate while also contributing one goal of his own in the finals where they defeated Real Madrid 3-1. Similarly, a 3-2 win over Borussia Dortmund saw Atlético Madrid win just their second UEFA Champions League title in a row during which a hat-trick from Smith in both legs saw them defeat Barcelona 10-3 on aggregate in the quarter-finals while rivals Real Madrid were otherwise eliminated in the semi-finals by a 3-4 loss on aggregate to runners-up Borussia Dortmund. Then, a hat-trick from Smith saw them defeat UEFA Europa League winners Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup which they duly followed up on by defeating Moroccan club Raja Casablanca 5-4 on penalties following a 2-2 draw. Moreover, having won the Copa del Rey, the club also faced La Liga champions Barcelona in the Supercopa de España where they narrowly defeated their opponent 3-1 courtesy of a tiebreaking brace from Smith in the second leg that broke the 1-1 deadlock in the first leg.

Sextuple Success

For the 2013-14 season, Smith once again made a generally promising start, scoring two consecutive braces against Real Sociedad and Almería respectively, a hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Real Madrid and a single goal in a 1-1 draw with Espanyol which saw Atlético Madrid go ten matches unbeaten, their best start in decades, and which only extended further to twenty-three games in total during which he scored a further two hat-tricks in the process. Then, despite a 0-2 loss to Almería, the club proved quick to re-establish their unbeaten streak with a hat-trick from Smith in a 3-3 draw against Osasuna proving vital in maintaining the aforementioned streak. Moreover, another hat-trick from Smith soon afterward also saw Atlético Madrid defeat Real Madrid 5-2 and later Barcelona 4-1 on the final day of the season which they eventually came to win to mark their first La Liga title in almost two decades. In spite of this, hopes for a historic sextuple were quickly quashed following a 1-5 defeat to Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. On the other hand, following a hat-trick from Smith that saw Atlético Madrid mark a dominant 5-1 win over Barcelona in the quarter-finals, the club otherwise avenged their initial defeat by triumphing over Real Madrid in a narrow 2-1 win in the UEFA Champions League final to mark the third consecutive European title for Atlético Madrid who later defeated Sevilla 5-4 on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup and also San Lorenzo 4-2 in the FIFA Club World Cup, the latter in which Smith himself scored a hat-trick on both occasions to also mark a dominant 7-2 victory over Mexican side Cruz Azul. To top it off, the club also won the ensuing Supercopa de España match, defeating Real Madrid 4-1 on aggregate.

In the following season, Smith started rather brilliantly early on, scoring a hat-trick in the opening match against Rayo Vallecano, over whom they subsequently won 3-0. However, despite a second hat-trick from Smith on September 27th which saw Atlético Madrid defeat Sevilla 7-0, the club otherwise met their first defeat in the following match against Valencia to whom they narrowly lost 2-3. Regardless, another hat-trick and a brace from Smith saw them quickly rebound to especially deal a heavy 4-0 defeat to Getafe while also drawing 2-2 with Real Sociedad in the process. Then, Smith himself went on to deliver two consecutive hat-tricks that saw Atlético Madrid defeat Deportivo La Coruña and Elche 5-0 each while a lone goal from the former also help them to draw 1-1 against Villareal. Moreover, a hat-trick from Smith on January 11th also saw them overcome rivals Barcelona once again in a narrow 4-3 win which Smith quickly capitalised upon by providing a second consecutive hat-trick in a following 5-0 win over Granada before later following it up with yet another hat-trick in a 7-0 win over Real Madrid on February 7th. Following this, Smith would eventually cap off an ultimately successful season once more with a hat-trick in the penultimate match against Barcelona and another one in the final match of the season against Granada, who Atlético Madrid defeated 3-1 and 3-0 respectively to ultimately win the La Liga for an unprecedented second season in a row during which he also achieved a new personal record of 48 goals in 36 appearances which saw him share the Pichichi Trophy as the season's top goalscorer alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, having also won it the season before over the Portuguese. In the meantime, with their second consecutive league title win, Atlético Madrid became the first Spanish club in almost three decades that is neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona to win the La Liga two seasons in a row since Athletic Bilbao last won the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons in a row themselves.

On the other hand, Atlético Madrid later found themselves eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey via a narrow 3-4 loss on aggregate to Barcelona although they soon earned their revenge in a 5-2 win against the latter in the UEFA Champions League to claim a record-breaking fourth UEFA Champions League title in a row, making them just one of two clubs alongside Real Madrid to have won it more than three consecutive times. Then, as per tradition, the club subsequently defeated Sevilla 1-0 in the UEFA Super Cup and later River Plate 5-2 in the FIFA Club World Cup in which Smith scored a brace in the process. Moreover, the club also defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the ensuing Supercopa de España with Smith himself scoring three goals in total to override their opponents' lone goal through Lionel Messi.

The San Siro in Milan, Italy, which hosted the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, with the former subsequently winning the match 4-1 and later going on to achieve a historic sextuple in a first for a Spanish side and the second in European history after Manchester United

In his final season with the club, despite not scoring in the first two matches, Smith proved quick to return to his goalscoring form by scoring a memorable brace in the third fixture of the season against Barcelona on September 12th who Atlético Madrid defeated 3-1 to mark another rare victory over the La Liga giants. Then, after scoring yet another brace that overturned an initial 1-0 defeat into a dramatic 2-1 win for the club over Villareal, Smith soon scored his first hat-trick of the season in a November 8th fixture against Sporting Gijón that ended in a 4-0 win, which he followed up on with another brace in a 3-0 win over Levante, a lone equalising goal in a 1-1 draw with Málaga, and a second hat-trick in a dominant 6-0 win over Las Palmas. Following this, Smith then further provided a lone equalising goal in a 2-2 draw against Barcelona on January 30th, followed by a third hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Getafe and a brace that broke the 0-0 deadlock in a February 21st fixture against Villareal that preceded a 1-0 win over Real Madrid just six days later. Eventually, a hat-trick, followed by a separate brace from Smith saw the club notably become the third Spanish side in history to win a season undefeated as they were soon crowned La Liga champions for a record-breaking third consecutive time while also setting the record for the most points accumulated in a La Liga season with a grand total of 106 points during which the club won thirty-four matches while only drawing four and sustaining zero defeats in the process. In the meantime, the club also won the Copa del Rey that season, defeating Barcelona 4-1 in the finals courtesy of a brace from Smith who also scored a consequential goal in the quarter-finals that resulted in a subsequent 5-3 win on penalties over Celta Vigo which preceded a 4-2 win on penalties in the semi-finals over Sevilla.

Moreover, in the UEFA Champions League, a 5-0 demolition of PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals, followed by 3-2 and 4-2 wins over Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, soon culminated in a 4-1 win over rivals and La Liga giants Real Madrid where Smith, in what was initially his final appearance for the club, scored a decisive 51th-minute hat-trick to deliver a record-breaking fifth consecutive UEFA Champions League title for Atlético Madrid, a feat it shares with Real Madrid, while also notably becoming the first Spanish side to achieve a domestic treble. In this, despite an initial plan to retire at that exact moment, after he was reportedly spurred by the likely possibility of the club achieving a sextuple, Smith opted to renew his contract with Atlético Madrid for a further three years with the new concrete aim of retiring and celebrating his impending fortieth birthday with his La Liga teammates and head coach Diego Simeone. To that end, Smith went on to score a hat-trick to demolish Sevilla 6-0 in the UEFA Super Cup and also Kashima Antlers 6-0 in the FIFA Club World Cup. Likewise, three goals from Smith also saw Atlético Madrid comfortably defeat Barcelona 6-2 to win the Supercopa de España, thereby officially making the club only the second European side after Manchester United and the first Spanish side in history to achieve a sextuple, a feat that neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona was able to achieve during their respective heydays.

Final Years

In his first season since renewing his contract with the club, Smith started off in an expectedly brilliant fashion, scoring a hat-trick in the opening match against Alavés which they easily won 3-0. Following this, Smith also provided an additional goal in a 5-0 demolition of Celta Vigo although he otherwise failed to break the 1-1 deadlock against Barcelona afterward. Then, after contributing a couple of assists in a similarly huge 7-1 demolition of Granada on October 15th, just a week later, Smith proved to be his club's saviour by scoring twice in a narrow 2-1 win over Sevilla. Following this, Smith went on to score a hat-trick in two consecutive matches, one of which proved crucial in defeating Real Sociedad by a rather thin 3-2 margin, although his two subsequent goals proved insufficient to avoid a narrow 2-3 loss to Real Madrid whose star player Cristiano Ronaldo scored a memorable hat-trick in the process. On 28 January 2017, in avenging a previous 2-2 draw against Athletic Bilbao, Smith scored yet another hat-trick to defeat Alavés by a similar 3-0 margin as he previously did. Regardless, a subsequent hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Real Madrid, coupled with a tiebreaking goal on the penultimate day against Betis, resulted in Atlético Madrid for a record-breaking fourth season in a row albeit with only two points ahead of runners-up Real Madrid. Meanwhile, in the Copa del Rey, despite scoring thrice to mark a dominant 7-3 win over Las Palmas in the round of 16, Smith otherwise proved unsuccessful in leading Atlético Madrid to the finals courtesy of a narrow 2-3 loss on aggregate to Barcelona in the semi-finals.

Regardless, in the UEFA Champions League, a crucial pair of goals from Smith saw the club top their group unbeaten and ahead of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in second place, something that he promptly capitalised upon with a hat-trick that saw them further defeat another German side Bayer Leverkusen 7-2 on aggregate in the round of 16. Then, after further helping to demolish surprise English champions Leicester City in the quarter-finals, in what was later described as one of the most dramatic pre-final confrontations in the tournament, Smith once again showed his importance to Atlético Madrid by scoring twice in the first leg, thereby mitigating the effects of a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, and once in the second leg to dramatically defeat their arch rivals 5-4 on aggregate to progress to the finals for a record-breaking sixth consecutive time where a hat-trick from Smith in extra-time, aided by goals from Kevin Gameiro and Gabi, saw Atlético Madrid clinch their sixth consecutive European title via a 5-1 win over Serie A side Juventus.

In this, Smith himself both broke his own record of 22 goals scored in a UEFA Champions League season and also set a new record of 29 goals while his eleven goals scored in the Copa del Rey in that same season is also his new personal best. As per tradition, courtesy of being European champions, Atlético Madrid subsequently faced the UEFA Europa League winners which in this case was Smith's former club Manchester United which was now spearheaded at the front by Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimović. Eventually, the dramatic reunion, which is also the first and only time that Smith ever faced Manchester United since his departure, ended in a 3-1 win for Atlético Madrid who later proceeded to defeat the Emirati side Al Jazira and the Brazilian club Grêmio, with the latter especially succumbing to a 5-0 loss in which both Kevin Gameiro and Saúl Ñíguez scored twice to complete the 5-0 rout. Meanwhile, in a dramatic and tense affair that was particularly evident in the second leg, a brace from Smith saw Atlético Madrid narrowly prevail and emerge victorious to defeat Barcelona 7-5 in spite of a spirited second-half comeback by the latter who came close to equalising with their opponents and forcing the game into extra time.

For his second post-renewal season, Smith once more made a positive start, scoring a hat-trick in a dominant 8-1 win over Las Palmas following a 2-2 draw with Girona on the opening match. Then, amidst failures to break the deadlock against clubs such as Valencia and Leganés, Smith, having scored a brace in an otherwise convincing 4-0 win over Sevilla on September 23rd, proved his worth once again by scoring a hat-trick in an October 15th fixture against Barcelona which they consequently won 4-1. Likewise, on November 18th, arch rivals Real Madrid were also defeated convincingly by a 2-0 scoreline, followed by Atlético Madrid then convincingly defeating both Levante and Real Sociedad by five goals each. However, a shock 0-1 loss to Espanyol on December 22nd brought an end to their unbeaten streak and briefly blunted their momentum before the club promptly rebounded with two consecutive 2-0 victories in which Smith himself scored once to mark a 2-0 win over Eibar. In this, Smith also scored a tiebreaking goal to mark a 2-1 win over Girona, thereby avenging the previous stalemate. Afterward, Smith himself went on to display a consistent promising performance throughout, scoring a hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Las Palmas, one goal in a 2-0 win over Valencia, and most crucially, a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over rivals Barcelona who initially led early on via Lionel Messi before Atlético Madrid promptly replied through their own star forward. In the end, despite a slight decline in form throughout the closing matches of the season, by just one point ahead of runners-up Barcelona, Atlético Madrid emerged victorious for the fifth season in a row.

Meanwhile, in the Copa del Rey, aside from scoring once in a dominant 8-0 win over Lleida Esportiu, Smith also crucially contributed a hat-trick and an additional goal to narrowly defeat Sevilla 6-5 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, a feat which he followed up on with an additional goal to complete an 8-0 rout of Leganés. Meanwhile, in the ensuing finals at Estadio de los Santos, despite taking the lead early on, Barcelona were ultimately defeated by Atlético Madrid 3-7 in which Smith's hat-trick perfectly complemented goals from teammates Antoine Griezmann, Yannick Carrasco, and Saúl Ñíguez who notably scored twice in the match to claim their first Copa del Rey title after a two-year interruption. Meanwhile, after easily cruising past Shakhtar Donetsk via a 7-1 win on aggregate, Smith and Atlético Madrid were once again drawn against Barcelona in the quarter-finals where in a dramatic turn of events they managed to overturn Barcelona's initial 3-1 lead from the first leg into a stunning 8-3 comeback win on aggregate with where a brace from Smith was otherwise overshadowed by a hat-trick from club captain Koke. Following this, a solo hat-trick from Smith saw Atlético Madrid comfortably eliminate their English opponents Liverpool in the semi-finals, thereby setting the stage for another clash with arch-rivals Real Madrid, namely at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex in Kyiv, Ukraine.

In this, a seemingly inevitable Smith hat-trick which complemented goals from teammates Nicolás Gaitán, Saúl Ñíguez, and Koke saw Atlético Madrid once again emerge victorious to claim their now seventh UEFA Champions League title. In this, the club then went on to defeat UEFA Europa League winners Olympique de Marseille and also the Emirati club Al Ain 4-1 in the FIFA Club World Cup respectively, thereby making the Supercopa de España the only tournament left to win for a second historic sextuple. For this purpose, Atlético Madrid were once again drawn against Barcelona where a hat-trick from Smith resulted in a 3-3 draw, hence leading to a penalty shootout which they ultimately won 4-1, thereby officially confirming a second sextuple for the club with head coach Diego Simeone, in turn, becoming the only manager to achieve the feat twice and with the same club whereas Smith now holds three sextuple achievements to his name, the single-most for any player.

For his final season with Atlético Madrid, Smith kickstarted his final run with the club with a brace in a September fixture against Celta Vigo which consequently ended in a 2-2 draw. Then, on September 15th, Smith scored his first hat-trick of the season to deliver a 4-1 win over Eibar which was followed by a comfortable 2-0 win over Getafe a week later. However, after scoring yet another hat-trick against Huesca, Smith instead failed to break the deadlock against arch-rivals Real Madrid, a shortcoming that he compensated for with a tiebreaking goal in a 2-1 win over FC Barcelona on November 24th. Then, on December 8th, a third hat-trick from Smith completed a dominant 6-0 win over Alavés and a similarly dominant 4-0 win over Espanyol which was also thanks to another of Smith's hat-tricks. Then, despite subsequent losses to Real Betis and Real Madrid, the club proved quick to find their winning ways once more with Smith personally contributing two goals to a 4-0 win over Real Sociedad. On 16 March 2019, a Smith hat-trick allowed Atlético Madrid to mark a dramatic 3-2 win over Athletic Bilbao although they were otherwise defeated by Barcelona 2-0 in the following month, a setback that, as Smith scored his last couple of goals in a 4-2 win over Levante on the final day, proved not enough to deny Atlético Madrid their last and sixth consecutive La Liga title under Smith.

Meanwhile, in the Copa del Rey, after scoring a valuable hat-trick to defeat Girona 7-4 on aggregate in the round of 16, Smith also provided an additional but nonetheless crucial goal to see off Real Madrid in the quarter-finals via a 4-2 win on aggregate, thereby drawing them once again with Barcelona where a hat-trick and two further goals from Smith resulted in Barcelona's elimination via a 4-8 loss on aggregate, thereby clearing them to the finals where they narrowly defeated a defiant Valencia 3-2 with Smith's tiebreaking goal complementing earlier goals from Antoine Griezmann and Thomas Partey. Meanwhile, in the UEFA Champions League, upon easily securing qualification from the group stages, Smith was unexpectedly reunited with his old rival Cristiano Ronaldo who now plays for the Italian side Juventus after making the transfer from Real Madrid. In this, a hat-trick from Smith in the first leg proved sufficient to offset the consequences of a hat-trick in the second leg from Ronaldo himself whose club was therefore eliminated via a 3-5 loss on aggregate. Following this, the club then faced Dutch heavyweights Ajax whom Smith and his teammates worked well and swiftly to demolish by an impressive 13-0 on aggregate during which Diego Costa secured a hat-trick of his own as did Smith as well. Consequently, the club then faced Tottenham Hotspur, a club that Smith would later manage himself, with the occasion gaining much coverage from the media who quickly framed it as a "battle" between two of England's captains, namely Smith himself and Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane. In the end, a hat-trick from Smith, coupled with a brace from José Giménez, and a few other goals by Atlético Madrid players saw the seven-time European champions demolish their English opponents by 8-1 on aggregate, thereby resulting in a final against Liverpool on Atlético Madrid's home ground, a circumstance that was well exploited by the players with Smith himself going on to score his final hat-trick and last few official goals for Atlético Madrid who, thanks to an additional penalty goal by Diego Costa, successfully defeated Liverpool 4-1 to claim their eight consecutive European title.

At this point, as per his previous intention, Smith officially announced his retirement from professional football, an announcement that was met with rapturous applause and celebrations from the adoring home crowd with those seated closest to the pitch later treated to individual photographs with Smith himself who bid the Spanish club a final farewell after nine successful years. Regardless, despite his much-anticipated departure, the club, now en route to yet another sextuple, contested the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, and the Supercopa de España, where they defeated Chelsea 1-0, Flamengo 1-0, and Real Madrid 4-1 on penalties to complete a third sextuple. In this, despite having left the club at that point, Smith was nonetheless awarded the winner's medal as if he was still a player for the club with head coach Diego Simeone famously stating, "Once an Atlético, always an Atlético. He didn't leave or retire but was just taking a break for a while after all the energy and dedication he put into throughout the last nine years since day one. One day, he will be back and when he does, he will receive the grandest of welcomes, even grander than the ones kings and queens usually get".

"Without a doubt, Real Madrid can say they have Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona can say they have Lionel Messi. In the end, we had William Smith, and judging by our successes and the multiple sextuples, we were the lucky ones and the others couldn't necessarily say the same"

Atlético Madrid captain Koke on Smith's impact at the club

By the time of his departure from the club, having scored 328 goals in 302 appearances, Smith had long officially become the all-time goalscorer for Atlético Madrid, surpassing the previous record of 172 goals by Luis Aragonés, to whom Smith subsequently paid a personal tribute upon breaking the latter's goalscoring record, stating, "As great as I could have been in my five years at the club, there is surely no one better than the one and only Luis Aragonés". In the meantime, his total goal tally also notably makes him La Liga's second-highest all-time goalscorer, becoming the only English or American player to be included in the top ten in a list mostly dominated by Spanish players and led in the top three by Smith, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo respectively. Among club supporters, Smith is popularly known by the nickname of "San Guillermo" ("Saint William") as a tribute to his extraordinary successes with the club similar to how former longtime Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas is popularly known as "San Iker" ("Saint Iker") among the club's fans. In addition, some supporters have also referred to him as "Hijo del Atlético" which translates to "Son of Atlético". Meanwhile, as a gesture of respect, Smith is at times informally addressed as "Generalissimo", an Italian term used to denote a military rank even higher than a field marshal, in line with Smith's well-known militaristic persona.

Later on, in his 2019 autobiography William Smith Unraveled, Smith revealed that just prior to his move to Atlético Madrid, he was initially asked by Manchester United chairman Avram Glazer to agree to a world-record transfer fee to La Liga giants Real Madrid whose president Florentino Pérez had reportedly submitted a lucrative and record-breaking fee in order to acquire the former's services at the club just a year after the club had also bought Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in a similar record-breaking transfer. However, having personally found himself attracted to Atlético Madrid's "underdog" status while otherwise finding Real Madrid's dominant status in the La Liga "terribly boring", Smith instead opted for the "underdog" club which subsequently signed him on a world-record transfer fee that yielded much clear success in the years that followed. In the meantime, it was also revealed that fellow England international David Beckham once attempted to convince Smith to return to Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy in a move that would have seen him reunite with his boyhood club while also joining the likes of Beckham himself and former USMNT teammates Landon Donovan and Gregg Berhalter. Ultimately, for reasons unknown, such a move never materialised, with Smith later stating in his autobiography, "Without a doubt, the sentimental value behind it was truly undeniable and would have probably actually convinced me to return but at the same time I felt that my time in European football isn't over yet and so, as sweet as it would have been for me to come back at that moment, I still had a lot of unfinished business and I intend to finish all that before I ever return". However, despite apparent suggestions of him returning to his boyhood club of LA Galaxy, Smith officially retired from professional football outright after concluding a historically successful season with Atlético Madrid. Meanwhile, even when he was later on the edge of retirement, owing to his immense marketability and his proven longevity, Smith revealed in his autobiography that clubs including the wealthy Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain, who previously signed David Beckham, and the Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande attempted to sign him via offers of luxurious contracts, both of which he strongly rejected in favour of indefinite retirement.

International Career

United States U-20

The National Stadium in Lagos, Nigeria, which hosted the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship Final between the United States and Japan. The United States later won the match 1-0 via a tiebreaking goal from Smith in the 76th minute

In 1999, two years into his career as a professional footballer for LA Galaxy, Smith, by virtue of his fast-rising popularity and talent, was called up for the under-20 national team, with the national call-up proving vital in exposing Smith to his first-ever international tournament, namely the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria. It was later reported that the callup, at least initially, was opposed by Smith's mother, the actress Jaclyn Smith, who was said to have been personally concerned for her son's wellbeing in such a foreign country at a relatively young age. Ultimately, repeated assurances that the twenty-year-old Smith's well-being would be well taken care of, coupled with Smith's own personal insistence on participating in the tournament, eventually gave way to the national team call-up.

Soon enough, having been grouped with the likes of England, Japan, and Cameroon, Smith quickly made his mark for the national team by scoring a brace in the first group stage match against England although this was then followed by a 1-3 defeat to Japan. However, in what would be a vital match towards securing qualification to the knockout stages, Smith went on to score his first hat-trick for the United States against Cameroon in a 6-0 win. Not long afterward, a late 93rd-minute goal from Smith proved vital in avoiding a narrow 2-3 defeat to Spain in the round of 16 following which the United States proceeded to defeat the Spaniards 4-1 on penalties to advance to the quarter-finals. Then, after scoring two goals to complete a narrow 3-2 victory over hosts Nigeria in the quarter-finals, Smith scored his second hat-trick for the United States to complete a dominant 6-0 win over Mali in the ensuing semi-finals, thereby allowing them to progress to the finals where they faced Japan. In this, after a relatively long period which saw both the United States and Japan unsuccessfully attempt a tiebreaker, at precisely the 76th minute, Smith, shortly proceeded to dribble past several Japanese players before unleashing a powerful long-range shot from just outside of the penalty area to give the United States a vital breakthrough in the closing minutes of the game amidst subsequent unsuccessful attempt by Japan to level the scores. Soon enough, having personally contributed to the United States' first-ever FIFA World Youth Championship title with his tiebreaking goal in the finals, Smith's profile as a relatively unknown soccer player immediately rose to an unprecedented high with some media outlets gradually beginning to tout Smith as a "future World Cup winner" especially so given that just a year prior the United States suffered a humiliating exit in the group stages of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Later on, Smith publicly spoke of the effects caused by the rapid rise in his profile as a soccer player, adding that his talents and early successes, which then led to expectations of him being a potential World Cup winner, "troubled" him early on, stating, "By chance, at just twenty years old, I somehow now have almost the entire country on my shoulders begging me to somehow create the ultimate miracle and win the World Cup against all the odds. Undoubtedly, that really stressed and terrified me a lot because if I did succeed then I'd be a living legend of the sorts but what if I fail and all those extremely high expectations go to waste? It's safe to say that I probably can't even go to the closest grocery store without someone reminding me of it". In this, Smith has credited his "very loving" and "extensively supportive" family members in helping him overcome his "darkest days", stating, "In an alternate universe, I could've been long dead from a drug overdose or the sort like Michael Jackson but fortunately, owing to all the things my family did to help me through it all, I'm now well alive and kicking and enjoying the best things that my life has to offer so far". In addition, despite having parted ways, Smith nonetheless thanked his former romantic partner, the Brazilian fashion model Gisele Bündchen, for helping him through said years, with the former England forward stating, "At that point, we were both rather uneasy and having some issues with our own respective lives. Luckily, we found each other and instead of just simply spiraling out of control, we both knew that we had each other's backs and would do our best to see through each other's problems so that by the end of it we would both be content and at peace with ourselves and where we both are as a couple. For me, if I didn't have someone back then to lie down on and to talk about things honestly and straightforwardly, I don't really know where I'll even be right now".

United States

"As ridiculous as it might sound, he was our star, our captain, our engine, and our everything."

Former head coach Bruce Arena on Smith's time at the USMNT

In the following year, by then a talent-proven soccer player in the Major League Soccer scene, and most recently, the winner of the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, Smith was officially called up for his first-ever international duty as part of the United States national team, with then-manager Bruce Arena hoping to utilise the young and rising soccer star as the national team's primary goalscorer in future competitive matches, especially in light of the upcoming 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and Korea. On 16 January 2000, Smith made his debut for the national team in a friendly match against Iran where following an initial 1-1 deadlock between the two sides Smith proceeded to score two goals throughout the second half, ultimately giving the United States a 3-1 win over their opponents. Then, around a month later, for the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, Smith, who initially did not score in the first two matches against Haiti and Peru respectively, went on to score a hat-trick, his first-ever for the United States' senior team, in the quarter-final match against Colombia, allowing the United States to break the initial 2-2 deadlock and therefore achieve a resounding 5-2 victory. This was soon followed by a heavy 4-0 demolition of Peru in the semi-finals, in which Smith otherwise scored only one goal to add on to the other three goals by his teammates. In the end, a brace from Smith in the final match against Canada, whose initial 1-0 lead was consequently overturned as a result, proved to be the decisive factor that awarded the United States their second CONCACAF Gold Cup title.

Then, just a year later, as a regular starter for the United States, Smith famously contributed two consecutive hat-tricks in the knockout stages to demolish both France and Japan 5-0 and 5-1 respectively, allowing the United States to also win their first-ever FIFA Confederations Cup tournament. Soon enough, with only a year left until the upcoming World Cup tournament, Smith was named the United States' new team captain, becoming the youngest-ever American captain in history at just twenty-two. Almost immediately, his public profile rose considerably among the American media with ESPN, noting Smith's physical attractiveness, beginning to refer to him as "America's David Beckham".

The Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, Japan, which hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final and which saw the United States achieve a historic 5-0 win over Brazil to lift their first and only World Cup title to date

Following this, in 2002, Smith saw further success by winning a second consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup with the United States with his most notable contributions being a brace in a 6-0 win over El Salvador in the quarter-finals and a hat-trick in the finals that saw the Americans demolish Costa Rica 5-0 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Soon enough, for the 2002 FIFA World Cup's group stage fixtures, Smith was a steady and dominant presence for the United States, scoring twice in a 5-2 win over Portugal and a crucial equalising goal in a 1-1 draw with Korea, thereby allowing the Americans to advance to the knockout stages despite a subsequent 1-3 loss to Poland in the final group stage match. In the ensuing round of 16, Smith provided one additional goal to complete a 3-0 rout of neighbours Mexico before following it up with a crucial hat-trick to complete a remarkable 3-1 comeback win over Germany, thereby allowing them to progress further to the semi-finals for just the second time in almost seventy years where the United States dealt co-hosts Korea a heavy 5-2 defeat to then reach a World Cup final for the first time ever.

In this, Smith's individual brilliance, coupled with resolute defending from the American backline in an effective 4-4-2 counter-attacking system set up by head coach Bruce Arena, saw the United States achieve a historic 5-0 victory over a star-studded Brazilian national team consisting of the likes of goalkeeper Marcos, defenders Cafu and Roberto Carlos, midfielders Rivaldo and Kaká, and forwards Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, in what later came to be nicknamed by Brazilians as the "Desastre de Yokohama" (English: "Yokohama Disaster") given the heavy-handed and unexpected nature of their national team's defeat while American supporters otherwise came to refer to it as the "June 30th Miracle", a term that was even echoed by then-manager Bruce Arena who later said during the post-match press conference, "Under normal circumstances, with the players that Brazil had fielded, we definitely didn't stand a chance but this turns out to be not a normal match at all and by all means, we certainly did a miracle here that everyone will remember for generations". Most significantly, this marks the first and only time to date that the United States, as the first and only CONCACAF member state to do so, has ever won a World Cup trophy since they first participated in the tournament in its inaugural 1930 edition where they finished in third place behind Uruguay and Argentina, their highest-ever finish in the tournament prior to their victory in the 2002 edition. In the meantime, his 75th-minute hat-trick saw Smith become just the second player after England's Geoff Hurst to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final as well as the only American player to do so in what is the country's only appearance to date in a World Cup final.

Shortly afterward, despite later suddenly announcing that the 2002 FIFA World Cup would be his first and only World Cup tournament with the United States, an announcement that quickly caught many by surprise, Smith continued to remain with the national team for another year to then successfully guide it to a first-place finish at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup in which a hat-trick from the former in the finals saw the United States deliver a 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica, who beforehand had recorded an unexpected 3-0 victory over France in the semi-finals, thereby securing a second consecutive win in the FIFA Confederations Cup, with the United States itself becoming the first nation to win the tournament twice in a row, followed by Brazil afterward. In the end, amidst much speculation and expectation that he would retire from the United States national team, Smith announced his much-anticipated departure that would precede a subsequent move to England the following year. Since then, the somewhat abrupt nature of Smith's retirement from the national team, that is at the mere age of twenty-five, coupled with the fact that the national team itself would never go on to win another World Cup or reach the same heights as they previously did, has led many American sports commentators to describe it as a "watershed moment" for the United States national team who had effectively lost their star player right after a major and historic triumph. Evidently, former LA Galaxy and United States teammate Cobi Jones later remarked, "Without a doubt, he (Smith) was one of or if not the best soccer player I've ever played with in my entire life and it was truly a loss to see him go so soon especially when it became clear that we needed him so much later on". Since then, the United States has failed to progress beyond the round of 16 in subsequent editions during which they were twice eliminated in the group stages in 2006 and 2022.

For his success at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Smith, along with other players in the national team, were each awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a lavish state dinner by then-President George W. Bush although Smith himself later chose to personally return the award given to him following the controversial US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, reportedly as a sign of protest against the country's role in the invasion. Nonetheless, he would later be awarded the medal a second time in 2014, this time by then-President Barack Obama, shortly after his final World Cup triumph that year. In that same year, a bronze statue of Smith, known as the "Captain America Statue", was erected in his honour and currently stands in front of the United States Soccer Federation headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Moreover, American supporters and fans are known to have famously nicknamed Smith "Captain America" in recognition of his success with the national team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup coupled with his pre-eminent status in the American soccer scene as perhaps its most talented and most successful player ever with no other American soccer player in history capable of equalising the former in terms of success and recognition, a view shared by former soccer player Cobi Jones who remarked, "The truth is that there were eleven of us that won the World Cup that year but as it would happen only one will be remembered for generations to come by almost everyone around the world". In the meantime, his good looks, coupled with his rise to prominence in the early 2000s, also led some media outlets to nickname him "America's Beckham" in reference to English footballer David Beckham who was known both for his talents and striking looks.

Former USMNT manager Bruce Arena at the 2002 FIFA World Cup where he led the country to its first-ever World Cup title

In a 2015 interview with CNN, former United States head coach Bruce Arena revealed that shortly prior to Smith's departure for England, he, along with then-president of the United States Soccer Federation Robert Contiguglia painstakingly tried to convince the World Cup-winning striker to remain with the United States for the foreseeable future given the uncertainties around the national team's immediate feature but to no avail in an effort that reportedly included various financial bonuses as well as a luxurious set of accommodations reportedly ranging from a mansion in Los Angeles to a personal driver for Smith himself. Ultimately, Arena revealed that Smith "really wanted to leave and not because he didn't necessarily enjoy winning the World Cup for the United States but because he wanted to be closer to his father in the United Kingdom and that meant being part of the England team itself so that he doesn't have to needlessly travel back and forth for international training". On the other hand, during an interview with Sky Sports in 2018, Smith revealed that he "absolutely had no intention of staying with neither LA Galaxy nor with the United States forever", stating, "From the beginning, thanks to what I've learned about football from my father, I've always wanted to play for Manchester United, a club with so much history and a long list of silverware to speak of. To that end, when I first joined LA Galaxy, I knew from the start that I was not going to be there forever but eventually at Manchester United for which I sought to be the best I could playing football in a country where it's not even the national sport". Meanwhile, on his switch from the United States to England, Smith remarked, "When I would later win a World Cup, I want the person holding it with me in celebration to not be some random politician who I probably didn't even vote for but rather my one and very own father who was the primary reason as to why I even started playing football in the first place". Despite this, Smith has since spoke positively of his time with the United States, stating that the feat of winning a World Cup with an "underdog" country was an "undoubtedly memorable experience" and also one that he personally sees as "one of the biggest achievements in my entire life".

2002 Ballon d'Or eligibility controversy

"Regardless of where the player comes from or where he plays football, if he scored a hat-trick against Brazil in a World Cup final, he absolutely deserved the award (Ballon d'Or) without question."

Former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo on Smith winning the Ballon d'Or in 2002

Around November 2002, following his historic success with the United States national team at the World Cup tournament just several months prior, controversy ensued when Smith, who was then playing for a North American side, was reportedly nominated for the Ballon d'Or award that same year so as to honour his achievement of winning the United States' first-ever World Cup title. Almost immediately, given that the award itself normally featured players who were playing at top European clubs, Smith's nomination soon sparked a great debate among the award's organisers who were divided on whether to allow a player from the recently-established Major League Soccer to ever win the award in light of the league's relatively young age compared to its European counterparts. In response, supporters argued by pointing to Smith's remarkable performance with the United States which saw them even manage to defeat heavyweights Brazil 5-0 in the finals owing to a memorable hat-trick by Smith himself.

Eventually, amidst allegations that Smith, purely due to the nature of the league that he was playing in, was "robbed" of the award that he seemingly deserved, coupled with public support and threats of boycott from fellow nominees Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, with the former pledging to give the award to Smith should he win the award himself, France Football, which has presented the award since its inception in 1956, announced that players from Major League Soccer, provided that they are deemed "worthy enough" for the award, would be eligible to win the award if nominated. Subsequently, Smith later received the award as expected that year, making him the first and only American player to ever win the award. In response, both Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos expressed much support and positive sentiment towards Smith's win, with Ronaldo later stating in a 2015 interview with Sky Sports, "Regardless of where the player comes from or where he plays football, if he scored a hat-trick against Brazil in a World Cup final, he absolutely deserved the award (Ballon d'Or) without question".

England

"If I was going to win a World Cup, I want it to be with my own father who will celebrate with me on the stage when it's over and not with some random politician that I probably didn't even vote for."

Smith on his decision to switch his international allegiance from the United States to England

In 2004, just shortly after he had signed for Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson, Smith, who had publicly stated his intention of representing England, was officially declared an England player by FIFA, football's governing body. To that end, on 18 February 2004, amidst widespread enthusiasm and anticipation, Smith made his debut in a friendly match against Portugal that eventually ended in a 1-1 draw with the former unable to score a goal despite registering several attempts on target. However, around a month later, on March 31st, Smith scored his first few goals for England in a 2-1 win over Sweden who initially led their opponents by 1-0 via Zlatan Ibrahimović until a brace from Smith overturned the result in England's favour. Then, following a three-month-long break, Smith soon returned to England to compete in the UEFA Euro 2004, his first European tournament, in which he first scored a brace in the match against France in the group stages before following it up with two consecutive hat-tricks against Switzerland and Croatia respectively. Once more, in the round of 16 fixture against Portugal, Smith's late 116th-minute goal, which came around just a minute after an earlier goal by Frank Lampard, proved vital in breaking the 2-2 deadlock, thereby avoiding an ensuing penalty shootout while allowing England to progress to the quarter-finals to meet the Netherlands where they ultimately lost 2-3. However, despite this setback, when later asked by a BBC journalist over his immediate feelings, Smith famously replied, "It's alright, I'm just getting started", sparking much attention from the media who immediately noted his high levels of optimism in spite of his country's defeat.

The Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany, where England defeated Italy 5-2 to win their first World Cup title in forty years

Despite the Euros setback, in anticipation of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Smith, by now a guaranteed regular starter under manager Sven-Göran Eriksson who had also appointed him as the new England captain, quickly proved his worth via a series of goals scored in the qualifying campaign for the upcoming World Cup tournament where almost all of their opponents, save for Northern Ireland, to whom England narrowly lost 0-1, were defeated each time by comfortable margins. Similarly, in the following group stage matches on June 2006, England, grouped alongside Paraguay, West Indies, and Sweden, easily managed their qualification to the knockout stages with victories against both Paraguay and West Indies while a fixture with Sweden ended in a 2-2 draw in which Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard provided the two England goals. Then, in the following round of 16, England comfortably managed a resounding 4-0 victory over Ecuador, with Smith himself providing his first hat-trick for the national team in the match. However, a 0-0 draw with Portugal in the following quarter-final match almost saw England's journey at the tournament cut short before a remarkable performance by goalkeeper Paul Robinson during the subsequent penalty shootouts saw England progress to the semi-finals with a final 4-2 win over their opponents. Following this, Smith went on to provide two decisive goals in the semi-final match against France before later adding two goals of his own to complete a 5-2 rout of Italy in the finals, thereby securing England their first World Cup title in decades while also ending a forty-year-long trophy drought since their first World Cup triumph in 1966. Moreover, Smith also personally gained fame for being the first player to win a World Cup for two different countries as well as the second to win two consecutive World Cup trophies after former Brazilian footballer Pelé.

The Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna, Austria, where England defeated Germany 4-2 to win their first-ever European title in just two years after their first World Cup title in forty years

In 2008, just two years after their historic World Cup triumph, England, now led by none other than Smith himself as captain and Sven-Göran Eriksson as manager, saw further success in the UEFA Euro 2008 where after being initially grouped alongside the likes of Spain, Sweden, and Greece, England, thanks to a resouding 5-3 victory over Spain, a similarly huge 4-1 victory over Greece, and a narrow 1-0 win over Sweden, easily progressed to the following knockout stage, where in the following quarter-final match, thanks to a hat-trick by Smith, England comfortably defeated their Dutch opponents 5-3 to meet Spain once more in the semi-finals who they then defeated 5-2 with Smith himself contributing a vital hat-trick to break the 2-2 deadlock. Eventually, in the final match, Germany, despite initially leading by 2-0 through goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger and Christoph Metzelder, were ultimately defeated by a dramatic comeback from England in the second half in which Smith's hat-trick, along with an additional goal by midfielder James Milner allowed England to overcome their two-goal deficit and ultimately win the tournament outright 4-2, and therefore, the country's first-ever Euros title, a milestone that was then popularly compared to England's inaugural World Cup glory where they defeated West Germany 4-2 to win their first World Cup title. The following year, as team captain, Smith guided England to a second-place finish at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa where following a 6-4 victory over Germany in the semi-finals, a 1-3 defeat to Brazil in the finals forced England to settle for a second-place finish instead.

England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard whose infamous "ghost goal" in the round of 16 against Germany was erroneously denied by the referee amidst claims pointing to the contrary. England later went on to win the match 7-6 on penalties following a 4-4 draw courtesy of a hat-trick from Smith

Two years later, coming off their recent World Cup and UEFA European Championship triumphs, and despite some challenge in the group stages against the likes of the United States, Algeria, and Slovenia, England proved quick to secure qualification to the knockout stages, winning against all except the United States where the two sides drew 1-1 in what was a reunion between Smith and former compatriot Landon Donovan but on opposite teams. In the following round of 16 fixture against Germany, which notably saw Frank Lampard's infamous "ghost goal" controversially disallowed by the referee, Smith established himself as one of the tournament's most memorable players when he later scored a decisive hat-trick in the 87th minute that effectively nullified the initial 4-1 lead the Germans had previously enjoyed to then bring the match to a penalty shootout which England ultimately won 7-6 in what was later popularly referred to as the "Bloemfontein Miracle" in reference to the city that the match had taken place. A subsequent brace from Smith soon added to a resounding 4-0 victory that knocked out Argentina in the quarter-finals which he then followed up on with a crucial assist in the semi-finals where England defeated Spain 2-0 to advance to the finals for the second consecutive time where Smith went on to score yet another brace to mark England's dominant 5-0 win over the Netherlands. Consequently, along with Brazil and Italy, England became just one of three nations to have ever won two World Cups in a row. Meanwhile, in the following year, Smith also captained England to a third-place finish at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, where a narrow 1-2 loss to Mexico in the semi-finals saw England successfully rebound to then deal Uruguay a heavy 4-0 defeat in the third-place playoffs, thereby securing a third-place finish in the tournament.

The Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which saw England defeat Argentina 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in what was famously called the "Falklands derby" in reference to the Falklands War conflict between the two countries that lasted from 1982 to 1984

Following their success in the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament, England, which Smith would come to captain for one final time, further qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. For the tournament, England found itself grouped with the likes of Italy, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Subsequently, despite a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica, victories against Italy and Uruguay saw them progress easily to the knockout stages with their first opponent being Colombia in the round of 16 who they dramatically defeated 7-6 on penalties following a 2-2 draw. Following this, England then faced hosts Brazil in the quarter-finals where they proceeded to deal a crushing 5-1 victory with Smith's 88th-minute hat-trick in the match quickly evoking comparisons with his infamous hat-trick against the South American country just a decade earlier at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. For the ensuing semi-finals fixture against Germany, the two sides initially found themselves tied 1-1 after an early Wayne Rooney goal was then equalised by a second-half goal from Miroslav Klose afterward until a 65th-minute goal from Smith proved to be the essential tiebreaker, thereby allowing them to progress to the finals for a third consecutive time to face Argentina where following a 53rd-minute goal from Smith and a 79th-minute counter-goal from Enzo Pérez the two sides subsequently faced one another in a penalty shootout that England ultimately won it 4-2 to secure a record-breaking third consecutive World Cup title in what was almost an exact mirror of Argentina's 4-3 win over England on penalties in the 1998 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals for which their third title triumph was considered by fans to be the perfect revenge against their infamous rivals.

Shortly afterward, Smith announced his retirement from international football while also clarifying that although he would continue to play at the club level for a few more years he would otherwise not seek to participate in the upcoming UEFA Euro 2016 with the World Cup that year itself being his last ever for England and which he had personally intended to be his "last hurrah". In his absence, England were later defeated 0-1 by hosts France in the quarter-finals after having previously annihilated Iceland 5-0 in the round of 16 thereby resulting in the resignation of longtime head coach Sven-Göran Eriksson shortly afterward following an almost fifteen-years-long tenure, the longest and also the most successful of any England managers since the late Sir Alf Ramsey. Regardless, his unprecedented success with the national team cemented the Swedish-born manager as one of England's best head coaches of all time with supporters affectionately referring to him as "King Eric".

With a total of 68 goals scored during his time with the United States in 64 appearances, Smith is the country's all-time goalscorer. Meanwhile, his 160 goals also make him England's all-time goalscorer as well as its sixth-most-capped player with 124 appearances. In this, he once held the special distinction of being the all-time goalscorer for two football confederations, namely UEFA with England and CONCACAF with the United States until Stern John, who represented the West Indies, surpassed him in the latter with 70 goals to become CONCACAF's all-time goalscorer. Regardless, Smith is still the all-time goalscorer for UEFA with 160 goals scored.

Great Britain national football team

Former English player and manager Stuart Pearce, who managed the Great Britain's football team at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Following the United Kingdom's successful bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, which would take place in the capital city of London, in the months leading up to the event, Smith, owing to his largely successful track record with England, was quickly touted as a likely candidate for selection to the Great Britain men's Olympic football team. However, on December 2011, in light of the impending UEFA Euro 2012 tournament that same year, it was announced by The Football Association that none of the players chosen for the England squad for the tournament would be chosen for Great Britain as well in order to reduce potential player fatigue caused by the relatively short twenty-day gap between the end of the Euro 2012 tournament and the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Consequently, the potential omission of Smith from the final Great Britain lineup proved to be a source of great controversy with pundit Gary Lineker bemoaning the "missed opportunity for Britain to display perhaps their greatest footballer ever not just at the World Cup but also at the Olympics, an international event that is of much similar prestige and visibility". Despite this, some otherwise defended the decision to omit Smith from the Olympics, citing the obvious issue of player fatigue and fixture congestion, with then-Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt stating, "As delightful it would have been for Mr. Smith to represent Great Britain at the Olympics, we cannot absolutely forget that he also has his own duties for England in the World Cup and Euros, ones that are perhaps more important by comparison". However, Stuart Pearce, the head coach appointed to manage Great Britain at the ensuing Olympics, said that Smith's inclusion, in spite of the risks and worries, "remains a possibility", adding, "Clearly, even getting a player onboard, especially one like Smith, is not an easy task with many factors at hand to consider. Ultimately, the final decision will be made after a few rounds of quick and productive talks that will help clarify the situation and put it to rest for good".

Eventually, during a February 2012 interview with Sky Sports, Smith revealed that he had been officially chosen for and is expected to captain the Great Britain national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, stating, "Without a doubt, there's the real issue of player fatigue and all that but for me, I have yet to personally experience that fatigue myself, meaning that even if it takes place just twenty days after another major tournament, I'll be ready to show the world a familiar face and the style of football that everyone has come to know and love me for". On 26 July 2012, Smith soon made his debut for Great Britain in a group stage match against Senegal at Old Trafford which ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw following a late 82nd-minute equaliser by Moussa Konaté. Nonetheless, in the following group stage match against the United Arab Emirates at Wembley Stadium, Smith went on to score his first and only hat-trick for Great Britain to seal a commanding 6-1 victory over the Emiratis before proceeding to score a brace in the third and final group stage fixture against Uruguay at the Millennium Stadium which saw the match end in a 3-0 win for Great Britain. Then, in the ensuing quarter-final match against Korea, Smith scored a decisive 46th-minute tiebreaking goal shortly into the second half, allowing Great Britain to reach the semi-finals via a narrow 2-1 win in which Smith, together with Neil Taylor and Ryan Bertrand, helped deliver a crushing 5-0 win over Brazil, thus qualifying them further to the finals where they proceeded to defeat Mexico 2-0 to win the tournament outright with Smith personally adding a 40th-minute goal onto a previous 32nd-minute goal by teammate Aaron Ramsey to deliver Great Britain's 2-0 victory in the finals.

In the end, with a total of nine goals scored, Smith finished as the tournament's top scorer while his performance, described by the BBC as "classy and brilliant as always", was mostly met with a positive reception by many with Gary Lineker jokingly calling Smith "Great Britain's ultimate cheat code at the Olympics" while The Guardian hailed him as the 2012 Summer Olympics' "grand performer". Meanwhile, on his part, Smith remarked, "Some will say I should've done it and some will say I shouldn't have done it but at the end of the day I gave the fans what they wanted and frankly speaking I feel great!".

Post-Retirement

"Wembley Renaissance"

Owing to England's continued and sustained success in both men's and women's international football in the years since his retirement, some pundits have taken to credit Smith for having kickstarted the so-called "Wembley Renaissance" which refers to the perceived revival of England's sporting fortunes after several decades of underperformance following their maiden World Cup win in 1966. Evidently, following Smith's retirement, the England men's team went on to win the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, UEFA Euro 2020, and the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League whereas the England women's team won the 2015, 2019 and 2023 FIFA Women's World Cups, as well as the 2017 and 2022 UEFA Women's Championships.

Consequently, several pundits and media outlets have begun referring to the current period of apparent English football dominance as "Pax Anglicus". Likewise, football pundit Gary Lineker, shortly after the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup ended in a historic third consecutive victory for England, said, "By all means, what we're all seeing here is something that is just absolutely unprecedented in that for almost a decade long and counting, a single nation seemingly dominates a global sport, winning titles here and there in both the men's and women's department. For better or worse, this does not seem to be stopping anytime soon and it's quite a puzzle to see how other countries could stop this unprecedented period of dominance by any possible means". Meanwhile, in reference to the "Pax Anglicus" term, The Guardian summarised, "If English football right now is an empire, then Sir William Smith would be its Caesar".

Meanwhile, when asked about his perceived role in the phenomenon, Smith remarked, "Undoubtedly, it's quite an honour to think that I'm personally responsible for reviving the sporting fortunes of a single country. Ultimately, this whole thing is a giant and united collective effort because, in the end, I did not win four World Cups all by myself but with a manager and ten other players who were on the pitch with me each time". In addition, he also said, "Ultimately, regardless of whether I or anyone else had started it in the first place, it is eventually the responsibility of those who came after us as in those of the current generation and beyond to maintain and protect what those before them worked extremely hard to build because otherwise there's no point in us kickstarting something if our successors aren't going to treasure it and keep it going for much longer". Nonetheless, Geoff Hurst, the last surviving member of the victorious 1966 FIFA World Cup team, hailed Smith as a "revolutionary", stating, "Where we won the country's first-ever World Cup but otherwise failed to have those immediately after us replicate that success, he (Smith) also won the World Cup but most importantly managed to keep the winning streak going for over a decade and counting which is something that England has never seen before".

Ultra Ballon d'Or

On 11 May 2019, in honour of his 40th birthday, France Football, in recognition of his "outstanding and one-of-a-kind achievement in football", exclusively awarded Smith the Ultra Ballon d'Or, a one-off prize considered to be more prestigious than the standard Ballon d'Or (of which he currently has eleven in total) and even the equally rare Super Ballon d'Or awarded to Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano who was notably crucial in establishing the club's dominance both domestically and abroad throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Featuring a gold-laden ball on top of a gold-laden vase with four outstretched "arms" covering the ball and which symbolically represents Smith's four record-breaking World Cup trophies, the award has since been in his private possession along with his other footballing honours, reportedly in a locked room inside Buckingham Palace for which an exclusive key possessed only by Smith himself is needed to enter.

Around September 2021, several media outlets reported that Smith had personally acquired the prestigious Super Ballon d'Or formerly belonging to Alfredo Di Stefano whose children opted to sell the late Argentine footballer's memorabilia with the Super Ballon d'Or, among other things, ended up being bought by an anonymous buyer during an auction event. In response, while neither confirming nor denying his rumoured ownership of the award, Smith remarked, "Wherever it is now, I dare say that an award of such incomparable prestige and status is currently in the hands of someone who deserves it the most among many others". On the other hand, one of Di Stefano's children, in an interview with Marca, appeared to subtly suggest that Smith is indeed in possession of the award, stating, "Of course, out of principle, I won't say who actually bought it but the person who did was very special and who, by all means, really deserves to own it now".

Football Honours

In the aftermath of his retirement from football, The Football Association announced that the FA Community Shield, beginning from the 2020 edition, would instead feature Smith's own name on the trophy similar to that of the Johan Cruyff Shield in the Netherlands. To that end, the first edition since the rebranding was contested between Arsenal and Liverpool with the former ultimately winning it 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw. Meanwhile, on 30 August 2020, in commemorating the tenth anniversary of his first match for Atlético Madrid, the club further named him "Life President" with club president Enrique Cerezo stating, "For much of its existence, none other than William Smith have proven to be an unquestionably consequential and important player in delivering some of the club's greatest successes for which it is only right that he should be honoured with an extremely rare appointment of the kind". The occasion, held remotely via Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions, saw the attendance of the club's president and chief executive officer Enrique Cerezo and Miguel Ángel Gil Marín as well as current and several former Atlético Madrid players with Smith himself being the event's guest of honour.

In May 2019, in honour of his 40th birthday, Smith was made an honorary field marshal in the United Kingdom's British Army. The gesture, a first for a former athlete, was reportedly done in reference to his most popular nickname of "The General" among football fans and supporters who began using the nickname in reference to Smith's exemplary leadership as captain for both club and country particularly in reference to his commanding presence and ability to inspire a team under any circumstances. Then, amidst debates over the merit of an ultimately honorary appointment, British Army's Chief of the General Staff General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith defended the honorary promotion, stating, "Ultimately, as everyone knows, it is nothing more than an honorary appointment rather than an actual one which means the British Army will continue to operate as it has been even if a former athlete was made a field marshal or the sort. However, in light of his absolutely outstanding achievements, it is not exactly wrong to say that even for an honorary promotion, such recognition is arguably warranted especially for someone who is rightfully known as 'The General'". Meanwhile, upon entirely retiring from professional football, in honour of his contribution to Spanish football, King Felipe VI made Smith an honorary captain general of the Spanish Army.

In 2021, along with longtime rival Thierry Henry and the Premier League's all-time goalscorer Alan Shearer, Smith was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame, with The Football Association chairman Peter McCormick lauding Smith as the "greatest player in Premier League history with an incomparable goalscoring prowess and an unmatched all-around talent". Similarly, La Liga president Javier Tebas hailed Smith as a "revolutionary player who effectively changed the landscape of La Liga" while United States Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone described Smith as "the greatest player to have ever come from Major League Soccer", adding, "Undoubtedly, all Major League Soccer players, new or old, will be holding themselves to the highest standard in none other than William Smith himself". In this, owing to his American background, ESPN once wrote, "In the United States, where basketball and American football each has its icons in Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, soccer has William Smith as its very own face and icon".

In the years immediately following his retirement, some sectors of football fans began petitioning The Football Association to rename the iconic Wembley Stadium to the "Sir William Smith Stadium" in honour of the former footballer's "immense" and "invaluable" contribution to English football. Although never officially implemented, the suggestion was met with considerable media scrutiny and attention even from Smith himself. During an ensuing interview with BBC Sport, while expressing his "gratefulness" at potentially having the iconic stadium named after him, Smith asserted that it would be better to honour those who came before him, namely members of the victorious 1966 England squad who won the country's first-ever World Cup title. Nonetheless, when asked about his idea of an alternative name for Wembley Stadium, Smith suggested "The Den" in a deliberate reference to the fact that England's national animal is the lion and therefore its home stadium should be renamed after the traditional home for lions. However, the suggestion was dismissed by some as "too gimmicky" and the stadium's name currently remains unchanged.

Business Interests

Since his retirement from professional football, with the main stated aim of achieving financial stability post-retirement while also building up his own wealth independent from that of his father's, Smith has embarked on a multitude of business ventures himself, signing various lucrative sponsorship deals with companies including Armani, Mercedes-Benz, and Louis Vuitton. In addition, he is also the founder of his own "exquisite" wine brand named "The King's Drink" which he first launched in July 2021 in honour of England's victory in the UEFA Euro 2020 at Wembley Stadium, London.

In addition to his various sponsorship deals, Smith has since also acquired a stake as a minority shareholder in several sports clubs including his former football club, the La Liga side Atlético Madrid, as well as others including Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC, National Football League's San Francisco 49ers, National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers, and National Women's Soccer League's Angel City FC, all of which are based in California, Smith's home state.

Honorary Advisor & The FA President

Shortly after his retirement, given his overall success and recognition in the sport, Smith was initially considered for the position of an "honorary advisor" to the British government, specifically in matters relating exclusively to sports. However, out of an apparent desire to distance himself from football for some time, such an appointment was rejected by Smith. However, in 2018, it was then announced that Smith had accepted the position of an honorary advisor to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which has been held by Chloe Smith since 2016. In that same year, Smith was also appointed as the new president of The Football Association, replacing his uncle Prince Nelson in that position.

As an honorary advisor to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Smith has largely taken to advise the government on issues concerning sports, primarily football, a sport that he himself is personally connected to. Regarding this, Smith has been a vocal figure for further expansion of access to the sport for both genders, male and female, stating, "As we've come to see in recent years, it's been well proven that both our men's and women's national teams are of winning quality and with the right manager and players can win whatever tournament they seek to. To only prioritise one over the other on the basis of rather dubious or questionable reasons is just criminal and it would be more or less like cutting one's hand off while leaving the other intact which makes absolutely no sense at all and is ultimately self-defeating". Following England Women's back-to-back victory at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, Smith announced the start of a nationwide initiative called "One England" with the primary aims of "ensuring access to football for over 50% and onwards of English boys and girls", "develop productive academy systems for future prospects of both genders", and "achieving as well as maintaining both continental and global success in both men's and women's football". Speaking during the launch of the initiative at the St George's Park, Smith remarked, "From this point onwards, as it should have been, England will strive to and look to ensure its inevitable dominance in football, be it men's or women's, for the sport is now not only played by one group of people but ultimately by all where in the immediate feature England will be the undisputed masters be it in the men's youth and seniors as well as the women's youth and seniors and essentially all there is to take".

In his capacity as The Football Association president, Smith is known to be a somewhat vocal figure on a number of issues including equal pay and player fatigue, having occasionally proposed several measures and initiatives meant to address both issues respectively. In this regard, Smith has also come to be known for his somewhat confrontational approach with the international governing body of FIFA, who he has at times vocally criticised, especially those relating to the controversial hosting rights awarded to Russia and Qatar for the World Cup as well as the organisation's decision to expand the size of major international tournaments including the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup which he argued was placing more physical strain on players, especially those who have already played a considerable number of matches at club level. During a 2023 interview with Sky Sports, Smith remarked, "The clear and unmistakable problem with these bloated and glorified expansions is that to some extent these decisions felt like it was about making more money for the executives at the top than it is to rather meaningfully better the game of football itself which is undoubtedly upheld by the tens of players around the world who will now surely be looking at playing a much larger number of physically demanding games or being temporarily excluded from some so as to prevent them from essentially getting hurt from doing too much work than what the human body can take".

In recent years, Smith has also been a vocal figure against what he deemed to be the "oilification" of the Premier League, pointing to the state ownerships of football clubs Manchester City and Newcastle United by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia respectively in which both countries are similarly authoritarian states in the Middle East. In addition, Smith has also spoken against the trend of famous European football stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, N'Golo Kanté, Karim Benzema, and Neymar to the Saudi Pro League. Describing the trend as "Chinese Super League 2.0", Smith remarked, "Not too long ago, we saw a particular country trying to jump-start their footballing industry by bringing in big European names often with huge salaries and whatnot. Now, it's clear that such a trend has emerged once again, and unless a sudden miracle arises, it's safe to say that this one will perhaps meet the same impending demise as its predecessor had". In this, Smith has also occasionally criticised the move of perceived young talents to Saudi football including Celta Vigo's Gabri Veiga in which the former echoed German footballer Toni Kroos calling Veiga's move to Saudi club Al-Ahli "embarrassing", stating, "At just twenty-one and even being apparently in the radar of some of Europe's biggest clubs, to even move to some unknown club in a subpar league is just baffling and dare I say idiotic. At around that age, I was already looking to move to Manchester United, my childhood club, and not to some unknown club in China or in this case Saudi Arabia". Afterward, beginning from around late 2023, amidst reports of players including Jordan Henderson and Karim Benzema looking to leave the Saudi Pro League, Smith slyly remarked, "Quite a surprise that after just a year or so, some of these very generous and charitable football stars are looking to leave already. Logically speaking, how are they going to help grow the very terrific Saudi football within just year or so? As everyone knows, Rome was not built in a day". Subsequently, after spending several months in Saudi Arabia, Jordan Henderson did indeed returned to Europe in the form of a transfer to the Eredivisie club Ajax.

European Super League

Around April 2021, shortly after it was announced that several of Europe's biggest football clubs, namely the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus, have agreed to form a new breakaway tournament officially known as the European Super League, Smith was among the project's most vocal critics, calling it "absolutely ridiculous" and a "major existential crisis for European football". In this, Smith cited the lack of a promotion and relegation system as well as the tournament's extremely closed nature which he described as an "antithesis to the spirit of competition that is well established in European football history". To that end, as head coach of Tottenham Hotspur, Smith was among the first few high-profile figures calling for the clubs involved to withdraw from the project which Tottenham Hotspur later did amidst overwhelming backlash from both fans and players.

However, around December 2023, when a revamped and updated version of the project was published, Smith adopted a more neutral and conciliatory tone in his review of the proposed tournament. Noting the inclusion of an actual promotion and relegation system in which clubs could be promoted or relegated between the tournament's three tiers, Smith argued that one of the project's main criticisms had been "substantially addressed and dealt with" while also pointing to the possibility of watching the tournament's matches live for free as an "overall net positive", stating, "Back then, one of the major things that many people, including myself, loved saying is that the ESL is a project by and for the small elite. With that in mind, the fact that one could watch any of the matches live and free of charge certainly goes against such a narrative and is perhaps the biggest form of concession that will well and truly benefit fans of any football club, big or small". In this, Smith likened it to the similarly free option of watching matches involving the FIFA World Cup, stating, "Undoubtedly, FIFA is a corrupt and shady organisation with its own dubious set of agenda but one of the few rare things that they have done right is allowing people from almost all over the world to easily watch their matches as long as they simply have a basic device and a good internet connection".

Meanwhile, in response to accusations of "hypocrisy" and of having "sold out" by the European Super League's most ardent and unwavering critics, Smith pointed to the manner in which the Premier League, England's premier football competition, was itself founded in which clubs of the longstanding First Division broke off from the established English Football League to form the modern-day Premier League. Describing supporters of the league who otherwise oppose the European Super League despite the apparent similarities in their respective foundations as "the real hypocrites", Smith said, "Just over three decades ago, a number of clubs which traditionally competed in a very established and well-known football league decided to break off and form a new one of their own. By the looks of it, the European Super League is to be founded in almost the exact same way as the Premier League yet one is seemingly seen as a great evil by many while the other is rightfully regarded by many as the best football league in the world". Nonetheless, Smith conceded that football clubs, in their choice of rejoining the European Super League, should "strongly consider the voices and opinions of fans and supporters", stating, "In the end, these are the people who fill up stadiums and ensure that players are getting paid. Thus, any decision taken must, in some way, be in conjunction with the aspirations and wishes of the fans who perhaps should be convinced further of the project's merits in a more effective and persuasive manner".

Politics & Social Causes

Ivan Toney, who currently plays as a forward for Premier League club Brentford. From May 2023 to January 2024, he was officially banned from football for a series of betting offences

A vocal environmentalist, Smith has been an advocate of a "green market economy", supporting "eco-friendly" alternatives such as nuclear energy as well as electronic vehicles (EVs), the latter for which he has also advocated for mass commercialisation so as to lessen its traditionally expensive and luxurious status and therefore make it generally affordable for many, stating, "Just as how there are luxurious cars as well as the standard affordable ones running on gasoline, electric cars should also be the same way and not a strictly luxurious commodity for the ultra-rich but rather for all who will stand to benefit much in the future from acquiring it". In the meantime, Smith has also vocally expressed support for "cheap but effective" public transport as well as being in favour of nuclear energy, stating in a 2019 interview, "By pure logic, it is a bit weird that the United Kingdom, one of the world's major nuclear powers, is not seemingly exploiting its status for non-military purposes. After all, nuclear energy is obviously not just for bombing cities but to also power them more effectively than traditional energy sources". Since 2014, Smith has been a registered party member of the Liberal Democrats and has also actively supported the ultimately successful Remain campaign in favour of the United Kingdom remaining within the European Union. Regardless, in spite of his party affiliation, Smith is said to be "close friends" with former Conservative prime minister David Cameron whom he once referred to as "a close friend of mine named David but not the one who plays football".

Around May 2023, in response to a temporary ban imposed on English footballer and Brentford forward Ivan Toney by authorities on several counts of rule-breaking betting, Smith has vocally advocated for a "complete purge" of gambling-related entities from football, particularly Sky Bet which has been the main sponsor for the EFL Championship, stating, "Admittedly, the Championship might not be as prestigious as the Premier League but that's not exactly and should not be the sole reason as to why a different company not related to gambling at all should not be chosen as the new sponsor". Pointing to the sponsorship of the Ligue 2 and Serie B leagues by Indian tyre company Balkrishna Industries, Smith has at times called for a "British non-gambling alternative" to be considered as the new sponsor and successor to Sky Bet. Later, Smith would again call for the "complete eradication of the disease of gambling from football" after Italian footballer Sandro Tonali, who plays as a midfielder for Newcastle United, was also banned from footballing activities over gambling offences.

Amidst controversy over a ten-point deduction imposed on Everton for financial fair play breaches, coupled with a subsequent date being announced for the Premier League's decision on Manchester City concerning the club's allegations of long-running financial fair play breaches, Smith, a vocal critic of the Emirati government, themselves the owners of Manchester City, and the English football club itself as a former Manchester United player, claimed that he will "fight like hell to ensure that they get an equal, if not a more severe punishment than what Everton got for stuff that, by all means, pale in comparison to those committed by Manchester City", adding, "I'm fully aware of the politics and the money that goes behind it all but that's never an indication for me to not say it as it is and call out these scheming, backwards people for who they are as fraudsters of the beautiful game". In this, Smith called for the titles won by Manchester City beginning from the first alleged instances until the present day to be stripped and awarded to the runners-ups for league titles and the losing finalists for cup titles, stating that they were "robbed of a fair fight from the very beginning". In addition, citing a previous punishment imposed on Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, Smith also called for a season-long transfer ban in addition to "severe but proportional" point deduction. In response, some supporters of Manchester City have dismissed Smith's remarks as expected instances of a passionate club rivalry while others perceived it as being part of Smith's vocal public crusade against state-owned football clubs, namely Manchester City, Newcastle United, and Paris Saint-Germain, all three of which are owned by Middle Eastern countries. Meanwhile, the club's owners, namely the Emirati government, did not respond directly to Smith's criticism although one representative of theirs expressed his "genuine shock" at Smith's "incessant and obsessive targeting of the United Arab Emirates and its people", adding that the latter's remarks allegedly constituted "blatant anti-Arab racism and overt xenophobia". On the other hand, head coach Pep Guardiola said that Smith, being the new head coach of Atlético Madrid, should "stick to football and not politics", stating, "With all due respect, he's a footballer and a manager, not a politician or a prime minister". Regardless, when asked himself, Smith remarked, "They can hide all they want behind conveniently being a racial minority and seemingly oppressed people but they know who they are and I don't really care if I lose fans who turn out to be authoritarian bootlickers".

During a 2023 interview with Sky Sports, citing ex-England teammate David Beckham's controversial ambassadorship role for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Smith declared that he would not take up such a role for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, United States, and Mexico should the United States re-elect controversial Republican politician Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, stating, "While I'm well aware of the stature and prestige I hold among American soccer fans I could never truly bring myself to participate as an ambassador or the like if the country I was to promote has an extremist leader like Donald Trump or any of his far-right mates in power". Otherwise, Smith, a supporter of the Democratic Party and to an extent, incumbent President Joe Biden, has pledged that he will "do his best" should Biden be re-elected for a second term, stating, "It's been a while since I've been away from the American soccer scene and I think the World Cup in 2026 is a good time for me to finally come back after almost thirteen years long".

Around August 2023, amidst rumours that Smith's former club Manchester United was potentially seeking to reintroduce suspended academy graduate Mason Greenwood back into the first team after an almost year-long absence caused by his arrest over charges of rape and assault (which were later dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service), Smith, along with a host of other influential figures, vocally opposed the club's decision with the former Manchester United forward calling it "the new biggest mistake from the wretched Glazers since the European Super League". In addition, during an interview with Sky Sports that same month, Smith publicly expressed his opposition towards Greenwood's return, stating, "Under no circumstances shall I ever see a damn rapist at my beloved football club". Moreover, the former Manchester United captain also threatened to hand over his season ticket back in protest over the move although this was never ultimately carried out when the club announced that Greenwood would be loaned to minor La Liga side Getafe for the ensuing 2023-24 season before eventually returning to his parent club at the end of his loan.

Owing to his Jewish roots through his father, Smith has vocally spoken out against anti-Semitism, calling it "one of the great terrible diseases in existence". In this, regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, Smith has occasionally expressed support for the Jewish citizens involved in the conflict while also urging both sides to adhere to the two-state solution. Speaking during the funeral of former Israeli statesman Shimon Peres, Smith remarked, "There is no doubt among many that the only end goal of this conflict is for both countries to co-exist in peace and with mutually accepted borders. To say otherwise is to only invite much further harm and trouble that will only persist to no end". On 7 October 2023, shortly after an attack carried out by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that killed more than three hundred Israelis celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Smith publicly condemned the incident and the perpetrators responsible whom he likened to the Black September militants that killed several Israeli athletes during the infamous Munich massacre in September 1972. Afterward, Smith also criticised Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu for the latter's "complete failure in dealing with an immediate threat" as well as his "hawkish and anti-treaty rhetoric". In this, amidst controversy among football circles over some players' vocal stance on the conflict, Smith reiterated his own position on the issue, stating, "As I have always said before, in the end, a long-lasting two-state solution is the only feasible and practical solution but only doable with the absence of aggressive and militant leaders at the negotiating table". Meanwhile, amidst a surge of pro-Palestinian protests across the United Kingdom, Smith remarked, "Morally, it is right for someone to express support for a nation deemed to be at a disadvantage and somewhat under siege by its close neighbour but such gesture should not necessarily translate into support for a violent militant group that had just massacred over hundreds of civilians with absolutely no legal or moral justification and who are absolutely no different than the ones who decided to massacre unarmed athletes competing in an international tournament hundreds of miles away".

US Soccer Reforms

Owing to his history of being a former United States international and whose footballing career initially started in the United States with Major League Soccer's LA Galaxy, Smith has been a vocal figure for reforms concerning the country's soccer scene, stating, "As much as I'm an Englishman now, I'll never forget my American roots especially when it comes to football because I started my career not in the Premier League but in Major League Soccer, something that I hope young Americans playing soccer today could one day emulate in their own way". Incidentally, a number of professional footballers from Major League Soccer or are of American nationality have since gone on to either the Premier League or other major European football leagues including Nottingham Forest players Matt Turner and Giovanni Reyna, AC Milan attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic, Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams, and Juventus players Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah, the latter being the son of the Liberian politician, former President of Liberia, and former professional footballer George Weah who is considered to be one of the greatest African players of all time.

Domestically, Smith has argued for either a phasing out or a complete abolition of Major League Soccer's longstanding draft system with its preferred substitute being the academy system seen in most European football leagues. In a 2019 interview with ESPN, he said, "Personally, I was rather fortunate to have been chosen for LA Galaxy because that's the team I wanted to actually play for but at the same time, in an alternate scenario, I could have been chosen for some other team and legally I cannot do anything to change that unless the club I wanted is willing to trade a player for me instead". Moreover, Smith has also criticised the draft system's concentration on college players, stating, "As someone who has spent at least a decade abroad playing for some of the biggest European clubs, I can safely say that most of the players that one would call greats of the game didn't even go to college. With that in mind, back in the United States, it is safe to say that these players wouldn't have even touched the ball for a minute given the circumstances".

Meanwhile, on the international side, Smith has also particularly advocated for a change in confederation for the United States, currently a member of CONCACAF alongside the likes of Canada, Mexico, and smaller Caribbean nations. Citing the perceived "uncompetitive" nature of the confederation, Smith has called for the United States to either switch to CONMEBOL where it would face the likes of footballing powerhouses Argentina and Brazil or UEFA where they would otherwise face several World Cup champions including the likes of England, France, Germany, and Italy which Smith argued would serve as better opposition for the United States especially in anticipation of future World Cup tournaments. In this, Smith has also criticised the apparent elitism present in the American soccer scene, citing the incident between former United States internationals Claudio Reyna and Gregg Berhalter, the latter currently serving as head coach of the United States men's national team, over playing time and treatment towards the former's son and current Borussia Dortmund midfielder Giovanni Reyna, stating, "People used to believe and sometimes joke about how these things usually happen during soccer practices involving children and teenagers but now it's just rather shameful and embarrassing to see that this disease of sports elitism has directly made its way into the country's very own national team". Then, he also added, "Quite ironically, my own father was the literal king of a country and yet he never really interfered or tried to stick his nose into things that he shouldn't like my football career even if I'm his own son who could have pretty much got anything I wanted simply due to who my father was".

Managerial Career

Tottenham Hotspur

The Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal, where Tottenham Hotspur won its first-ever UEFA Champions League title following a 2-1 win over Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich in a match played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic

A self-professed "champion of the underdogs", following his retirement, Smith had initially voiced interest in coaching perceived "underdog" clubs such as the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Soon enough, the firing of Tottenham Hotspur's Mauricio Pochettino amidst a poor start to the 2019-20 season on November 19th provided the much-awaited opportunity with Smith himself being quick to apply for the now vacant position of club manager which he was subsequently granted the following day by club chairman Daniel Levy with the promise of establishing a "beautiful and deadly attacking style of play" and "achieving the impossible". Following this, Smith's first match in charge came to be an away fixture against West Ham United on November 23rd that ended in a 3-2 win for Tottenham Hotspur which was then followed just a week later with a similar 3-2 win over Bournemouth and a 2-1 win on December 4th at Old Trafford with Smith emerging triumphant against his former club Manchester United. Then, after a dominant 5-0 win over Burnley on December 7th, Smith also secured a victory against another major club in Chelsea, who the club defeated 1-0 via a 37th-minute goal from Christian Eriksen. Following this, wins against Brighton & Hove Albion and Norwich City, the latter particularly falling to a Harry Kane hat-trick, saw him manage to make it eight matches unbeaten by the end of the year in stark contrast to the club's otherwise poor start to the season beforehand. Then, following an unexpected 0-0 draw against Southampton on January 1st, Smith was dealt his first defeat just ten days later in a 0-1 loss to Liverpool although this was promptly compensated for with a dramatic 2-1 win over Watford in which a 94th-minute goal from Christian Eriksen in extra time saw Spurs successfully come back from defeat after a Harry Kane equaliser. Following this, a sixteen-match unbeaten streak which included a 1-1 draw against Chelsea on February 22nd, coupled with dominant 3-0 wins over Manchester United and Leicester City and a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace in the final day saw Tottenham Hotspur achieve a remarkable second-place finish with 87 points ahead of Manchester City in third and behind Liverpool in first.

Meanwhile, a 1-4 loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup and a narrow 2-3 defeat on aggregate to Manchester City in the EFL Cup saw Smith unable to win either domestic cup in his maiden season with the club. Regardless, after beginning his first European campaign as head coach with a narrow 3-2 win over RB Leipzig, Smith then faced his former mentor Diego Simeone whom he went on to defeat 3-2 in extra time before proceeding to remarkably defeat a star-studded Paris Saint-Germain via a lone goal from Son Heung-min and eventually reaching their first UEFA Champions League final where a late Tanguy Ndombele goal in extra time saw Tottenham Hotspur win their first-ever European title via a dramatic 2-1 win over Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich who previously equalised via Ivan Perišić after Harry Kane scored first to give his club the lead. Consequently, while Smith became the joint youngest manager with José Mourinho to win the UEFA Champions League, he was also responsible for or was on the same team with the only two Asian players to have won Europe's most prestigious football tournament, Park Ji-sung, his former Manchester United teammate, and now Son Heung-min, one of the players under his management at Tottenham Hotspur. Regardless, the club went on to defeat UEFA Europa League winners Sevilla 3-1 in the UEFA Super Cup and Mexican side Tigres 3-0 in the FIFA Club World Cup, thereby resulting in Smith, who initially assumed the position on an interim basis until the end of the season, to eventually formalise a four-year contract with the club as head coach after a surprisingly remarkable start that saw Tottenham Hotspur win their first silverware in decades and also their first European title.

Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane in action during a 3-0 win over Manchester United where he scored twice through penalties

In the following 2020-21 season, Smith started rather promisingly with a dominant 4-1 win over Everton, which he soon followed up on with an equally dominant 5-2 win over Southampton. Then, despite a 0-1 loss to Newcastle United, Smith proved quick to steer the club back onto a dominant winning streak, defeating among others his former club Manchester United 6-1, Manchester City 2-0, and Chelsea 3-0 while otherwise drawing 0-0 with defending champions Liverpool. Regardless, on December 20th, the club was met with a shock 1-4 defeat to Leicester City that ended a thirteen-match unbeaten streak although this was promptly made up for with a 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers just a week later that preceded a subsequent 3-0 win over Leeds United and a following 1-0 win over Fulham. In the meantime, the club also drew once again with Liverpool while also defeating Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 and losing to Chelsea 1-2. Meanwhile, a shock 3-1 win over Manchester City would precede a 1-1 draw against West Ham United, bringing much-renewed hope as Spurs then marked a dominant 4-0 victory over Burnley along with a 2-1 win over Arsenal and most notably a 3-0 win over Manchester United which saw two penalties awarded to Tottenham Hotspur and defender Harry Maguire being sent off in the 76th minute. In the end, amidst a 0-1 loss to Aston Villa on the penultimate day which preceded an otherwise triumphant 4-2 win over Leicester City, the club notched a record-high of 91 points to become Premier League champions for the first time in history, a feat that Smith himself described as "inevitable" owing to the club's second-place finish the season before.

In the meantime, a narrow 2-3 loss to Chelsea saw Smith once again unable to win the FA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur. A similar fate also befell them in the EFL Cup finals where a 1-2 loss to Manchester City once again barred the club from winning either domestic cups. Nonetheless, a dramatic 7-6 win on aggregate against La Liga giants Real Madrid, followed by a firm 4-1 win over Manchester City in which a brace from Harry Kane which complemented Gareth Bale goal and an Aymeric Laporte own-goal saw Tottenham Hotspur mark an unprecedented back-to-back UEFA Champions League glory while also being just one domestic cup short of achieving an equally historic domestic treble. With this, the club then faced UEFA Europa League winners Arsenal in the UEFA Super Cup, defeating them 5-3 on penalties following a 3-3 draw, followed by a 1-0 win over Brazilian side Palmeiras in the FIFA Club World Cup and a 0-1 loss to Leicester City in the William Smith Shield.

However, amidst positive on-pitch progress that included the club's first-ever UEFA Champions League title, around April 2021, Smith notably threatened to resign from his position as head coach in response to Tottenham Hotspur's initial participation in the controversial European Super League project alongside the likes of other English clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea. In clarifying his stance during a Sky Sports interview that same month, Smith remarked, "Ask me now or even tomorrow and I'll always say that I love this club to the fullest as its manager but at the same time I cannot bear to see it being involved in such a bad project like the ESL. For me, to even keep going on is like swimming through a big ocean of lava which is something that most people would obviously want to avoid or would not enjoy at all despite its rewards". In the end, all but the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus later withdrew from the project amidst overwhelming backlash with Tottenham Hotspur being one of the earliest to do so amidst reports that club chairman Daniel Levy, facing a threat of resignation from Smith who had then led the club to its first UEFA Champions League glory in just his first year, was soon compelled to withdraw from the project over worries of looking for a capable successor to replicate Smith's unprecedented success with the club. Later, when asked about the club's subsequent withdrawal from the project, Smith said, "To simply put it, what happened is that I and Daniel had a talk behind closed doors where we both came to mutually understand that a project like the ESL is objectively bad for football and that a club like Spurs, or any other club for that matter, should not be contributing to it any further hence the withdrawal". In the meantime, Smith also thanked the club's supporters for "publicly making their voices heard", stating, "Regardless of whoever owns a football club, be it a local or a foreigner, they cannot and must not ignore the voices of the fans because as things stand they are the ones who give clubs a life and a soul and who importantly contributes to the players getting paid by paying for tickets and attending matches".

In the ensuing 2021-22 season, despite an initial loss to Leicester City in the William Smith Shield, traditionally considered to be the new season's curtain-raiser, Smith's Tottenham Hotspur otherwise made a rather promising start, defeating Manchester City 1-0 in the opening match and Crystal Palace 3-2. However, on September 19th, Smith's club was dealt with a heavy 1-4 defeat to Chelsea, by a 1-1 draw with Arsenal and a 2-1 win over Aston Villa and a 3-1 win over West Ham United in which Harry Kane scored all three penalties to mark a hat-trick in the process. In the meantime, the club also snatched a narrow 2-1 win over Smith's former club Manchester United despite the return of club legend and Smith's former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo to Old Trafford along with a 3-0 win over Norwich City. However, Tottenham Hotspur were then met with a 0-2 defeat to Liverpool which instead preceded a 3-0 comeback win over Crystal Palace and an ensuing 4-0 win over Southampton. Further down the road, in addition to a dominant 5-0 win over Burnley, the club also defeated the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United 3-2 and 3-1 respectively to make it twelve matches unbeaten which they only extended via dominant 5-1 and 4-0 wins over Newcastle United and Aston Villa to then make it sixteen unbeaten before a 0-2 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion brought an end to the streak. Nonetheless, over the last few days remaining, Spurs promptly rebounded with a 2-1 win over Brentford, a 3-1 win over Leicester City, and a 3-0 win over Arsenal before eventually concluding the season with a dominant 5-0 win over Norwich City at which point the club once again emerged Premier League champions with a record 99 points.

Meanwhile, despite a loss to Chelsea that effectively cut short their FA Cup ambitions, Smith's Tottenham Hotspur promptly avenged their defeat at the hands of The Blues to then defeat Liverpool 1-0 to win the EFL Cup for the first time since the 1998-99 season, almost twenty four years before. In the meantime, Smith himself came close to achieving a third consecutive UEFA Champions League title for Tottenham Hotspur, defeating the likes of Inter Milan, Benfica, and Villareal before a 0-1 loss to Real Madrid in the finals saw them settle for second place. Following this, as Premier League champions, Spurs subsequently contested the William Smith Shield with FA Cup winners Liverpool to whom they narrowly lost 2-3.

The Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, where a grueling penalty shootout saw Tottenham Hotspur defeat Arsenal 12-11 on penalties to claim their third UEFA Champions League title in just three years

On 6th August 2022, Smith started off his final season as Tottenham Hotspur manager rather promisingly, grabbing a 4-0 win over Southampton on the opening day. Then, a 1-1 draw against Chelsea on the second day, followed by several further victories along the way including a dominant 6-1 win over West Ham United, saw Smith make it seven matches unbeaten straight while major victories afterward over both Arsenal and former club Manchester United extended it further to eleven matches unbeaten with a 1-3 loss to Newcastle United on October 23rd bringing an end to the streak. Then, on January 1st 2023, Smith began the new year with a dominant 4-0 win over Aston Villa which he quickly followed up on just three days later with an equally dominant 4-0 win over Crystal Palace although the new years' momentum was quickly cut short by subsequent defeats to Manchester City and Arsenal respectively. Then, amidst a 0-0 draw against Leicester City and a 2-3 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers, a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest and a 4-2 win over Everton saw the club under Smith rediscover their winning ways by the last few months during which they recorded a dominant 4-0 win over Bournemouth and a 3-0 win over Newcastle United although this was then followed by a 1-3 loss to Manchester United and a 0-1 loss to Liverpool respectively. Nonetheless, a draw against Aston Villa and a 3-0 win over Brentford in the closing days ensured that Tottenham Hotspur would finish the season with no further defeats as a 4-1 win over Leeds United on the final day ensured a third-place finish with just one point behind runners-up Manchester City while Arsenal secured their first league title in almost two decades.

Meanwhile, after previous unsuccessful attempts, a dramatic 3-2 win over Manchester United at Wembley Stadium saw Smith finally win the FA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur, with the title itself being their first in almost three decades since they last won it in the 1990-91 season. In the meantime, a shock 3-1 win on aggregate over Real Madrid and a similarly dramatic 5-4 win on aggregate over Manchester City saw Tottenham Hotspur advance to the UEFA Champions League finals once again where they faced league winners Arsenal in a fixture that was eventually settled on penalties with Spurs eventually winning it 12-11 following a long and grueling contest where goalkeeper Hugo Lloris both scored past and successfully saved an attempt by his Arsenal counterpart Aaron Ramsdale. Shortly afterward, Smith announced the end of his tenure as Tottenham Hotspur head coach, stating that he wished to "take a humble step back after an undeniably challenging as well as a both physically and mentally taxing period", adding, "Four years ago, I came with the clear intention and mission of proving that underdogs like Tottenham Hotspur can win major titles with the right players and manager. Now, it is without a doubt that I have lived up well to my intentions with the club that I rightfully saw so much potential in and therefore it is with a heavy and humble heart that I say goodbye while also expressing all my gratitude to those who stood with the club at not just its highest highs but also its lowest lows throughout these amazing four years together".

"Even if it's just for four years long, I undoubtedly won and did things that others before me couldn't and by all means it was certainly a hundred times better than spending twenty years and winning nothing in the process."

Smith on his time with Tottenham Hotspur

In the aftermath of his retirement, the ensuing pre-season matches were overseen by former player Ryan Mason who took over as interim coach until the club subsequently appointed former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou in time for the later 2023-24 season. Prior to his appointment, Postecoglou had also previously managed the Australia men's national team from 2013 to 2017 as well as A-League sides Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar and J1 League side Yokohama F. Marinos. Meanwhile, as the most decorated and successful Tottenham Hotspur manager of recent times, supporters of the club initially launched a proposal to have the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium renamed after Smith himself, citing the decision of Atlético Madrid to name their new stadium after Smith and head coach Diego Simeone. However, the proposal itself was never fully implemented with an eventual compromise instead having the stadium's "North Stand" renamed to "Sir William Smith Stand" in his honour while a bronze statue depicting the likeness of him and former captain Harry Kane, who transferred to Bayern Munich, was erected in front of the stadium's entrance. In the meantime, on 19 August 2023, for the opening to Tottenham Hotspur's first home match since Smith's departure, a commemorative montage was played prior to kick-off which depicted the club's notable victories under his past tenure along with several of his memorable public moments before later concluding with the phrase "Thank You For Everything, Boss". Ironically, the club then defeated Manchester United, Smith's former club, 2-0 to secure their first win of the season.

Meanwhile, a moderately promising start to their first season under a new head coach currently sees them place fifth behind Aston Villa in fourth and ahead of both Manchester United in sixth. Even more, despite ending up in a "group of death" alongside AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, and Paris Saint-Germain and faced with the departure of longtime star striker Harry Kane, the European champions successfully managed a second-place finish to advance to the knockout stages while Paris Saint-Germain swiftly topped their group. Moreover, as a lone Son Heung-min goal saw them defeat UEFA Europa League winners Sevilla 1-0 to claim their third UEFA Super Cup title, the club also defeated the 2022 AFC Champions League winners Urawa Red Diamonds 2-0 and also annihilated the 2023 Copa Libertadores winners Fluminense 5-0 in which a Richarlison hat-trick, complimented by goals from Son Heung-min and Ben Davies, saw Tottenham Hotspur emerge as champions in the FIFA Club World Cup's final edition prior to its planned expansion. Meanwhile, a dramatic two-legged contest against PSV Eindhoven saw Tottenham Hotspur's title defence almost cut short in the round of 16 if not for Pierre-Emile Højbjerg who scored the winning goal in their dramatic 6-5 win on penalties after the two sides ultimately drew 5-5 during which three own goals were scored including one from captain Son Heung-min.

Atlético Madrid

Ron Atkinson, a former English footballer who played for Oxford United, with whom he spent much of his career, from 1959 to 1971. He is also the first Englishman to manage Atlético Madrid

On 20 July 2023, a week ahead of a planned friendly against an all-star team of K League 1 players, longtime Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone announced that he was stepping down as head coach after almost thirteen years at the helm. However, contrary to initial expectations, it was revealed that Simeone was merely stepping down in favour of becoming Atlético Madrid's assistant coach, reportedly in favour of a more "behind the scenes" approach, whereas the new head coach was revealed to be the club's all-time goalscorer and the Argentinean's former protégé William Smith himself who was coming off a successful managerial spell with Tottenham Hotspur. In this, Smith became the latest Englishman to manage in La Liga after former Arsenal player Tony Adams who was appointed manager of Granada in 2016 but left a year later. In addition, aside from being only the second Englishman to manage Atlético Madrid after Ron Atkinson, as a former Manchester United player, Smith's appointment as head coach soon drew comparisons to the appointment of former teammate Gary Neville as head coach of Valencia a few years prior in which regard the latter proved largely unsuccessful and was subsequently sacked just a year later. Regardless, as a hugely popular figure among Atlético Madrid supporters, Smith's return as head coach was widely celebrated to the extent that one local Spanish media likened it to the "second coming of Jesus Christ". Meanwhile, his return to Atlético Madrid as head coach effectively reunited him with several of his former teammates including club captain Koke, Saúl Ñíguez, José Giménez, and perhaps most notably, his "protégé" Antoine Griezmann whose reunification with his former teammate and "mentor" sparked much media attention and was heavily compared to the previously successful player-manager duo of Smith and Simeone.

To that end, on 10 August 2023, just a few days prior to the start of the La Liga season, in an exclusive ceremony held at the Estadio de los Santos, Smith symbolically set foot onto the stadium's pitch for the first time since his departure back in 2019 in which a sold-out crowd raucously welcomed his return to Atlético Madrid where he is considered to be a "cult hero" among supporters for his role in reviving the club's fortunes and most notably winning five straight UEFA Champions League with the Spanish club. Opting to appear wearing his old Atlético Madrid team jersey, Smith, speaking in fluent Spanish, started off a roughly fifteen-minutes-long speech rather lightly by briefly expressing his longing for the club and its "ever loyal supporters" before proceeding to recount the "extraordinary" and "magical" successes that he achieved with Atlético Madrid after which Smith, while reserving some praise for his "brilliant and hardworking mentor" Diego Simeone, lamented the lack of success enjoyed by the club since and therefore pledged a "return to the good old times" during which he famously proclaimed in a warlike rhetoric, "Ladies and gentlemen, from now on, it is war and this stadium, our home, is our fortress that once bore witness to the war machine that not only conquered Spain more than once but most importantly conquered Europe for five straight years. Now, under my watch, we will conquer the entirety of Spain for decades to come and Europe will not be spared from us either". The occasion, which was televised live and also broadcasted on the club's official Youtube channel, was met with mixed but nonetheless positive reception with supporters unanimously celebrating the return of a "club legend" while critics derided Smith for his "warlike" rhetoric to which supporters argue that Smith was merely employing the well-known strategy of siege mentality which he had previously done while managing Tottenham Hotspur where he later led the club to two Premier League trophies and three UEFA Champions League titles.

On 14 August 2023, in front of a sold-out Estadio de los Santos, Smith took charge of his first La Liga match as Atlético Madrid head coach in a 3-1 win over Granada. Then, on August 20th, club captain Koke scored the deciding goal to reward Smith with just his second victory as Atlético Madrid manager which he wasted no time capitalising upon to then demolish Rayo Vallecano 7-0 at the latter's own stadium. Then, after a few weeks break between matches, Smith returned on September 16th to deal Valencia a heavy 3-0 defeat after which a brace by Álvaro Morata, complemented by a third Antoine Griezmann goal, saw him both neutralise the threat of newcomer Jude Bellingham and defeat arch rivals Real Madrid 3-1. Following this, amidst a string of subsequent victories where on one occasion, a Griezmann hat-trick saw Atlético Madrid convincingly defeat Celta Vigo 3-0, Smith once more achieved another convincing victory, namely a 4-0 win over Las Palmas. On December 3rd, an equalising goal by Koke saw Smith manage to avoid defeat at the hands of their other rivals Barcelona who had recently acquired the club's star signing João Félix on a loan after which he proceeded to defeat Almería, Getafe, and Sevilla to conclude the year unbeaten and therefore claim first place. In this, his "protégé" Antoine Griezmann markedly surpassed the late Luis Aragonés with 176 goals at year's end to become Atlético Madrid's second-highest all-time goalscorer just behind Smith himself, a historic milestone that was celebrated poignantly with the two briefly embracing one another at match's end.

On 3 January 2024, a brilliant Álvaro Morata performance saw them defeat a rising Girona 3-0 to preserve their unbeaten record as they subsequently face and narrowly eliminate rivals Real Madrid 5-4 on penalties in the Supercopa de España to then defeat an injury-ridden Barcelona 2-0 to secure his first title as Atlético Madrid head coach. However, in a rare critical statement, Smith publicly lambasted the "disgraceful" attitude shown by the fans of the host country Saudi Arabia particularly during a moment of silence for the recently departed German football legend Franz Beckenbauer where they were reported to have instead whistled or booed during the occasion while the players and staff stood in silence. In a subsequent interview with the Spanish media outlet Marca, Smith said, "From the get-go, as a foreigner, I don't really care what customs or cultural traditions these people have that makes them blatantly disrespect what should've been a solemn occasion for a recently departed footballing legend. Before this, they decided to pick a fight with another country's revered founding father and now, they're openly disrespecting a player who is guaranteed to be a hundred times more talented than the best of them, if there's even any. As someone who holds massive respect for those that came in the sport before me, it is just unacceptable and frankly disgusting". Coincidentally, for his previous outspoken comments regarding the country and its football league, Smith himself was reportedly the subject of derision by local fans to which he later remarked, "They (Saudis) have camels but I have four World Cups, two Euros, and twelve Champions League titles. The difference could not be clearer". Meanwhile, on February 4th, an injury crisis plaguing Real Madrid's defensive line-up allowed Atlético Madrid to comfortably defeat their arch-rivals 2-0 away at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, thereby only further extending their unbeaten run while also ensuring that for the entire 2023-24 season Smith remained unbeaten against his Real Madrid counterpart Carlo Ancelotti.

In the meantime, Smith's stellar management also saw Atlético Madrid eliminate defending champions Real Madrid early on in the Copa del Rey via a 4-2 win to ultimately reach the finals by subsequently defeating Athletic Bilbao 3-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals where a brace from Koke, coupled with a penalty from Antoine Griezmann, meant that the club would either face Mallorca or Real Sociedad in the cup finals. Meanwhile, in the UEFA Champions League knockout phase, as his former club Tottenham Hotspur under Ange Postecoglou dramatically defeated PSV Eindhoven to advance further, Smith's current club Atlético Madrid also emerged victorious, defeating the Italian side Inter Milan 5-3 on aggregate with Memphis Depay scoring once on both legs to make the crucial difference.

Personal Life

Although he was the firstborn child of King Thomas, Smith is ultimately ineligible to later succeed his father to the throne given the fact that he had been born out of wedlock and that his parents, despite an almost two-decade-long relationship, were never officially married, thereby preventing him from being included in the line of succession to the throne. Despite this, Smith himself has expressed some gratefulness for his current circumstances, stating that the fact that he would never likely succeed to the throne in the near future due to his ineligibility meant that he was free to pursue a career of his own for as long as he wanted while also not being burdened by the thoughts of his future duties as monarch. Nonetheless, Smith shares the same birthday as his half-sister Queen Alexandra who was born exactly seventeen years after himself. At the same time, Smith is also exactly thirteen years older than Dutch-born goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with whom he played together at Atlético Madrid for three seasons long. In the meantime, by virtue of his birth year, Smith is also roughly the same age as fellow English footballer Michael Owen, singers Pink and Ne-Yo, as well as actresses Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Hudson, Claire Danes, and actors Chris Pratt, Heath Ledger, and John Krasinski.

Around October 2022, amidst a series of controversial changes implemented by billionaire Elon Musk upon acquiring Twitter (which he later renamed to "X"), Smith, who boasts around 111 million followers on the site, announced that he was leaving the social media platform indefinitely, citing Musk's loosening of restrictions against hate speech as well as the latter's apparent closeness to social media accounts classified as being either right-wing or far-right. Afterward, when asked by one journalist if he was concerned over losing his hundred millions of followers and therefore his "relevancy", Smith replied, "Overall, I don't really care that a hundred million people are not going to see me anymore on a social media site that is in perpetual decline anyway. Meanwhile, in regards to my so-called relevance, I don't really measure it based on how many people follow me online because in the end, I won both the Champions League and the World Cup more than anyone else in history which is something that anyone not on social media will even know and recognise". Meanwhile, when he was met with a slight ridicule from Musk for his drastic decision to abandon the social media site, Smith remarked, "As rich as I will personally admit to be, a certain man is at least a hundred times richer yet he could never essentially buy any of the trophies and titles that I worked so hard for over two decades long because all those involve getting physical and risking injuries every single time rather than just sitting in some fancy office designing silly-looking cars and rockets".

Owing to his global popularity as a football icon, Smith has been extensively portrayed or depicted in various forms of media, with his likeness being used in the widely popular FIFA football video game series in which Smith is one of the most highly-rated players in the game. In addition, British actor Jude Law portrayed Smith in the 2016 sports biographical film The Final Tournament which depicts Smith's final appearance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil for which Law subsequently won Best Actor at the BAFTA Awards that year. In the meantime, Smith has made a number of cameo appearances as himself on the Apple TV+ sports comedy series Ted Lasso alongside other footballing figures such as Thierry Henry, Gary Lineker, Ian Wright, and Pep Guardiola. Moreover, Smith has also appeared in various sports documentaries including The June 30th Miracle: Ten Years On, The Fables of the Fabulous Four, Eriksson: The Unlikely Legend, Rise of The Lionesses, All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, and The Spursy Fantasy. Meanwhile, Smith also appeared alongside other famous footballers in the music video for the 2010 single Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) by Colombian singer Shakira for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa which England ultimately won.

Meanwhile, as one of the most well-known and marketable athletes of his generation, Smith has been a partner in a huge number of lucrative sponsorships including Adidas, Armani, Under Armour, Coca-Cola, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Rolex, and Louis Vuitton, all of which, combined with his high wage payments and other financial bonuses, make him one of the richest athletes in the world with an estimated net worth of $2.09 billion, the highest for a professional footballer and which makes him one of the few billionaire athletes in the world alongside Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. In the context of professional football, Smith is often compared to fellow ex-English footballer David Beckham, both of whom are similarly known for their talents in football as well as for their public image and marketability coupled with their marriages to their equally famous wives in actress Anne Hathaway and singer Victoria Beckham. In this, given that their first names coincidentally mirror that of English poet William Shakespeare and wife Anne Hathaway, the two are popularly dubbed "Will and Anne" by the media who also nicknamed them "the 21st-century's Shakespearean couple".

A polyglot, Smith is known to be fluent in several languages including his native English, German, Spanish, and Hebrew, with Spanish being his preferred language of choice during his time at Atlético Madrid. In this, during his early years, Smith initially possessed a standard Californian accent due to his more American upbringing before later switching to a more British-sounding accent after his move to the United Kingdom so as to better fit in with his England teammates. Similarly, his younger sister Jacqueline, who later found work at the British Broadcasting Corporation, also adopted a more British-sounding accent, having once said, "In its entire history, when has a BBC presenter ever spoke and didn't sound British at all? It would surely be very awkward if otherwise and I'll prefer to avoid that by any means necessary". Nonetheless, Smith himself is known for being able to easily switch between his two main accents which he usually does whenever he is in either country and therefore needed to sound "local".

Since 2014, as a citizen of the United States, United Kingdom, and Spain, Smith is officially a triple citizen in which while originally born in the United States, he subsequently acquired a British citizenship following his transfer to Premier League club Manchester United before later being given a Spanish citizenship by King Felipe VI in honour of his achievements with La Liga club Atlético Madrid. In this, despite being already eligible to play for England from the start, Smith revealed that he chose to initially represent the United States out of fear that he was "not good enough" to play with the likes of the established England forward Alan Shearer and rising stars David Beckham, Gary Neville, Michael Owen, and Paul Scholes. Consequently, the United States, whose players were less well-known compared to those of their English counterparts, was therefore deemed by Smith to be the more ideal country to represent given that he would not be directly compared to any illustrious teammate by the media. Elaborating further, he said, "If I had joined England from the start at eighteen or so, I would have been relentlessly compared by the media to the more well-known players like Alan or David which was something that I really don't want in my life. But when I joined the United States, there was pretty much no one else for them to compare me with but myself which in a way allows me to grow and develop on my own without someone else being put as a benchmark for me to reach".

An automobile enthusiast, Smith reportedly owns a modest collection of high-end and luxury vehicles. In this, Smith was said to have owned his first vehicle in the form of a BMW M3 which he often drove while living in the United States. However, since his move to the United Kingdom, Smith came to acquire a number of other vehicles including an Aston Martin DB9 (his primary vehicle), a McLaren 570S, a Mercedes-Benz CLS, and a Range Rover Sport. Meanwhile, aside from his main residence in London, Smith also owns a number of properties in other places, namely the US city of Los Angeles, California, the Spanish city of Madrid, and the English city of Manchester, all three of which are primarily work-related. However, for non-work reasons, although mostly undisclosed, Smith also reportedly owns a property in the southern English city of Brighton and Hove where its coastal nature, coupled with its vibrant and free-spirited nature, greatly captivated Smith who, at times, would reportedly make trips to the coastal English city for periods of rest.

Despite his superstar status, for much of his footballing career, save for the Portuguese football agent Jorge Mendes, Smith never employed anyone else to assist him when necessary, be it as an assistant, public relations manager, or whatnot, instead opting for a more self-reliant and closeted approach. Later on, Smith would explain that his decision to do most matters except for signing contracts by himself was spurred by the infamous controversy that surrounded fellow English footballer David Beckham who was alleged to have had an extramarital affair with the Dutch glamour model Rebecca Loos, who he employed as his personal assistant while at Real Madrid, while married to his wife, namely former Spice Girls singer Victoria Beckham. In this, Smith said, "When you're essentially a superstar and also one with good looks, you're essentially the prime target for tabloids who, by one way or another, will try to get some juicy story out of you, be it getting arrested, spotted drunk, caught in an accident, or even worse, having an affair with some woman that you didn't even know in the first place. To simply put it, I'm trying to avoid meeting my own version of Rebecca Loos so that I don't have to deal with the media circus that Becks did". Nonetheless, Smith has credited his self-reliant approach as helping to instill him both discipline and self-reliance given that he relied rather little on anyone else's help to get around and otherwise did most of his chores on his own, a trait that was carried over into his subsequent marriage to American actress Anne Hathaway.

While biologically the son of actress Jaclyn Smith, Smith is known to be also close to his stepmother, the fashion model Christy Turlington. In one interview, Smith revealed that after just a few months or so, he had become used to calling Turlington "mother" and has also credited the latter with helping him to learn Spanish, owing to her Hispanic roots via her own mother, an immigrant from El Salvador. In addition, through his aunt-in-laws Claudia Schiffer and Jodie Foster, Smith is also said to be partially or fairly fluent in German and French as well, with the latter language particularly helping him to easily communicate with his "protege" Antoine Griezmann, a Frenchman born in the city of Mâcon.

Relationships

During an interview with Men's Health in 2017, Smith revealed himself to be "not really the romantic type" in his early years, stating that despite his fairly good looks and fame that rose unprecedentedly in the wake of his World Cup heroics with the United States, he never seriously considered a romantic relationship which he feared could interrupt his growing football career. Citing the publicity and media fanfare that surrounded former Manchester United and England player David Beckham following his marriage to Spice Girls singer Victoria Adams, Smith said, "Personally, I don't want that kind of attention on myself ever especially when my career was about to reach new heights and which absolutely required my total commitment. To have the paparazzi and the media always chasing after you and asking you questions incessantly just when you're coming back from a tiring match or training is something that I really don't look forward to and which I would like to avoid at all costs with whatever it takes" . In addition, Smith has also expressed his "personal annoyance" at being asked questions that relate less to football than the opposite, stating, "Quite simply, I'm a professional footballer and as such I should normally be asked questions about football rather than the ones about which woman I have been seeing recently or what restaurant did I loved going to the most. It's all just quite silly and so utterly ridiculous with the quality of questions one like myself gets on the daily".

Although a notoriously private individual, owing to his good looks and fame, Smith was frequently linked romantically to various women by tabloids and magazines with names including actresses Natalie Portman and Emily Blunt, singer Britney Spears, and fashion models Miranda Kerr and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. However, in a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Smith confirmed that he had only been in three serious romantic relationships, namely with actress Cameron Diaz, fashion model Gisele Bündchen, as well as fellow actress and current wife Anne Hathaway. Meanwhile, in an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Smith revealed that as a teenager, he once harboured feelings for the German tennis player Steffi Graf, adding that the latter's marriage to fellow tennis player Andre Agassi "broke my then wild, young heart". Aside from that, Smith also revealed that he had "crushes" on singer Melanie C, fashion model Cindy Crawford, as well as actresses Kate Winslet and Gillian Anderson.

The Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. From 2004 to 2007, she secretly dated William Smith before later marrying American football quarterback Tom Brady

Beginning in 2002, Smith would first meet Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and Korea where Smith himself was one of the main stars as the young captain of the United States national team. In this, Bündchen, despite personally witnessing Brazil's shock 0-5 loss to the United States in the finals in which Smith himself scored a famous hat-trick to overcome the star-studded Brazil national team, was reportedly impressed enough by the American captain's heroics that she later proved successful in meeting Smith himself in a rare and private encounter at a high-end hotel where the United States players were staying at for the tournament. The encounter, which Smith himself later described as "very surreal" and "one-in-a-million chance", saw the two bond quickly over their shared love of football and Bündchen's own admiration of Smith's footballing skills. However, despite initial progress, the two did not quickly establish a romantic relationship given that Bündchen was still with her then-boyfriend, the actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Regardless, by 2004, amidst questions of incompatibility and bouts of depression, the couple eventually broke up, and Bündchen subsequently started dating Smith in relative secrecy with the couple said to have spent their first time together in the form of a private trip to the Scottish Highlands in the United Kingdom which Smith personally fancied for its captivating landscape and natural beauty.

Owing to their high-profile statuses and the apparent need to avoid encroaching paparazzi, the two chose to keep their relationship a closely-knit secret and away from the media and public in a choice that Smith later described as "very difficult to make but which we thought was necessary given the circumstances and our own natural need for privacy and the sort". In this, despite it being a mutual agreement, the need for secrecy soon gradually took its toll on the couple's relationship, causing them to gradually distance themselves from one another amidst career demands and the overarching need to remain tight-lipped about their romance for fear of it disrupting Smith's budding football career as was seemingly the case for the latter's famous compatriot David Beckham. Eventually, around 2007, in a much private manner, the two officially parted ways with Bündchen later marrying American football quarterback Tom Brady whereas Smith began romantically pursuing American actress Anne Hathway. Later, during a 2022 interview shortly after her divorce from Brady, the Brazilian supermodel recounted her previous romance with Smith as "something beautiful that we could not sadly see it through all the way together", adding, "Simply put, he was very nice to me and was always steady and composed whenever an issue comes up. Unfortunately, perhaps by chance, we just couldn't see ourselves sticking together amidst all that stress and pressure that was slowly building up and demanding us to do something about our relationship. In the end, we didn't really hate each other but just thought that it would be best if we both had someone else to continue with afterward". In the meantime, Smith himself has expressed some praise for Bündchen particularly for the latter's role in "being close to me during some of my most turbulent years", stating, "At the time, even with my family around me, I just felt almost alone having to deal with all the newfound fame and pressure that suddenly came crashing down on me and she was definitely very important in making me feel otherwise and ultimately being able to overcome it". Interestingly, despite representing different types of sports, Smith and Brady are generally considered to be the most successful players and are deemed to be the faces of association football and American football respectively, a fact that led one media outlet to coyly describe Bündchen as "having left one king of football for another". In this, despite being born American, Smith has come to be mostly regarded and even largely identified himself as British, thereby making him the apparent polar opposite of Tom Brady who is also born Californian.

Meanwhile, in 2003, sometime between the moment he first met Bündchen and the moment he later began a relationship with the Brazilian supermodel, Smith briefly dated American actress Cameron Diaz, whom he had met while attending the premiere of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle with his mother who made a cameo appearance in the film herself as one of the original actresses of the show on which the movie is based. Describing the romance afterward as a "brief and meaningless fling", Smith revealed that while the two got on fairly well, they never seriously envisioned a serious long-term romance amidst questions of compatibility with Diaz herself later admitting in an interview that the two "did better as friends rather than lovers", adding, "We simply enjoyed each other's company, he was very friendly, gentlemanly, and a genuinely good man but we never thought of eventually becoming husband and wife or the sort in the near future". Around a decade later, Diaz married the American musician Benji Madden whose twin brother Joel Madden is married to actress Nichole Richie.

The American actress Anne Hathaway attending the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada at the LA Film Festival in June 2006. The actress headlined the film alongside co-stars Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt

In the months after his relationship with Gisele Bündchen ended, once again in relative secrecy, Smith began dating American actress Anne Hathaway, whom he had first met while attending the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada in which Hathaway starred alongside Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep while Smith's then-girlfriend Gisele Bündchen also played a minor role in the film herself. Reportedly, after quickly striking up a good rapport with both Hathaway and Blunt, Smith, having already become gradually distant from his then-girlfriend while otherwise finding himself particularly drawn to Hathway, subsequently began seeing the American actress shortly after he officially parted ways with the Brazilian supermodel. To that end, the couple later had their first date at none other than the Scottish Highlands where Smith reportedly took Hathaway on a horseback trip exploring the hills and mountains.

In this, despite adopting a similar secretive approach from his previous relationship, by the early 2010s, Smith began loosening up somewhat, appearing alongside Hathaway and other actresses including Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, and Julia Roberts in the 2010 romantic comedy film Valentine's Day. Eventually, on 1 July 2012, following a secret engagement two years prior, the couple officially declared their relationship to the public shortly after the UEFA Euro 2012 Final between England and Spain at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv, Ukraine where Hathaway publicly joined Smith and the England players on the pitch in celebration of their back-to-back European glory, making it the first time that the couple has appeared together in public. Later, on November 12th of that same year, a date that also coincided with Hathaway's 30th birthday, the couple were wedded in a private ceremony at Oheka Castle in New York, United States, with the venue itself being chosen since Smith's parents and grandparents were also previously wedded there as well. However, given that it took place during a footballing season, the wedding was mostly a low-key affair that was only attended by a select amount of guests while media presence was kept to a minimum. In 2015, the couple welcomed a pair of twins William and Anne who are named after the English poet William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway. In an ensuing revelation, it was reported that the two would carry the surname "Hathaway-Smith" supposedly to avoid confusion in the case where either one of their surnames is used which would result in either their son or daughter having the same name as either their father or mother respectively. In this, Smith himself once jokingly suggested changing his surname to "Shakespeare" to fully commit to popular comparisons between himself and the English poet, stating, "Frankly, with all the titles that I won, I'm basically the Shakespeare of football anyway". Coincidentally, Hathaway's middle name "Jacqueline" is also the given name of Smith's younger sister.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Smith candidly revealed that he initially planned on wooing English actress Emily Blunt, who was then in a relationship with Canadian singer Michael Bublé, after seeing her performance in The Devil Wears Prada which he described as both "funny" and "compelling". However, he instead ended up marrying Blunt's co-star Anne Hathaway whom he began pursuing reportedly after his younger sister Princess Alexandra, a big fan of Hathaway in The Princess Diaries, "pressured" him to do so out of her personal desire to meet the American actress herself. To that end, when asked if he would have taken a different direction in the absence of his sister's influence, Smith said, "In retrospect, I don't think being married to Anne was even a bad decision for myself. Clearly, even with my sister having a rather weird role in bringing us together, we do clearly love each other very much". Moreover, he added, "Ever since we got together, she (Hathaway) has always been a very supportive and understanding wife who knows just how to cheer me up each time". Otherwise, in a separate interview, Blunt, having been married to American actor John Krasinski since 2010, revealed that prior to her marriage, she herself once "fawned" over the former England captain but was reportedly too shy to make her own move, stating, "At the time, I wasn't necessarily the most famous and well-known actress in England which, compared to him (Smith) essentially being the most famous footballer in the world, really made me very nervous about even approaching or outright dating him because I know that I'll most likely be the new Posh Spice with all the cameras and paparazzi on me 24/7 which was something that I'm not really used to at the time". Regardless, the two are known to be very close to each other and to their respective spouses with Blunt herself serving as the maid of honour at the couple's November 12 wedding whereas Smith, affectionately known to Blunt's children as "Uncle Will", has occasionally took care of the couple's children in extreme cases where neither of them are unavailable for long periods of time.

Style of Play

"Almost immediately, with the way he played and the way he conducted himself both on and off the pitch, I knew that he was destined for something remarkable and that right in front of my eyes stood someone special and entirely different from the other players around him."

Former head coach Octavio Zambrano on Smith's early years at LA Galaxy

Considered to be one of the greatest and most complete strikers of all time, Smith is known for several qualities that defined his reputation which includes an exceptional pace, high work-rate, remarkable dribbling skills, an unmatched goalscoring prowess, as well as excellent overall vision and creativity, with former Manchester United head coach Sir Alex Ferguson describing Smith as "the most complete of all the strikers I've had", adding, "From what I've seen, some strikers can only do a certain set of things while others can do their own set of things only and there's Smith who can essentially do almost everything a striker needs to in one go". In addition, with a height of 1.80 metres, his relatively tall stature also allowed Smith to occasionally function as a "target man" with a knack for scoring close-range headers and in spite of his physical attributes Smith nonetheless proved to be a quick and agile striker able to both outrun his opponents and place himself in ideal positions. Moreover, Smith is also widely regarded for his excellent first touches and perfect composure, both of which made him a press-resistant player and who rarely loses the ball to opponents who tend to man-mark him rather often. Former Brazil and Bayern Munich defender Lúcio, who faced Smith in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final, described him as one of his most difficult opponents ever, stating, "He is always on the move and you never really know when he was about to shoot the ball or not. Quite simply, he's very unpredictable and to even counter him you always have to think many steps ahead which is already a lot to do in itself". A dedicated student of the Total Football system and philosophy, despite being mostly known for his role as a forward, Smith also occasionally experimented as a winger, a second striker, an attacking midfielder, or even as a deep-lying playmaker in a more central position.

An adept and proficient dribbler, Smith is well-known for his preferred use of the infamous Cruyff turn maneuver which the former England forward later admitted to having "religiously studied" owing to his strong fascination towards the legendary Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff. In this, a strong pair of legs combined with excellent pace and acceleration allowed him to dribble past one or even several opponents at any given moment where in most cases he rarely ended up losing the ball or having his movement cut short by opponents. A set-piece specialist, Smith is known for his distinctively direct and fast free kicks with the ball often traveling at high speed thereby presenting a difficult challenge for goalkeepers attempting to save or parry the ball. Similarly, his penalty kicks are also known to be fast and direct with Smith himself being well-known for often placing his penalty shots in the upper corners, areas that goalkeepers rarely cover during penalties.

Having scored a season's average of an impressive forty goals while also playing a season's average of thirty-four matches over the course of his later playing years, Smith has also received much applause and credit for his longevity especially given he was able to almost match the goalscoring rates of rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi with both players being at least several years younger than Smith who by then was already into his thirties. Regarding this, Smith has credited a mix of an "appropriate and efficient training regimen" and a "strict but healthy diet" in allowing him to maintain an almost consistent performance at the highest level even into his thirties whereas some otherwise saw a gradual decline in form as they aged. In addition, playing under the somewhat defensive style of Diego Simeone crucially allowed Smith to conserve his energy as he aged while otherwise utilising most of his energy in short bursts hence his ability to score the usual amount of goals even in his later years. In this, his preference for mostly walking slowly on the pitch before suddenly sprinting with rapid pace led some pundits to liken his playing style at Atlético Madrid to a cheetah, a comparison that head coach Diego Simeone even supported, having once said, "Undoubtedly, if the pitch was like a jungle, Guillermo (William) would be our cheetah silently walking and prowling about before suddenly bursting into life almost immediately once he saw his prey who will find it really hard to outrun him. For us, a goal being scored by him is like a cheetah having finally caught its prey".

"Without a doubt, I'm very honoured to know that other great footballers look up to me in starting their professional careers. In Smith, I definitely see hints and bits of the total football style because simply put he could play almost anywhere on the front and in each position he plays in he would rarely falter if ever. Quite simply, he has the vision, technicality, skill, and perhaps most importantly the goalscoring prowess to be almost anywhere along the front."

Former Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff on being an inspiration for Smith

In addition to his offensive capabilities, Smith has received much credit from teammates and pundits for his defensive work in spite of his traditional role as a forward whereby he would often make well-timed tackles and precise interceptions whenever the opposition team is in possession of the ball while also being actively involved in pressing opponents up high on the pitch in order to immediately win the ball back and create a goalscoring opportunity right away near the opposition's penalty area. Aside from this, Smith is also well-known for his tendency to drop deep into the midfield area where he usually establishes strong link-up plays with his teammates before proceeding to carry the ball forward past opposition defenders. A renowned playmaker in his own right, Smith is also known for his almost equally high assist tally. In this, Smith has received much praise for his openness to assisting in goals rather than just scoring them via his natural playmaking abilities that included a combination of reliable and accurate passes, excellent positioning, and strategic off-the-ball movements which generally allows him to orchestrate attacks and create goalscoring chances somewhat regularly.

"From the years I spent with him together at Manchester United and England, he was undoubtedly one of the most committed and driven players that I've ever seen in my life. When necessary, he puts in a hundred percent and it's only natural that others follow suit as well."

Former England footballer Rio Ferdinand on Smith's professionalism

Aside from his widely-acclaimed footballing prowess, Smith is perhaps most well known for his somewhat extreme sense of professionalism and exemplary work ethic, traits that would come to mark his footballing career along with his distinction of having a somewhat "clean" and relatively "unproblematic" reputation which Smith himself admitted to be both natural and deliberate, stating, "When I realised that I have a younger sister who's really into football and who's definitely going to be looking up to me as inspiration, I knew that by all means necessary I have to set an example and be a good role model for her so that she could truly love and appreciate the game especially through someone familiar which is what I strove to be". In 2017, former Manchester United and England teammate Wayne Rooney described Smith as "every bit of a perfectionist, a total disciplinarian, and a 100% type of an outstanding player", adding, "Whenever a big match comes up, out of all the eleven men on the field, he (Smith) will definitely be the most focused and composed man of them all". Moreover, former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, who once publicly criticised the perceived laziness and laid-back attitude shown by the England internationals during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, has also heaped much praise on the former Manchester United forward, stating, "Out of all the guys that were in Germany back then for the World Cup, I think he (Smith) was probably the only one that had the game 100% in his mind, not to mention, he had just won one four years back and I think that by all accounts he had that undeniable sense of drive and passion of winning a second one right after the first, something that he was definitely not going to take very lightly until it's all said and done". Accordingly, former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson also recounted Smith's overall behaviour during the last few training sessions for the World Cup in Germany, adding how the former England star was "the first to come and the last to leave" during most training sessions and that the latter "always gave his 100%, or perhaps 105%, each time without fail". Meanwhile, during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in 2022, Smith publicly revealed a small-sized tattoo on the side of his right arm on which is inscribed a phrase in Spanish that reads "Élite y compuesto" which roughly translates to "Elite and composed", reportedly his two main footballing philosophies, namely putting a consistent top-notch performance and remaining calm and composed, thereby averting any nervous breakdowns or the sort.

In line with his most famous nickname of "The General", throughout much of his playing years, Smith came to acquire a well-known reputation for possessing a somewhat formidable and commanding presence on the pitch as well as a naturally talented and assertive leader with former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson describing the former as "someone naturally born to be a leader with his own set of loyal followers and subordinates". In particular, during important and high stakes matches such as a World Cup final, Smith was known for his "calm and reasonable yet aggressive and uncompromising" demeanour during dressing room meetings with former England teammate Wayne Rooney once stating, "In most cases, if you did well then you'll receive the most praises you'll ever get in your life but if you did badly then you'll get the most berating and scolding you'll ever get in your life instead". Similarly, former United States teammate Landon Donovan, recounting Smith's final dressing room speech just prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final against Brazil, said, "For all the many years I spent with the national team, that dressing room speech was probably the only time I ever felt 100% sure about something in a very long time". In a 2017 BBC Sport interview, Smith admitted that his hardline approach as captain made him an "enemy of some guys who didn't take it too well" but asserted that the results which included back-to-back World Cup and Euros triumph were otherwise indicators for the success of his captaincy, stating, "Opinions may vary as to whether my style as a captain was warranted or not but in regards to how harsh I was as one, I just wanted to make it clear that the harshest of my criticisms were never personal and in most cases only slackers and absolute brats in the team only ever get the harshest of them all and not necessarily those who gave their all but couldn't necessarily get it all right". Nonetheless, his brand of professionalism and an admirable character made Smith a "mentor" to younger and upcoming talents at the clubs that he played namely Manchester United players Marcus Rashford and Jonny Evans as well as Atlético Madrid's Antoine Griezmann who is considered by some to be Smith's "protégé".

During a 2018 interview with Sky Sports, Smith named compatriot Wayne Rooney as his "favourite teammate of all time", stating that the two "instantly clicked" upon their first encounter at Manchester United where they played together for around six years long and for an almost decade long together as well for England. Conversely, when asked about his greatest football rival, Smith named former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry, stating, "Even if I pretty much won most of our confrontations there was no doubt that Thierry was a very talented player in his own right and going up against him itself is frankly no walk in the park". Alternatively, an apparent but otherwise unacknowledged rivalry between Smith and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo was the subject of much media interest with it largely stemming from the fact that the two once played together at Manchester United, where they jointly won a historic sextuple, before later parting ways and afterward reuniting as opponents representing rivaling clubs Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid respectively. Regarding this, Smith said, "Frankly, I couldn't care less about the whole rivalry thing but it was definitely something to first play with and later play against someone like Cristiano. To even come out victorious each time, which I clearly did, definitely adds onto the whole intriguing aspect of it".

As the essential face and icon of American soccer, Smith is therefore hugely respected and admired by many young American talents in the sport including AC Milan midfielder and USMNT captain Christian Pulisic who said in a 2019 interview with ESPN, "Back then, even if I was just four years old at the time, me and a lot of other kids in America would never forget the moment they lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time which is definitely something that I wish to accomplish even if it seems impossible now". Similarly, fellow American soccer player and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Giovanni Reyna described the former as "the number one legend among American soccer fans" and "the Michael Jordan of soccer", adding, "The things he did and those he accomplished as an American, everyone in the country wants to be like him and win just as much as he did too". Meanwhile, together with his younger sister Alexandra, the two are the first brother and sister pair to represent England at the senior level followed by the James siblings Lauren and Reece who each play for Chelsea and England respectively. However, they are not necessarily the first pair of siblings to represent England at the senior level and win a major tournament, be it the World Cup or the Euros, with the first pair to do so being the Charlton brothers Bobby and Jack, members of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad, followed by the Neville brothers Phil and Gary, members of the 2006 World Cup-winning squad, and most recently, the James siblings Reece and Lauren who won the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup respectively.

As of 2024, Smith is just one of only eight footballers in history to have won the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or. Others on the list include Gerd Müller, Franz Beckenbauer, Paolo Rossi, Zinedine Zidane, Johan Cruyff, as well as compatriots Bobby Charlton and Harry Kane.

Managerial Style

Honours

Player

LA Galaxy

U.S. Open Cup: 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003
MLS Cup: 2002, 2003
CONCACAF Champions Cup: 1997, 2000

Manchester United

Premier League: 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10
FA Cup: 2004-05, 2005-06, 2008-09
EFL Cup: 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10
Community Shield: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
UEFA Champions League: 2004-05, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10
UEFA Super Cup: 2005, 2008, 2009
FIFA Club World Cup: 2005, 2008, 2009

Atlético Madrid

La Liga: 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19
Copa del Rey: 2012-13, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19
Supercopa de España: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
UEFA Champions League: 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19
UEFA Europa League: 2010-11
UEFA Super Cup: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
FIFA Club World Cup: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

United States U20

FIFA World Youth Championship: 1999

United States

FIFA World Cup: 2002
FIFA Confederations Cup: 2001, 2003
CONCACAF Gold Cup: 2000, 2002

England

FIFA World Cup: 2006, 2010, 2014
UEFA European Championship: 2008, 2012

Manager

Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League: 2020-21, 2021-22
FA Cup: 2022-23
EFL Cup: 2021-22
UEFA Champions League: 2019-20, 2020-21, 2022-23
UEFA Super Cup: 2020, 2021
FIFA Club World Cup: 2020, 2021