Former LA Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid has been hospitalized at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Monday for an unknown reason.
Rumors began circulating about the Galaxy’s former boss early on Monday morning. But his exact reason for being in the hospital remains somewhat of a mystery.
The LA Times’ Kevin Baxter (a co-host on Corner of the Galaxy) tweeted out on Monday morning that there were “reports of Schmid in the hospital.” He followed up with, “sounds serious,” and eventually tweeted out this afternoon that Schmid had been admitted to Intensive Care and was a confirmed patient at the hospital.
CoG, while working with league and team sources, was able to confirm the reporting and was told that Schmid was having health problems throughout the 2018 season. His condition seems very, very serious.
Schmid, 65, who was fired from the Galaxy on September 10 after a 6-2 loss to Real Salt Lake, never mentioned health reasons as a cause for his dismissal. And those close to the club denied it factored into their decision, at the time.
While not retired, Schmid finished his 19th career year in MLS with a 240-183-125 record and is MLS’ most-winningest coach — topping former Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, and current Galaxy interim head coach Dominic Kinnear.
Schmid was expected to be in the mix for a number of coaching positions that had become open in Major League Soccer over the year and with a long and successful career would have been a serious contender for any of those positions.
He was born in Germany in 1953 and came to the United States where he played soccer for UCLA from 1972 to 1975. He went on to coach at UCLA for 19 seasons before joining the Galaxy for the first time in 1999.
Schmid eventually led the Galaxy to an MLS Cup title in 2002 and then, after moving to the Columbus Crew, led them to a title in 2008. He’s also the holder of multiple Supporters Shields and US Open Cups.
Schmid rejoined the Galaxy in the summer of 2017 when he took over for fired coach Curt Onalfo.