Joshua Christopher 'Josh' Simpson is a Canadian retired soccer player who is currently the president of Canadian Premier League team Pacific FC. During a career that included stops in England, Germany, Turkey, and Switzerland, he earned 43 caps for Canada before retiring from professional soccer after being unable to recover from a leg injury.
Club career
Born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Simpson started his career on a soccer scholarship with the University of Portland. In 2004, Simpson spent time with Boulder Rapids Reserve in the USL Premier Development League where he was named to the PDL all conference team. Shortly after, he and fellow Canadian Adrian Serioux signed with Millwall. He made his debut against Plymouth Argyle. On May 23, 2006, he signed a three-year contract with German team 1. FC Kaiserslautern and left the club on June 25, 2009 to sign with Turkish club Manisaspor. Simpson scored his first hat-trick in a 3–0 home victory on September 26, 2010 vs. Sivasspor. On February 22, 2011, Simpson signed a new three-year contract with Manisa, keeping him at the club until the end of the 2013–14 season. Simpson had his best professional season in 2010–11 with Manisapor leading the team with 12 goals and taking his team to tenth place. Simpson was tied for seventh in goals along with Jajá and Olcan Adın in the Süper Lig. Simpson made his debut for the 2011/12 season as a second half sub for Ariza Makukula against Trabzonspor on September 10, Manisaspor was tailing by a goal until Simpson scored the tying goal in the 88th minute. Following his second goal of the season against Fenerbahçe in a 2-1 loss January 16, 2012, it was announced the following day that Simpson had terminated his contract with the team over unpaid wages. On January 19, 2012 Simpson signed for BSC Young Boys on a three-and-a-half year deal. Simpson made his Young Boys debut on February 12 as a second half sub for David Degen in a 1–0 victory over FC Sion. On May 23 the last game of the season against FC Basel, Simpson sustained a broken leg that was initially expected to keep him out for 3 months forcing him to miss the next round of international games for Canada after being called up the previous week. However, the injury turned out to be far more serious, which was described by the BSC Young Boys website as a "terrible moment for the audience ." He retired in May 2015 after failing to recover. In the spring of 2016 he made his return to soccer at the amateur level in Switzerland, signing with the Swiss 3. Liga's FC Muri-Gümligen in the 7th tier of Swiss football.
