Twellman to retire

New England Revolution striker Taylor Twellman will announce Wednesday that he is ending his quest to return from concussion-related issues, reports Steven Goff of the Washington Post.

He has scheduled a news conference at Gillette Stadium to discuss his future. The decision to end his playing career was first reported on Goff's Twitter page this morning.

Twellman, 30, did not play this season and made just two appearances in 2009. He starred for two seasons at the University of Maryland before turning pro and signing with 1860 Munich, where he played for the reserves. In 2002, his first season in MLS, he had 23 goals in 28 league appearances. Over the next five seasons, he averaged 13.6 goals in league play.

At his peak, was there a truer pure scorer in MLS? Raul Diaz Arce and Carlos Ruiz would make the short list, but no one can match Twellman's strike rate: 101 goals in 174 regular season matches. He is sixth on the all-time scoring chart, and everyone ahead of him needed far more appearances to compile their totals.

Jaime Moreno: 133 in 340 games
Jeff Cunningham: 132 in 344
Ante Razov: 114 in 262
Jason Kreis: 108 in 305
Landon Donovan: 103 in 232

Of note: Only three of Twellman's goals were on penalty kicks (Moreno had 44, Donovan has 22); he was 3 for 3 in 2002, 0 for 1 in '03 and 0 for 1 in '04. ... He had 10 goals in 21 playoff matches and six in 30 U.S. national team appearances (16 starts). In January 2006, he had a hat trick against Norway.

There was not a more prolific goalscorer in Major League Soccer than Taylor Twellman, and none more important to their team (look at New England's results over the past two seasons without him). The league will miss Taylor, and hopefully New England can replace his consistent double-figure goal scoring production to get them back among the MLS elite.