The Portland Timbers announced Tuesday that John Spencer will be their head coach when the team debuts in Major League Soccer next year.
Spencer played soccer professionally for 18 seasons and has spent the past five years as an assistant coach with the Houston Dynamo.
The 39-year-old Spencer will be introduced at a news conference Wednesday in Portland.
The Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps join MLS in 2011, increasing the league to 18 teams.
Spencer, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, played for 14 seasons in Scotland and England. A striker, he amassed 43 goals playing for Chelsea from 1992-96.
He earned 14 caps while with the Scottish national team from 1994-97.
He joined the MLS Colorado Rapids in 2001, collecting 37 goals in 88 games before his retirement in 2004. He was a finalist for the league's MVP in 2003, and was an All-Star in 2001 and 2003.
Spencer joined the Dynamo in 2006 as an assistant under head coach Dominic Kinnear. Houston won MLS Cup championships in 2006 and 2007, went to the playoffs four times and advanced to the conference finals in 2009.
Spencer coached the Dynamo Reserves to the 2008 reserve club championship.
