College and amateur Gibbs was born in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He played
college soccer at
Brown University, joining the team in 1997. During his career, Brown won three
Ivy League Championships and participated in the NCAA Tournament all four years. In 2000, Gibbs led Brown to an Ivy League championship and the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He was named Ivy League Player of the Year, and a
First-Team All-American. In 2000, he spent the collegiate off season with the
Palm Beach Pumas of the
Premier Development League. He was also one of three Brown soccer players, including
Matthew Cross (
Kansas City Wizards) and
Scott Powers (
Columbus Crew), to be drafted in the
2001 MLS SuperDraft.
Professional Germany After graduating from Brown in 2001, Gibbs decided not to play in MLS and joined
FC St. Pauli of the
Bundesliga. He played 25 games for St. Pauli that season, becoming the youngest American to score a goal in the Bundesliga with a goal against
FC Cologne. He was also a part of the side that beat the world champions
Bayern Munich, a result that earned St. Pauli the nickname of
weltpokalsiegerbesieger, translated as World Club Championship Winner Beaters. St. Pauli was relegated to the
2. Bundesliga after the 2001–02 season, and Gibbs played an equally important role with the team in his second season as in his first. St. Pauli, however, was relegated again after the 2002–03 season, this time to the
Regionalliga Nord, the German third division. Gibbs remained with the team, being moved from central defense to
defensive midfielder. Gibbs decided to leave St. Pauli during 2003 due to the low level of play and lack of exposure needed to secure a spot on the
United States national team. A move to
Jahn Regensburg of the 2. Bundesliga fell through.
MLS Gibbs returned to the United States and play in
Major League Soccer, where he would be easily visible and available for international matches. Although the Columbus Crew initially tried to acquire Gibbs, he eventually ended up with
FC Dallas, then known as the Dallas Burn. Gibbs was a starter in every game for which he was available during his stint with Dallas. He made a total of 21 appearances.
Europe On January 20, 2005, the Dutch club
Feyenoord agreed on a
transfer with MLS, and Gibbs signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with the club. In his first season, he made 15 appearances and scored one goal. After injuring his knee in a U.S. national team
friendly against
England on May 28, 2005, Gibbs rehabbed, under the direction of Dr. Daniel Kalbac in Miami, Florida, and came back from his injury on January 19, 2006. On January 24, 2006, Feyenoord
loaned Gibbs to
ADO Den Haag for the remainder of the season. Gibbs signed a pre-contract agreement with English
Premier League club
Charlton Athletic in May 2006 just before
Alan Curbishley's departure. After a short stay at Charlton it was announced that he would leave June 30, 2008, at the end of his contract. He never played a match for Charlton due to injuries.
Return to MLS Gibbs moved to MLS. It was expected that he would be selected by the Galaxy, who had first option to pick up his contract in the allocation listings, but he was selected by
Colorado after the Galaxy passed on Gibbs in order to be able to pick
Eddie Lewis.
New England Revolution On January 22, 2010, Colorado sent Gibbs,
Preston Burpo, allocation money, and a third-round pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft in exchange for the rights to
Jeff Larentowicz and
Wells Thompson. Gibbs made his Revolution debut, and first Revolution start, in the
2010 New England Revolution season opener, a 1-0 loss to the LA Galaxy on March 27. Gibbs captained the Revolution for the first two months of the season. He helped the Revolution reach the
2010 North American SuperLiga and started in the final.
Later career Gibbs was selected by the
Chicago Fire with the seventh pick of the MLS Re-Entry Draft on December 15, 2010. He agreed terms with the club the same day. At the end of the
2011 Chicago Fire season, he was named the club's Defender of the Year. After starting in the first three games of the 2012 season, Gibbs suffered an injury, tearing his meniscus on April 4, 2012. After missing the rest of the 2012 season, he announced his retirement from the game on November 26, 2012. Gibbs played only 45 minutes all season for Charlton's reserves following surgery to repair cartilage in his knee. Gibbs returned to international soccer when he was selected by
Bob Bradley for the United States' March 26 match against
Poland. ==Personal==