D.C. United is an American professional men's soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supporters Shields (league regular season), three U.S. Open Cups (domestic cups) and six Eastern Conference championships. In international competitions, the club has one CONCACAF Champions League title and one Copa Interamericana, being the only American team to win the latter. In terms of trophies won, it is the joint-most successful overall club in American soccer (tied with the New York Cosmos and LA Galaxy).
Founded in 1995, the club was an inaugural franchise in Major League Soccer, playing in MLS in every season since its first season in 1996. The club played a majority of its matches at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, from 1996 until 2017, before moving to the soccer-specific stadium, Audi Field, in 2018, where it has played since. D.C. United was one of the premier franchises in Major League Soccer, and in American soccer in the late 1990s, where it won the bulk of its trophies. Players such as Raúl Díaz Arce, Marco Etcheverry, Roy Lassiter, Jaime Moreno, Ben Olsen, and Eddie Pope, along with head coach, Bruce Arena, helped the club win eight of their twelve major titles from 1996 through 2000. The club would win an MLS Cup, a U.S. Open Cup, and two Supporters Shield title under Piotr Nowak and Tom Soehn in the mid-to-late-2000's. In 2013, under the management of Ben Olsen, the club won the U.S. Open Cup, which is their most recent major trophy.
Throughout the 2010s, and into the early 2020s, the club managed by Olsen, went through mediocrity, with only one major trophy, and several missed playoff appearances, including two last place finishes in the league. During this time, some high-profile acquisitions joined United, including Wayne Rooney, and several homegrown players began making impacts on the United squad including Bill Hamid, Andy Najar, and Kevin Paredes. After a string of poor seasons, Olsen was fired in 2020, after a ten-year tenure as head coach. Olsen was replaced by Hernán Losada, who managed the club until 2022. The club is presently managed by former Manchester United player and English international Wayne Rooney.