Benny Feilhaber

Feilhaber was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[2][3] He is Jewish,[4] and was raised in his father's Jewish religion.[5] His paternal grandfather emigrated from the Austrian capital city of Vienna to Brazil in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime.[3]

Feilhaber was six years old when his family moved from Brazil to settle in the United States and attended Nottingham Country Elementary in Katy, Texas. He spent approximately eight years in the New York City suburb of Scarsdale where he played for the local soccer team, the Scarsdale Lightning. In 1996, he led the team and won the New York State Cup for the U-12 division.[6] He attended Northwood High School in Irvine, California where he was a standout midfielder on the school’s soccer team. He also played club soccer for the Irvine Strikers, winning various youth national titles. He was coached by youth coach Don Ebert.

After graduating in 2003 he played college soccer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he became a mainstay in the Bruins' midfield. At UCLA he was roommates with future national teammate Jonathan Bornstein. Feilhaber made the team as a walk-on, rather than being recruited with a scholarship offer. After his second year at UCLA Feilhaber was called up by the U.S. U-20 national soccer team to play in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.

Feilhaber was called up twice to the full U.S. national team for friendlies against Scotland on November 12, 2005, and Germany on March 22, 2006, but did not play in either game.

On November 30, 2006, he turned down an offer from Andreas Herzog to play for Austria and said that he would instead focus on earning a place on the U.S. national team.[24]

On March 15, 2007, Feilhaber was again placed on the 24-man roster by coach Bob Bradley for friendly matches against Ecuador and Guatemala. Feilhaber made his first career start for the U.S. team in the March 25, 2007, game against Ecuador, and scored his first international goal against China on June 2, 2007. He scored the game-winning goal on a volley in the 2007 Gold Cup final on June 24, 2007, against Mexico.

After being demoted to the reserves at Derby and picking up a series of injuries, Feilhaber saw less time with the senior national team. However, Feilhaber was named to the U.S. Under-23 squad that competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He appeared as a substitute in all three games for the U.S.

After more than a year since his last action with the senior team, Feilhaber was named to the U.S. roster for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. Along with former UCLA teammate Jonathan Bornstein and fellow UCLA alum Carlos Bocanegra, Feilhaber played in the upset of top-ranked Spain in a semi-final game on June 24, 2009. He orchestrated the second goal, rounding Gerard Pique to find Landon Donovan, who found Clint Dempsey for the finish in the center.[25] He then appeared in the final, in which the U.S. fell to the country of his birth, Brazil 3–2.

Feilhaber was a part of the 23-man squad for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Feilhaber was used as a substitute, gaining playing time in two of the three group stage matches against Slovenia (draw) and Algeria (win). U.S. finished first in the group after a stoppage time goal by Landon Donovan leading United States to a 1–0 win against Algeria in the last match, where Feilhaber played the entire second half.[26] Feilhaber was substituted in for Findley in the second half of the U.S.-Ghana game. Commentators remarked on his ability to generate plays and praised his readiness to make decisions, many of which were key passes to set up chances to score. One such pass was a through ball for Clint Dempsey, who was then fouled in the box. Landon Donovan took the subsequent penalty and scored to tie the score at 1–1, although Ghana would later come back in the first half of extra time to score through Asamoah Gyan, ending the game 2–1.

Feilhaber was not called up to a national camp from January 2014 until October 2017,[27] even during and after his 2015 MLS Landon Donovan MVP Award finalist season. This has led Feilhaber become critical of national team manager Jürgen Klinsmann and his selection of players, saying "“I don't think Jurgen calls in the best players that are available to him." Feilhaber went on to mention Sacha Kljestan, Dax McCarty, Matt Hedges, and Eric Lichaj as other players performing well that have not been called up by Klinsmann.[28][29][30] Klinsmann responded that Feilhaber was not able to perform as well as the national team staff hoped in prior camps, and saying that "He doesn’t have a coach’s perspective. He doesn’t know how we put the pieces together. He doesn’t know how we evaluate every position, how we evaluated the pieces that we need to connect."[31]

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Feilhaber has stated that he supports the Brazilian team Botafogo. His father is a supporter of the team, and he has been one since a child.[32]

He married his wife, Michele, on December 15, 2012.[33] Feilhaber has a daughter named Sofia[34] and a daughter named Julia.[35]

United States

• CONCACAF Gold Cup: 2007

Sporting Kansas City

• MLS Cup: 2013
• U.S. Open Cup: 2015, 2017

• Austrian Brazilian
• List of select Jewish football (association; soccer) players

• Benny Feilhaber at Major League Soccer
• "AGF profile" (in Danish). Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
• official Danish Superliga stats (in Danish)
• Benny Feilhaber at Soccerbase
• Benny Feilhaber at National-Football-Teams.com
• Benny Feilhaber – FIFA competition record