Jonathan Bornstein

Bornstein attended Los Alamitos High School, where he played soccer for all four years.[2] He was MVP of the Sunset League, first-team all-county, and All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), and led the soccer team to a CIF Championship.[3] He also played club soccer for Long Beach United, Beach Soccer Club, and the Irvine Strikers club team coached by Don Ebert. He won the Golden Boot Award as he led the Strikers to the US Youth Soccer 2002 Under-17 National Championship.[3][2][4]

He started his college soccer career at Cal Poly Pomona[5] and played there for the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos for two years. In 2002 Bornstein was California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Freshman of the Year, First-team All-CCAA, and second-team All-Far West Region, as he led the team in scoring.[3] In 2003 he was again First-team All-CCAA and second-team All-Far West Region, and was selected to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America College Division District VIII team with a 3.30 GPA in Business Administration, as he led Cal Poly in all scoring categories.[3] He finished his career at Cal Poly Pomona ranked 2nd in career assists (19), 3rd in career points (53), and 5th in career goals (19).[3]

He then transferred to UCLA for the 2004 season, as a Sociology major.[3] In 2004 Bornstein played in all of the UCLA Bruins men's soccer team's 20 games, with nine starts.[3] In 2005 he started all 20 games and was named Second-team All-Pac-10.[3]

Bornstein has been a teammate of Benny Feilhaber at the youth (with the Irvine Strikers), college (at UCLA, where they were roommates), and national team level, and at the Maccabiah Games in Israel.[2] Feilhaber said he and Bornstein "definitely had a special connection" because of their religion from the beginning of their friendship.[2]

Bornstein has made 38 appearances for the United States national soccer team.[20] He got his first cap, and scored his first goal on an assist from Justin Mapp, for the U.S. national team on January 20, 2007 against Denmark.[6] As 2007 continued, Bornstein became the first choice left back for Bob Bradley. He played for the U.S. in Copa América 2007.[6] He received his first World Cup Qualifying appearance in a start against Guatemala in the semifinal round of World Cup Qualifying. In 2007, he helped the USMNT win the CONCACAF Gold Cup, making five starts during the tournament.[6] He featured in the Concacaf Gold Cup (2007, 2011).[6]

In 2008, Bornstein lost his starting place to Heath Pearce and also struggled with injuries. He started the group stage matches at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, but was relegated back to the bench when Carlos Bocanegra returned from injury.[21]

After the Confederations Cup, Bornstein eventually replaced Pearce as first-choice again and remained so for the rest of the qualifiers. He scored the equalising goal in the United States' final World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica in the fifth minute of injury time. The goal meant that Honduras, when combined with their win over El Salvador, a game in which Bornstein captained the US side, qualified automatically for the 2010 World Cup.[22][23] That goal resulted in Bornstein having a level of celebrity in Honduras; he was invited to Honduras by the President of the country and he received letters of thanks for years afterwards.[24][25]

After sitting out the first two group-stage games for the United States in the 2010 World Cup, Bornstein started at left back against Algeria in the final group game and against Ghana in the round of 16.

Bornstein was never recalled to the squad by Bradley's successor, Jürgen Klinsmann, by Klinsmann's successor, Bruce Arena, or by Arena's successor, interim manager Dave Sarachan.

Bornstein was born in Torrance, California, and later lived in Los Alamitos, California.[29] His father is Jeff Bornstein, who is Jewish and was born in Torrence, CA into an Orthodox family, and worked for Hostess until his death in 2014.[3][30][2] His mother is from Mexico, and is not Jewish.[7] Bornstein's parents divorced when he was three years old, and he lived with his father.[25] His step-mother, Rochelle Bornstein, works as a deli supervisor and cashier at a grocery store in Long Beach, California.[2][31][30][32][33][34][27][35] His father's family were Romanian Jews.[22] Bornstein grew up observing Rosh Hashanah and Passover with relatives, and said of his experience representing the U.S. in the 2005 Maccabiah Games reinforcing his Jewish identity: "I was able to explore my Jewish identity in the Old City, at Masada, at the Dead Sea."[7][2] In 2006 he said: "in the past couple years, I’ve felt more Jewish than ever."[7] He found faith in Christianity when he met his wife, and was baptized, while in Mexico.[1] He told ESPN, "Just experiencing both cultures, sometimes I felt like I didn't know where I belonged. It's still a soul-searching kind of thing, trying to figure out exactly where you come from or which heritage you relate to. I still kind of feel lost even to this day, but it's something that I just deal with, and it makes me a stronger person having both of those heritages."[36]

His brother Andrew played soccer at Cal Poly Pomona, and is now a marketing director.[3][30] He has a third brother, Taylor.[30] His wife, Juliana, is from Brazil, and he has two daughters.[37]

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

• Jonathan Bornstein – Liga MX stats at MedioTiempo.com (in Spanish)
• Jonathan Bornstein at Major League Soccer
• Jonathan Bornstein – FIFA competition record
• Jonathan Bornstein Stats and biography
• Jonathan Bornstein on Twitter