Benny Feilhaber

Benny Feilhaber

Personal information
Full name	Benny Feilhaber
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 16:49, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Benny Feilhaber

Medal record
Representing United States
Football
Maccabiah Games
	2005 Maccabiah	Football

Benny Feilhaber (born January 19, 1985 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is an American professional soccer player who currently plays for Derby County. He normally plays as an attacking midfielder.

Club career

Early career

Feilhaber, of Austrian Jewish descent, was six years old when his family moved from Brazil to settle in the United States. He attended Northwood High School in Irvine, California where he was a standout midfielder on the school’s soccer team. After graduating in 2003 he enrolled at UCLA where he became a mainstay in the Bruins’ midfield. Surprisingly, 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.

Hamburger SV

His performances in the tournament caught the attention of scouts from several European teams and, after representing the U.S. in the 2005 Maccabiah Games in Israel, Feilhaber signed for Hamburg in July 2005. In the 2005-06 season Feilhaber played with the Hamburg reserve team in the third division, or Regionalliga.

On October 12 2006 Feilhaber made his Bundesliga debut, coming on as a second half substitute in a 2-1 home loss to Schalke 04. His first start came on October 22 2006 when he played 90 minutes in a 2-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburg's first win of the season. During the summer of 2007, Feilhaber was linked with a transfer move away from Hamburg with RC Strasbourg, Heerenveen, Celtic, FC Basel, and especially Derby County expressing interest.

Derby County

On August 9 2007 Feilhaber obtained a work permit to play for newly promoted Premier League side Derby County. His signing was completed on August 10 2007, and Feilhaber made his debut for the club on September 17, 2007, coming on as an 80th minute substitute in a 1-0 win over Newcastle United.

After the sacking of Billy Davies and the appointment of Paul Jewell, Feilhaber has seen little playing time at Derby, and is yet to start under Jewell. During the 2008-09 winter transfer window, Feilhaber was linked with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Major League Soccer, but neither deal was completed.

International career

Feilhaber was called up twice to the U.S. squad 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 approach by coach Andreas Herzog to play for Austria and said that he would instead focus on earning a place on the U.S. team.

On March 15 2007, Feilhaber was again placed on the 24-man roster by coach Bob Bradley for friendly matches against Ecuador and Guatemala, on March 25 and March 28, 2007, respectively. 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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcGA2W4d5_E on a memorable 25 yard volley in the 2007 Gold Cup final on June 24 2007.

After being demoted to the reserves at Derby, Feilhaber has seen less time with the senior national team. However, Feilhaber has been named to the U.S. Under-23 squad that will compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	2 June, 2007	Spartan Stadium, California, United States	China	2-1	4-1	Friendly match
2.	24 June, 2007	Soldier Field, Illinois, United States	Mexico	2-1	2-1	CONCACAF Gold Cup Final

External links

• Benny Feilhaber at Soccerbase
• Hamburger SV official website
• Feilhaber interview on Yanks Abroad
• Feilhaber interview on UCLA.com
• Derby County official website