Ben Lederman ( he, בן לדרמן; born 8 May 2000) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a midfielder for Ekstraklasa club

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of na ...

. Born in the United States, he was a youth international for Poland.

Early life

Lederman was born in Los Angeles, California to Israeli expatriates of Polish-Jewish descent, Danny and Tammy. His father was a small business owner and his mother, a real estate agent. In 2011, the entire family moved to Barcelona so Ben could join La Masia, FC Barcelona's youth academy.

Club career

At age 11, Lederman was identified by scouts from FC Barcelona in a friendly match between his California State U10 team and FC Barcelona Academy Benjamin A. He was subsequently invited to train at La Masia and joined the academy thereafter. In January 2020, Lederman left Belgium and joined Beitar Jerusalem on trial. He did not earn a contract with the Premier League side and instead signed with Liga Alef's

Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan Hakoah Maccabi Amidar Ramat Gan Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל הכח מכבי עמידר רמת גן) is an Israeli football club based in Ramat Gan. The club is currently in Liga Alef South division and plays at the Winter Stadiu ...

. On 14 February 2020, Lederman made his first and only appearance for Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan in a Liga Alef South match against

Maccabi Sha'arayim Maccabi Sha'arayim ( he, מכבי שעריים) is an Israeli football club from the city Rehovot, currently playing in Liga Alef. The club spent the past seven seasons in the top division from 1963 to 1969, and a single season in 1985–8 ...

. Lederman started and went 65 minutes before being replaced by Michael Ben Baruch in a 1–0 loss. Lederman was released by the club on 27 February 2020 so he could join

in the Polish Ekstraklasa. Lederman made his first team debut on 20 June 2020, coming on as a substitute for David Tijanič in the 84th minute against Wisła Kraków. On 2 May 2021, Lederman won the first trophy of his professional career as Raków Częstochowa defeated Arka Gdynia in the final of the Polish Cup.

International career

Lederman represented United States at under-15 and under-17 levels. In May 2021, he was invited to a training camp with the Poland under-21 team in Warka. Later that year, he earned his first official U21 call-up for

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2023) will be the 24th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (27th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football ...

qualification matches against Germany U21 and Latvia U21 on 12 and 16 November 2021. In March 2023, he received his first call-up to the Poland senior national team for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament is an upcoming Association football, football competition that will be played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that will join the automatically qualified ...

matches against Czech Republic and Albania.

Personal life

Lederman is Jewish and celebrated his bar mitzvah at a local synagogue in Barcelona.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Raków Częstochowa * Ekstraklasa:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

* Polish Cup:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2021, the Polish Super Cup has been pl ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual *Ekstraklasa Young Player of the Month:

December 2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lederman, Ben 2000 births Living people People from Calabasas, California Soccer players from California Polish men's footballers Poland men's under-21 international footballers American men's soccer players American people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish people of Israeli descent Polish people of American descent Men's association football midfielders Jewish footballers Jewish American soccer players Jewish Polish sportspeople 21st-century American Jews Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan F.C. players Ekstraklasa players III liga players Raków Częstochowa players Polish expatriate men's footballers American expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Polish expatriate sportspeople in Spain American expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Polish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium American expatriate sportspeople in Belgium 21st-century Polish Jews 21st-century Polish sportspeople Polish Ashkenazi Jews American Ashkenazi Jews