Daniel Francisco Barrera (born January 8, 1990) is a professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a midfielder for Hartford Athletic in the USL Championship. Born in Colombia, he has represented the United States at youth level.

Early life and education

Born in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, Barrera moved to the United States at the age of eight, growing up in Thousand Oaks, California. He trained with

Sheffield United F.C. Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

as a teen. He developed his game in the United States both with the US Soccer residency program and at the high school level with Westlake High School, where he skipped his senior year of high school. He was named as a ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

'' magazine All-American and regarded as one of the top recruits coming out of high school. RiseMag.com listed Barrera as the #1 recruit in his class. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where he was a student-athlete and played college soccer with the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team from 2008 to 2010. He would appear for the team in 66 games, scoring 10 goals and adding 22 assists. He left UCSB after his junior year to pursue a professional career.

Club career

While still attending college, Barrera played with the newly formed

PDL PDL is an initialism for: Politics *Democratic Liberal Party (Romania), Democratic Liberal Party (''Partidul Democrat Liberal''), a former political party in Romania *Labour Democratic Party (''Partito Democratico del Lavoro''), a former politi ...

team Ventura County Fusion in the summers, alongside his brother

Diego Barrera Diego Barrera (born March 25, 1987 in Bogotá) is a Colombian-born American soccer player. Career College and amateur Barrera is a professional american football player from California. He attended Thousand Oaks High School, and played three ...

. For the

2009 PDL season The 2009 USL Premier Development League season was the 15th season of the PDL. The regular season began on May 1, 2009, and ended on July 19, 2009. The PDL Championship Game was held on August 8, 2009, and was broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel in th ...

, Barrera and Ventura County Fusion beat Chicago Fire Premier for the league championship. Over 4 seasons, he appeared in 39 games for Ventura County, scoring 13 goals and 15 assists. After being named to the

2011 PDL season The 2011 USL Premier Development League season was the 17th season of the PDL. The regular season began on April 29, 2011, when the Los Angeles Blues 23 played Fresno Fuego, and ended on July 24. The playoffs began on Tuesday, July 26 and conclude ...

All-League Team, Barrera signed with Serbian SuperLiga side

FK Spartak Subotica Fudbalski klub Spartak Ždrepčeva Krv () is a professional football club from Subotica, Serbia, that plays in the Serbian SuperLiga. The club was founded in 1945 and was named after Jovan Mikić Spartak, the leader of the Partisans in Subotic ...

(for sponsorship reasons the name was Spartak Zlatibor Voda that season) in August 2011 after a successful trial. He made his debut for Spartak against FK Borac Čačak on December 10, 2011.

Ventura County Fusion

Barrera returned to the United States in 2012 and re-joined Ventura County Fusion and appeared in 6 games, but played for Cal FC in their historic

2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup The 2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 99th edition of the USSF's annual national soccer championship, running from May through early August. The Seattle Sounders FC, of Major League Soccer entered the competition as the three-time defending ...

run coached by

Eric Wynalda Eric Boswell Wynalda (born June 9, 1969) is an American soccer coach, television commentator, and retired player. He was formerly an analyst and color commentator for soccer coverage on Fox Sports 1 and ESPN. Previously, he served as head coach ...

Atlanta Silverbacks

In July, Barrera signed with

Atlanta Silverbacks The Atlanta Silverbacks FC were an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1998 as Atlanta Ruckus, the club played in many leagues over the years before folding after the 2015 season. The team played its home game ...

. He was the first signing of new Silverbacks head coach Eric Wynalda, who had just been appointed some days earlier. Wynalda, who coached Barrera at Cal FC, had previously stated that he's wanted Barrera playing for his team since 2010 when he first saw Barrera playing in Santa Barbara.

Trial at Derby County

In August 2012, Barrera joined English

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

side Derby County F.C. on trial, where he featured in preseason friendlies against Belper Town F.C., Chesterfield F.C., and Matlock Town F.C. He would return to Atlanta after the trial proved unsuccessful.

San Antonio Scorpions

Barrera joined

San Antonio Scorpions The San Antonio Scorpions were an American professional soccer team based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 2010, the team made its debut in the North American Soccer League in 2012. The Scorpions played at Toyota Field, a soccer specific stadium ...

ahead of the

2014 North American Soccer League season The 2014 North American Soccer League season was the 47th season of Division II soccer in the United States and the fourth season of the revived North American Soccer League. It was contested by ten teams including two from Canada. Joining the NAS ...

. He was traded later that season to Carolina RailHawks for

César Elizondo César Gerardo Elizondo Quezada (born 10 February 1988) is a footballer who plays as a striker for Pérez Zeledón. Club career His debut with Deportivo Saprissa in 2005 with 17 years old after the U-17 World Cup in Peru, then in 2007 played ...

. At the conclusion of the season, Barrera re-joined Cal FC for their 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup run.

Sacramento Republic

Barrera joined

Sacramento Republic FC Sacramento Republic FC is an American professional soccer team based in Sacramento, California, that plays in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second level in US soccer. Co-founded by Warren Smith and Joe Wagoner in 2012, the ...

in June 2015. He was re-signed by Sacramento for the

2016 USL season The 2016 USL season was the sixth season of the United Soccer League and the twenty-second season of USSF sanctioned Division III play organized by the United Soccer Leagues. On August 6, 2015, the league announced that the season would consis ...

. Head coach Paul Buckle moved Barrera to a more central position in the midfield and made him the team's captain.

Fresno FC

Barrera transferred to USL side Fresno FC for the 2018 season on January 23, 2018.

Hartford Athletic

HFDvPGH 2021-05-15 - Danny Barrera (51181529667) (cropped)

Barrera signed with Hartford Athletic on June 13, 2019. He led the team in assists despite just 17 games played for the 2019 season with four. He was re signed for the 2020 season and named team captain. During the 2020 season Barrera led the team in assists for the second year in a row and was named team MVP. Barrera re signed with Hartford for the 2021 season on November 30, 2020. In October 2021, Barrera was named to the USL Championship's All-Time Hispanic Team. Barrera recorded 12 assists during the 2021 season, the most of any player in the USL Championship. Barrera re-signed with Hartford ahead of the 2022 season.

International career

When he was 17 he was a member of the USA team at the

2007 Pan-American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Comm ...

being the youngest player of the roster. He also represented United States at U17 and U18 levels.

Honors

Individual * USL All-League Team:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

* Hartford Athletic Team MVP

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

* USL Championship's All-Time Hispanic Team

Personal life

Danny's older brother,

, is also a professional soccer player. Barrera enjoys being able to experience other cultures through his soccer experiences and plans to be a coach after he retires. Barrera has a brief appearance and line in the Will Ferrell movie Kicking and Screaming as his coach Dan Metcalfe was also the movies soccer choreographer and used several of his youth players in the movie. Barrera and his partner Vanessa have four children, Jacob, Addie and Dallas. The couples fourth child, Dakota Rae was born in February 2021.

References

External links

Sacramento Republic FC player profile

Carolina Railhawks player profile
*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrera, Danny 1990 births Living people Footballers from Bogotá Colombian emigrants to the United States American soccer players American expatriate soccer players Footballers at the 2007 Pan American Games Colombian footballers Colombian expatriate footballers Association football midfielders Parade High School All-Americans (boys' soccer) UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer players Ventura County Fusion players FK Spartak Subotica players Cal FC players Atlanta Silverbacks players San Antonio Scorpions players North Carolina FC players Sacramento Republic FC players Fresno FC players Hartford Athletic players Expatriate footballers in Serbia American expatriate sportspeople in Serbia USL League Two players Serbian SuperLiga players North American Soccer League players USL Championship players United States men's youth international soccer players American sportspeople of Colombian descent Sportspeople from Ventura County, California United Premier Soccer League players Pan American Games competitors for the United States