Daniel Karbassiyoon (born August 10, 1984) is an American former 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 played for English sides

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

. He is currently working as a scout and IT Product Owner for

in London.

Early life

Karbassiyoon was born in Roanoke,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

to an Italian mother and Iranian father. He holds dual American and Italian citizenship.

Club career

He signed a full contract with

in 2003, moving from amateur club Roanoke Star at the beginning of the previous season. Having joined as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, he adapted his role to that of a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Karbassiyoon's first match for Arsenal was against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

on October 27, 2004, as a substitute for

Arturo Lupoli Arturo Lupoli (born 24 June 1987) is a former Italian footballer who last played as a forward for Borgo San Donnino. His former clubs include Parma, Arsenal and Derby County, where he spent the 2006–07 season on loan. Club career Parma Orig ...

. He marked his debut by scoring a goal in the 90th minute; the match finished 2–1. He then went on to secure a starting spot in the League Cup's next round match against Everton at Highbury where a young Arsenal side prevailed 3-1. His final match with the first team saw him play the final ten minutes of a 1-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford. However, he could not gain any sort of place in the regular Arsenal first team and, in November 2004, he was loaned out to Football League Championship team

for three months, making six appearances for the

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

n side. Arsenal released Karbassiyoon in the summer of 2005, after he had played just three times for them, all in the League Cup. He signed for

soon afterwards. However, a series of injuries left Karbassiyoon unable to establish himself at Turf Moor and he was placed on the transfer list at the end of his first season at the club. His contract was terminated by mutual consent in August 2006. Karbassiyoon had a trial at Dutch team

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and ho ...

, but wasn't offered a contract. Owing to knee injury problems, he retired from professional football in February 2007, at the age of 22. As of April 4, 2007, he is employed by Arsenal as scout for North America. He has been credited for scouting

Costa Rican Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

international

Joel Campbell Joel Nathaniel Campbell Samuels (; born 26 June 1992) is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a forward and winger for Liga MX club León and the Costa Rica national team. Campbell joined Arsenal in 2011 and was thereafter l ...

as well as German-born

Gedion Zelalem Gedion Zelalem (born January 26, 1997) is a professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for FC Den Bosch. Born in Germany, he represented the United States national under-23 team. After playing for various youth teams in Germany and ...

. Karbassiyoon published an e-book, ''The Arsenal Yankee'', which detailed his journey from player to scout in 2016.

Career statistics

References

External links

*
Danny Karbassiyoon
on Twitter.
Danny Karbassiyoon
interview. {{DEFAULTSORT:Karbassiyoon, Danny 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Roanoke, Virginia Soccer players from Virginia American soccer players American expatriate soccer players United States men's youth international soccer players Association football defenders Arsenal F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players English Football League players Arsenal F.C. non-playing staff American people of Iranian descent American people of Italian descent Italian people of Iranian descent Sportspeople of Iranian descent Association football scouts