Eric Leonard (born October 5, 1995) is an American

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 defender for

MLS Next Pro MLS Next Pro is a men's professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that is affiliated with Major League Soccer. It launched in 2022 with 21 teams and will expand to 28 in 2023. The league comprises 27 reserve sides for MLS club ...

club

Chicago Fire FC II Chicago Fire FC II is an American professional soccer team that is located in Bridgeview, Illinois. It is the reserve team of Chicago Fire FC and participates in MLS Next Pro. History On December 6, 2021, the Chicago Fire FC were named as one o ...

Career

Youth and college career

In addition to playing for

William Fremd High School William Fremd High School, or Fremd (initially Palatine High School South), is a public four-year high school located in Palatine, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District ...

, Leonard also served as the captain for the Sockers FC Chicago development academy. In 2014, he joined

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...

, making 73 appearances and scoring 6 goals for the

Bulldogs The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.OKC Energy U23 team of the

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 ...

in 2017. He made 13 regular season appearances, scoring one goal, along with one appearance in the play-offs.

Nerang Eagles

In 2018, Leonard joined Australian club Nerang Eagles in the

Gold Coast Premier League Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

. At the end of the season, he won the Gold Coast Premier League Players' Player of the Year award.

Forward Madison FC

In December 2018,

Forward Madison FC Forward Madison FC is an American professional soccer team based in Madison, Wisconsin. The team was founded in 2018, and played its inaugural season in 2019. The team competes in the third division of the US soccer league system and plays the ...

announced the signing of Leonard for the team's inaugural season in 2019. He made his league debut for the club on April 13, 2019, coming on as an 81st minute substitute for

Josiel Núñez Josiel Alberto Núñez Rivera (born 29 January 1993) is a Panamanian Association football, footballer who plays for CF Intercity in the Tercera División. Club career In December 2018, Núñez was loaned out to USL League One side Forward Mad ...

in a 1-0 away defeat to

North Texas SC North Texas Soccer Club is a professional soccer club playing in the MLS Next Pro, a third division league of American soccer. The team is owned by, and operates as the reserve team of the Major League Soccer club FC Dallas. While the senior club i ...

. Leonard is Forward Madison's all-time appearance leader, with 99 appearances across all competitive competitions.

Chicago Fire FC II

On December 13, 2022, Leonard was transferred from Forward Madison FC to the

Chicago Fire FC (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

organization. Details of the transfer were not disclosed. It was later reported that Leonard would start with

Personal life

Leonard was born in

Palatine, Illinois Palatine () is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a northwestern residential suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 67,908. As of the 2010 Census, it was the seventh-largest community in Cook Coun ...

, a suburb of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Eric 1995 births Living people People from Palatine, Illinois Sportspeople from Cook County, Illinois Soccer players from Illinois American soccer players American expatriate soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate soccer players in Australia Association football midfielders Butler Bulldogs men's soccer players OKC Energy FC players Forward Madison FC players Chicago Fire FC II players USL League One players USL League Two players MLS Next Pro players