Felix Gelt is a Canadian retired

association football 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 represented municipal, provincial, varsity, national, semi and professional teams. He played for the UBC Thunderbirds Men's Varsity Soccer Team, at the 1997 Canadian Summer Games, for the

North York Astros The North York Astros were a Canadian soccer team that was founded in 1990. The team initially played in the National Soccer League. The team played their home games at Esther Shiner Stadium in North York, a district of the city of Toronto, Cana ...

, and for Team Canada at the

2005 Maccabiah Games The 17th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-17 ישראל תשס"ה), held in Israel, were an incarnation of the 'Jewish Olympics.' They attracted the largest attendance of any Maccabiah Games, including more than 900 representatives from the Un ...

and

2009 Maccabiah Games The 18th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-18 ישראל תשס"ט), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Ol ...

in Israel.

Biography

Gelt's hometown is

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. He was a

center-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 ...

through most of his playing career and shifted to

right-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 ...

later in his career. Gelt grew up playing soccer in southwest

for

Fish Creek Park Fish Creek Park is an urban provincial park that preserves the valley of Fish Creek in the southern part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is bordered on three sides by the city, and on the west by the territory of the Tsuu T’ina Nation (Sarcee) ...

, followed by Foothills Football Club. During those early years, he led his team as the Captain to winning multiple municipal and provincial championships in Alberta, Canada. In 1990, Gelt was the youngest player in Alberta history to make the U-15 provincial squad at the age of 12. He went on to become the Captain of the Alberta provincial team for several consecutive years growing through the U-15, U-17, and Youth programs. He competed at five consecutive National Championships winning several

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

s. In 1997, Gelt represented Team Alberta at the Canadian Summer Games in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

. Based on his provincial play at competitive competitions, Gelt was invited to Canada national team try-outs for the Canada men's national under-17 soccer team and Canada men's national under-20 soccer team. In 1996, Gelt joined the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

(UBC; 2001) to play for the UBC Thunderbirds Men's Varsity Soccer Team, which has the most victorious record of all Canadian universities. Through his athletic and academic scholarships, Felix played four years at UBC winning three Canada West Championships and a silver medal at the 1999 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) National Championships. During his varsity career, Gelt was a scholar off the field where he pursued a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He was recognized as an Academic All-Canadian, an award for student athletes who combine athletic excellence with strong academic performance. Post varsity, Gelt joined the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

training and reserve squad given their affiliation with UBC. In 2001, he moved to Toronto, Ontario to join the Canadian Maccabi Team and to play semi-professional in the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL) with the

from 2001 to 2005. Felix was Captain of the first outdoor men's soccer team that Maccabi Canada sent to the

. This experience culminated with beating the two-time defending champions Argentina 1–0 in the opening game of the tournament. Despite not advancing past their group, their victory over Argentina took the 2-time defending champions out of the tournament and shocked the international Maccabi soccer scene with Team Canada's performance. Four years later at the

, Team Canada managed to advance to the quarter-final stage with a heart breaking loss to Mexico. At that point, Gelt retired from international and competitive playing to focus on his professional career. Gelt advanced a career as a management consultant.

International playing career

Gelt was named as Captain of the Canadian football squad competing at the

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Statistics

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelt, Felix 1978 births Living people Canadian soccer players Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) players Competitors at the 2005 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Jewish men's footballers Jewish Canadian sportspeople Maccabiah Games competitors for Canada Maccabiah Games footballers North York Astros players Soccer players from Calgary Men's association football defenders UBC Thunderbirds men's soccer players