Frederik Gerd Kleemann (born March 19, 1999) is an American 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 defender for the

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

in the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

Early life

Frederik "Freddy" Kleemann was born to Gerd and Doris Kleemann, German immigrants from Großheide. His father Gerd is one of the co-founders, of

FC Hasental FC Hasental is an American association football, soccer team based in Thousand Oaks, California, United States. Founded in 2005, the team plays in the Southwest Division of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American ...

. Freddy Kleemann played club soccer as a Center Midfielder and Captain with

Eastside FC Eastside Football Club is a soccer club from Issaquah, Washington competing in the Northeast Division of USL League Two. They will begin play in the 2021 USL League Two season. Eastside FC was founded in 1970 as a youth soccer club. In 2016, t ...

in the Washington State Regional Club League (RCL) Division 1 for 6 years from 2008 to 2015. During the 2013–2014 season, he led his team to the Nike Crossfire Challenge Championship, winning the Regional Club League (RCL), and Quarterfinalist in the Washington State Cup. During the 2014–2015 season, he led his team to San Diego Surf Cup Championship, winning the Presidents' Day Tournament (PDT) in Phoenix, to second place in the Far West Regional League (FWRL) and Regional Club League (RCL) Division 1, and to the semi-final in the Washington State Cup. He was selected twice for the Elite Player Development (EPD) program, representing Washington State at the Region IV Olympic Development Program (ODP) Championships in 2014 (finalist) and 2015 (3rd place) and was invited to the Sounders FC Discovery Camp in April 2015. He was also a two-year letter winner at

Mercer Island High School Mercer Island High School (MIHS) is a state school, public secondary education in the United States, high school located in Mercer Island, Washington, United States, as part of the Mercer Island School District. As of the 2018–19 school year, ...

, helping the team as a Freshman to the Washington State final in 2014 after a 12-0 season and the Washington State KingCo Championship as a Sophomore in 2015. After relocating to Newbury Park in California in 2015, he joined the Real So Cal academy (now LAFC So Cal Youth) as a Center Back, making it to the Elite 8 in the national playoffs. Outside of soccer, in 2010 he became the 800-meter champion at the USATF Junior Olympics State and Regional Championships and finished second in both in 2011. In 2012 he finished No. 12 in the nation in the 800-meter dash.

College career

In 2017, Freddy Kleemann joined the

Washington Huskies men's soccer The Washington Huskies men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of the University of Washington. The team is a member of the Pac-12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Players and staff Current roster ...

program while attending the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

to play

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

. He went on to make 28 appearances for the Huskies. In 2018, Freddy Kleemann helped Washington to take home the gold medal with a 1-0 victory over Brazil while representing the United States in the FISU (

International University Sports Federation The Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU, en, International University Sports Federation) is responsible for the organization and governance of worldwide sports competitions for student-athletes between the ages of 17 and 25. ...

) America Games in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2019, as a Redshirt Sophomore, he helped Washington to the PAC-12 Championship and the quarterfinal game in the NCAA tournament where they lost 2:1 against the later NCAA Champions Georgetown. During this 2019 season, Freddy Kleemann appeared in 19 matches and made 16 starts while playing the fourth-most minutes on the team (1,653 minutes). He helped anchor Washington's defense which recorded 12 shutouts, surrendered just 14 goals, and finished ninth in NCAA with a 0.66 goals against average, He scored his first collegiate goal against UCLA (9/22/2019), heading home a corner for the match's second goal in a 5-0 win and recorded his first assist with a helper on Washington's lone goal at CSUN (9/12/2019). winning the 2019 Pac-12 Championship, scoring a single goal, and tallying a single assist. He was named to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll in 2019. He did not play college soccer the entire 2020

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

season because it was canceled as a response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In 2019, Kleemann also spent the summer playing in the

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

for

Ventura County Fusion Ventura County Fusion is an American soccer team based in Ventura, California, United States. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team plays its home games in the stadium on the ...

, making a single appearance for the club.

Professional Club career

On January 21, 2021, Freddy Kleemann was selected 11th overall in the

2021 MLS SuperDraft The 2021 MLS SuperDraft was the 22nd edition of the SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is held every January prior to the start of the MLS season. The 2020 SuperDraft was the first held exclusively via conference call and ...

by Austin FC ahead of their inaugural season in

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

. He signed the club on February 9, 2021. On May 14, 2021, Freddy Kleemann was loaned to

side Birmingham Legion for the 2021 season. He made his professional debut on May 22, 2021, appearing as a 76th-minute substitute during a 2–1 loss to

San Antonio FC San Antonio FC is a professional soccer club based in San Antonio, Texas. It competes in the USL Championship, the second-highest level of the United States soccer league system, as a member of the Western Conference. History San Antonio F ...

. However, he was recalled to Austin ahead of their fixture against

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

on May 30, 2021. On March 11, 2022, Freddy Kleemann returned to Birmingham Legion, joining them for another season-long loan spell. On March 13, 2022, Freddy Kleemann helped the Legion to a 1:1 draw against the Tampa Bay Rowdies by completing the most passes (87) in the match with a pass accuracy of 89% of which 14 passes were directed into the final third. A week later, on March 19, he sustained an ACL injury in the first half against FC Tulsa, which sidelined him for the rest of the season. Freddy Kleemann was released by Austin following the 2022 season. Kleemann signed with the

on December 23, 2022.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleemann, Freddy 1999 births American men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Austin FC draft picks Austin FC players Birmingham Legion FC players Living people Major League Soccer players People from Newbury Park, California USL League Two players USL Championship players Ventura County Fusion players Washington Huskies men's soccer players Soccer players from Ventura County, California Tampa Bay Rowdies players American people of German descent