Gregory Klazura (born January 27, 1989) is a former 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 most recently played for the

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 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 Marc ...

Major League Soccer 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 ...

Career

College & amateur

Klazura played soccer in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

for the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

. He spent five years with the Fighting Irish where he appeared in 38 matches. In his fifth year he was named co-captain. Klazura also spent two seasons with the

Indiana Invaders The Indiana Invaders was an American soccer team based in South Bend, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1998, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes Divisi ...

of the

USL Premier Development League 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 ...

Professional

On January 17, 2012, Klazura was drafted by

in the second-round of the

2012 MLS Supplemental Draft The 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft was a secondary Draft (sports), draft that was held by Major League Soccer via conference call on January 17, 2012. The draft was four rounds and all 19 MLS clubs participated. Changes from 2011 *As an expansion c ...

. After impressing the coaching staff during the preseason he was signed by the Whitecaps on February 22, 2012. On May 2, Klazura made his debut in a 2-0 win over

FC Edmonton FC Edmonton was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club was founded in 2010 and competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2011 to 2017. The club went on hiatus when NASL ceased competitive operat ...

in the

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship (french: Championnat canadien) is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. It is contest ...

. Following the 2013 MLS season, Klazura and the Whitecaps did not come to terms on a new contract. That year, Klazura traveled to Zimbabwe to play professional soccer for Bantu Tshintsha Guluva Rovers. He also worked for the GrassRootSoccer Organization to educate children on the risks of HIV and AIDS. Klazura began medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in August 2014. In 2018 he graduated from medical school and began post-graduate training in general surgery at Loyola University Medical Center. During a research sabbatical from 2020-2022 as the Global Surgery Fellow at UIC and Health Equity Fellow at UCSF he earned his Master of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and completed a Fulbright Fogarty Fellowship in Public Health.

References

External links

*
Notre Dame bio
1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Rockford, Illinois American men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's soccer players Indiana Invaders players Vancouver Whitecaps FC players Vancouver Whitecaps FC U-23 players Men's association football defenders Soccer players from Illinois Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada USL League Two players Major League Soccer players Vancouver Whitecaps FC draft picks American expatriate sportspeople in Canada American expatriate sportspeople in Zimbabwe Expatriate men's footballers in Zimbabwe University of Illinois Chicago alumni {{US-footy-defender-stub