Nikolas Diego Tsakiris (born June 19, 2005) 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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

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 ...

club

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

Career

Youth

Tsakiris started playing academy soccer with De Anza Force. In 2015, at the age of 10, he moved to Florida to play with IMG Academy. A couple years later in 2017 he returned to the Bay Area and began play with the San Jose Earthquakes academy for four years, until receiving his first professional contract with San Jose at the beginning of 2022.

Professional

On January 13, 2022, Tsakiris signed as a Homegrown Player for

side

. He was the tenth homegrown signed by the Quakes in their history and the fifth youngest player they had ever signed. Tsakiris made his professional debut with San Jose on March 12, 2022, in an MLS match away to Philadelphia Union. Tsakiris became the third youngest player to appear in MLS for San Jose. Tsakiris made his professional start in San Jose's matchup against

Bay Cities FC Bay Cities FC was an American professional soccer team based in Redwood City, California that began play in 2022 to play in the National Independent Soccer Association, in the third tier of the US soccer pyramid. The club played in NISA until A ...

in the third round of the

2022 U.S. Open Cup The 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 107th edition of the U.S. Open Cup, a knockout cup competition in American soccer. After the 2020 and 2021 competitions were suspended and ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United St ...

. Tsakiris also scored his first professional goal in the 83rd minute of the match.

International

On March 3, 2020, Tsakriris was called up to a training camp for the United States national under-15 team. On April 20, 2022, Tsakiris was called up to a training camp for the United States national under-20 team. He was the second youngest player called for the camp.

Personal life

Niko's father is Shaun Tsakiris, an American former soccer player who is currently an assistant coach of the U.S. under-20 men's soccer team and the director of Los Gatos United academy. He is of Greek and Portuguese descent.

Career statistics

Club

Honors

United States U20 *

CONCACAF U-20 Championship The CONCACAF Under-20 Championship is the second longest running international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, CONCACAF, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsakiris, Niko 2005 births Living people American men's soccer players American people of Greek descent American people of Portuguese descent Men's association football midfielders Homegrown Players (MLS) Major League Soccer players MLS Next Pro players People from Saratoga, California Soccer players from Santa Clara County, California San Jose Earthquakes players United States men's under-20 international soccer players De Anza Force players San Jose Earthquakes II players