Nathaniel "Nate" Winkel (born June 30, 1978) is an American soccer

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 ...

who played professionally in the United States, Sweden and New Zealand. Winkel came out of retirement in 2019 to join North Tam United in the Marin Over 40s League and made an immediate impact with his composure on the ball, efficient distribution, strong controlling presence in central midfield and perceptive half-time coaching. Winkel’s strong first season was capped off by being awarded the prestigious North Tam Player of the Season trophy for Summer 2019, as voted on by his teammates.

Youth

Winkel was born in

Richfield, Minnesota Richfield is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling. An inner ring suburb of Minneapolis, it is bordered by Minneapolis to the north, Min ...

, where he was a 1995 and 1996 All State High School soccer player; he graduated in 1996. He began his college career at the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

in 1996 and 1997. He transferred to

Marquette University Marquette University () is a private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Martin Henni, the first Bishop of the diocese of M ...

for the 1998 and 1999 seasons. During the 1999 off-season, Winkel played for the

Twin Cities Tornado Twin Cities Phoenix, originally known as Twin Cities Tornado until 2000, were an American soccer team, founded in 1997, who were members of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid ...

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 syst ...

Professional

In February 2000, the

Minnesota Thunder Minnesota Thunder was an American professional soccer team based in Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1990, the team played in the USL First Division (USL-1), the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2009. The team played its home ...

selected Winkel in the first round of the

USL A-League 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 ...

draft. In 2002, he moved to the

Carolina Dynamo North Carolina Fusion U-23, formerly known as Carolina Dynamo, is an American soccer team based in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1993, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. Th ...

. He had spells in Sweden with Höllvikens GIF and Högaborgs BK. In 2004, he played for the

Virginia Beach Mariners The Virginia Beach Mariners were an American soccer club, who formerly played in the USL First Division of the United Soccer Leagues, the second division in the US Soccer hierarchy behind Major League Soccer. On March 30, 2007 the team folded due ...

. In 2006, he rejoined the Thunder and played 13 matches for the team in the 2006 season.2006 USL First Division 2006 Season
/ref> In 2010, Winkel played one game for

Western Suburbs FC Western Suburbs Football Club is an association football club in Porirua, New Zealand. They play their home matches at Endeavour Park in the Porirua suburb of Whitby and compete in the Central Premier League. Western Suburbs is in partnership ...

in New Zealand, but retired because of injuries. He is the executive director of the Ole Soccer Academy in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

References

1978 births Living people American men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players North Carolina Fusion U23 players Maine Black Bears men's soccer players Minnesota Thunder players Soccer players from Minnesota Twin Cities Phoenix players USL First Division players USL League Two players Virginia Beach Mariners players Högaborgs BK players Men's association football midfielders {{US-footy-midfielder-stub