Paul Andrew Stalteri (born October 18, 1977) is a Canadian former 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 played as a defender or

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 ...

. He spent most of his professional career in Germany, winning the league and cup double with

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

in the 2003–04 season. Stalteri also played football in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. A regular for the Canada national team, Stalteri made a national record 84 appearances at the senior level, scoring 7 goals. He was part of the squad that won the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

in 2000. He currently serves as an assistant coach for

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

Early life

Stalteri was born to an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

father and a Guyanese mother. While growing up, Stalteri says his favourite player was

Paolo Maldini Paolo Cesare Maldini (; born 26 June 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played primarily as a left back and centre back for AC Milan and the Italy national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of a ...

and the first live football match he ever saw was

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

. He also considered Physical Education to be his favourite subject. While playing youth soccer in Ontario with the Malton Bullets, won a Robbie International Soccer Tournament Championship.

Club career

A defender who can play either side of the field as well as in midfield, Stalteri began his soccer career playing one year of

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 ...

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

in 1996. Following his first year, he elected to turn professional, signing a contract with the

Toronto Lynx Toronto Lynx was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1997, the team last played in the 2014 season of the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes D ...

while attending

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

. After playing one season with the Lynx, alongside fellow Canada national team teammate

Dwayne De Rosario Dwayne Anthony De Rosario OOnt (born May 15, 1978) is a Canadian former professional soccer player, who played as a forward or as an attacking midfielder. De Rosario last played for the Mississauga MetroStars of the Major Arena Soccer League. ...

, where he led the team in scoring with eight goals and two assists, Stalteri was noticed by a scout from Werder Bremen and purchased from the team. After two and a half seasons in the reserves, Stalteri made his debut with the club in August 2000, scoring in the first game of the season against

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus ( Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

. During the 2001–02 season, Stalteri established his role in the first team at Bremen and went on to cement his role as a regular in the 2002–03 season. In 2003–04, Werder Bremen won the Bundesliga. In May 2005, Stalteri transferred to English Premiership club

. He featured heavily in the 2005–06 campaign as Spurs narrowly missed out on a Champions League place, but the arrival of full back

Pascal Chimbonda Pascal Chimbonda (born 21 February 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Chimbonda began his professional career in 1998 with Le Havre, where he featured over 100 times combined for the club's first team ...

at White Hart Lane the following season limited his chances. On March 4, 2007, after coming on as a substitute, he scored a dramatic last minute winner against London rivals

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

to complete an extraordinary 4–3 win. He had hardly featured in the first team all season up to that point. His other Spurs goals came against Manchester City in the league and Leicester City in the FA Cup. On January 31, 2008, Stalteri moved to

on loan until the end of the season. He made his debut for Fulham away at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on February 9, 2008 where his team lost 1–0. Having returned to White Hart Lane, his contract was terminated by mutual consent on December 21, 2008. Stalteri returned to the Bundesliga, having been immediately signed by

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

where he joined fellow international

Rob Friend Rob or ROB may refer to: Places * Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia * Roberts International Airport (IATA code ROB), in Monrovia, Liberia People * Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn * Rob (s ...

. He announced his retirement as a player at the age of 35 on March 20, 2013.

International career

Stalteri was a regular starter for the Canada national team for over ten years from making his debut on August 17, 1997 against

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. In total, he won 84 caps and scored seven goals for the national team. That made him the most capped Canadian of all time until this record was surpassed by Julian De Guzman in 2015. He was named team captain for a friendly on June 1, 2007 against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, and remained captain for international fixtures for the rest of his international career including for the entirety of the

2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the ninth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and was won by the United States over Mexico. It was contested in the United States from ...

. On September 7, 2010 Stalteri earned his 83rd cap for Canada in a 2–1 win over

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

making him the all-time leader in appearances for the Canada men's national team. In May 2017, Stalteri was inducted into the

Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2019, the Canada Soccer Ha ...

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Canada's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Stalteri goal''.

Honours

Werder Bremen *

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

: 2003–04 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

: 1998–99, 2003–04 *

DFL-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous B ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

DFB-Hallenpokal The DFB-Hallenpokal, also known as Hallen-Masters (Indoor Championship), was a five-a-side indoor football competition which was held from 1988 to 2001 under the direction of the German Football Association (German: Deutscher Fußball-Bund, DFB). ...

runner-up:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Tottenham Hotspur * English League Cup: 2007–08 Canada *

All-Tournament team (Honorable Mention):

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

References

External links

* * * * / Canada Soccer Hall of Fame * * *
Paul Stalteri
profile, detailed club and national team statistics, honours (palmares) and timeline {{DEFAULTSORT:Stalteri, Paul 1977 births Living people Soccer players from Toronto Sportspeople from Etobicoke Association football defenders Association football utility players Canadian soccer players Canada men's international soccer players Canada men's youth international soccer players Canada men's under-23 international soccer players Canadian people of Calabrian descent Canadian sportspeople of Guyanese descent 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players A-League (1995–2004) players Premier League players Bundesliga players Clemson Tigers men's soccer players Toronto Lynx players SV Werder Bremen players SV Werder Bremen II players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Borussia Mönchengladbach players York University alumni Canadian expatriate soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England York United FC non-playing staff Toronto FC non-playing staff