Pedro J. Soma (born June 30, 2006) 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 currently playing 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 Spanish side Cornellà.

Early life

Soma was born in

Boca Raton Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

to a Brazilian mother and American father and was raised in nearby

Coconut Creek Coconut Creek is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. Situated north of Miami, it had a population of 57,833 in 2020. It is part of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city seceded from ...

Club career

Having first taken an interest in football at a very young age, he joined a local academy in Florida; Boca Raton Juniors Soccer Club, Director Anthony Olischar, Coach Guilherme Ceretta; (Professional Referee) Champions Sting Cup - Sunrise 2016; after move named Boca United (now called South Florida Football Academy) at the age of six or seven. In October 2018, he was offered the chance to go on a student exchange program to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain, and he played grassroots football there for two years before being scouted by professional side Cornellà. He has credited fellow American soccer players Adrian Gill and Diego Kochen, both in the academy of

, for helping him settle in the region, and describes the latter as his best friend. Having made his debut in the

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, formerly known as Primera División RFEF, is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administered by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. It is below the top tw ...

with Cornellà, he began to attract the attention of Barcelona, with manager

Xavi Xavier Hernández Creus (born 25 January 1980), known as Xavi is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of La Liga club FC Barcelona, Barcelona. Widely con ...

reportedly having told president

Joan Laporta Joan Laporta Estruch (; born 29 June 1962) is a Spanish politician and current president of FC Barcelona. Laporta is a lawyer (he graduated from the University of Barcelona) with his own firm, Laporta & Arbós, which has a number of notable Sp ...

that he wishes to sign the midfielder.

International career

Soma received his first call-up to the United States youth system in January 2022, and having impressed in both the January training camp and a trip to South America in March, he was one of the stand-out players in a UEFA Under-16 Development Tournament held in May of the same year. Called up again for the

2023 CONCACAF U-17 Championship The 2023 CONCACAF U-17 Championship was the 7th edition of the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship (20th edition if all eras included), the men's under-17 international football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It was hosted by Guatemala between 1 ...

, Soma helped the United States reach the final of the competition, but despite scoring, he could not prevent his side losing 3–1 to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in the final match.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soma, Pedro 2006 births Living people Sportspeople from Boca Raton, Florida Soccer players from Florida American sportspeople of Brazilian descent American men's soccer players United States men's youth international soccer players Men's association football midfielders Primera Federación players UE Cornellà players American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain