Sandy Gbandi (born July 12, 1983 in

Harbel Harbel is a town in Margibi County, Liberia. It lies along the Farmington River, about 15 miles upstream from the Atlantic Ocean.

) is a

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

n former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

Career

Early life and college

Born near the Firestone rubber plantation, Gbandi and his family fled from his native Liberia to

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

following the outbreak of the

First Liberian Civil War The First Liberian Civil War lasted from 1989 to 1997. President Samuel Doe had established a regime in 1980 but totalitarianism and corruption led to unpopularity and the withdrawal of support from the United States by the late 1980s. The Nat ...

in 1989, when he was just six years old. Gbandi went on to attend

Jersey Village High School Jersey Village High School is located in Jersey Village, Texas, United States, in the Houston metropolitan area. The school, which serves grades nine through twelve, is a part of the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. Maggie Wiley serves as its principal, ...

, played club football for the Houston Dynamos and the Houston Texans as a youth, and played four years 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 ...

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a Public university#United States, public List of research universities in the United States, research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established i ...

. Gbandi played in 56 games for UAB, scoring 10 goals and adding 14 assists. As a sophomore in 2004 he was selected First Team All-Conference USA and then was named Second Team All-Conference USA a year later.

Professional

Gbandi left school early when he was selected in the

2007 MLS Supplemental Draft The 2007 MLS Supplemental Draft was held on January 18, 2007, following the SuperDraft (held on January 12, 2007), as teams filled out their developmental rosters. Changes from 2006 * 2007 expansion club Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (co ...

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise be ...

, but he never saw any first team-minutes with the team, and was waived at the end of the season. Gbandi signed with the

Puerto Rico Islanders Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

in the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

in 2008, helping the Islanders win the 2008 USL First Division regular season title and progressed to the semi-finals of the

CONCACAF Champions League 2008–09 The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

. Gbandi stayed with Puerto Rico through the 2010 season. On March 15, 2011, Gbandi signed with

NSC Minnesota Stars NSC may refer to: Sport and competition * NSC United, an American soccer team * National Scholastics Championship, an American quiz bowl competition * National Scrabble Championship, now known as the Scrabble Players Championship * National Shoot ...

of the second division

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. He was released by the club on November 29, 2011.

Personal

Sandy's brother, Chris Gbandi, is also a former professional footballer. They played together at

in 2007 and against each other in 2010, when Chris joined Miami FC.

Honors

Puerto Rico Islanders

USSF Division 2 Pro League The USSF Division 2 Professional League (D2 Pro League) was a temporary professional soccer league created by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) for the 2010 season. The twelve-team league was formed as a compromise between the feuding Un ...

Champions (1): 2010 * Commissioner's Cup Winners (1):

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

CFU Club Championship The Caribbean Club Championship, also known as the CFU Club Championship or CFU Club Champions' Cup, was an annual international football competition held amongst association football clubs that are members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). ...

Winner (1):

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

References

External links

Puerto Rico Islanders bio

MLS player profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gbandi, Sandi 1983 births Living people University of Alabama at Birmingham alumni UAB Blazers men's soccer players Liberian men's footballers American men's soccer players FC Dallas players Puerto Rico Islanders players Minnesota United FC (2010–2016) players Liberian expatriates in Puerto Rico USL First Division players USSF Division 2 Professional League players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players Expatriate men's footballers in Puerto Rico FC Dallas draft picks Jersey Village High School alumni Men's association football midfielders