Stuart Ritchie (born September 10, 2001) is an American

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 currently plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

USL League One USL League One (USL1) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that had its inaugural season in 2019. The Division III league is operated by United Soccer League, the same group that operates the Division II USL Championshi ...

side One Knoxville.

Career

Youth

Ritchie joined his local club side Ballistic United aged five-year's old, where he stayed until 2016. Ritchie spent a season with the

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 ...

academy, before move to Dutch side

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

in January 2018. Ritchie played one season with the Groningen U17's before moving up to the U19 team. He would transition into the U23 team, as well as spending time training with the first team squad. In the summer of 2019, Ritchie moved to German side

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

, where he a played with the team's U19 side, before earning a professional contract with the team's U23 side. Ritchie appeared on the bench for

Hannover 96 II Hannover 96 II is a German association football team from the city of Hannover, Lower Saxony. It is the reserve team of Hannover 96. The team's greatest success has been winning the now defunct German amateur football championship on three occa ...

in a

Regionalliga The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...

fixture in 2019.

Richmond Kickers

On January 25, 2022, it was announced Ritchie had returned to the United States and signed with

club

Richmond Kickers Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional S ...

. He debuted for the club on April 2, 2022, starting in a 4–0 win over FC Tucson.

One Knoxville

Ritchie joined

club One Knoxville on January 19, 2024.

References

2001 births Living people American men's soccer players American expatriate men's soccer players American expatriate soccer players in Germany American expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Men's association football defenders Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands FC Groningen players Hannover 96 players Sportspeople from Pleasanton, California Soccer players from Alameda County, California Richmond Kickers players Columbus Crew 2 players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's youth international soccer players USL League One players MLS Next Pro players One Knoxville SC players {{US-footy-defender-stub