USA Soccer World Cup Profile: Midfielder Alejandro Bedoya
Position
Alejandro Bedoya is a 27-year-old American player who is currently playing as an attacking midfielder or winger with French club Nantes and as a midfielder with the United States Men's National Team. Bedoya, who is of Colombian decent, had a successful college career with the Boston College Eagles which led to his career to continue in Europe.
World Cup Experience
Alejandro Bedoya has no experience in the World Cup. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be the first for Bedoya. On the other hand, he has plenty of international experience with younger teams and trained a lot with the senior team.
Bedoya was part of the United States U-23 national team that was preparing for the summer 2008 Olympics in China. In the end, he did not make the trip to China as he did not make the cut.
Alejandro Bedoya was called to join the USMNT in December of 2009. He trained in Carson, CA, and played against the Honduran National Team in January of 2010. He was also on the 30-man roster for the 2010 World Cup roster. With that team, he played in a friendly match against the Czech Republic. However, Bedoya did not make the 23-man roster for the South Africa World Cup in 2010.
After the 2010 World Cup, Bedoya earned another cap with the USMNT when he played against Brazil for a friendly game in August. He also earned his first goal with the USMNT against Guatemala in San Diego in July of 2013.
Alejandro Bedoya was also part of the USMNT for the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. That year, Bedoya helped the USMNT win the Gold Cup.
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Club History
Bedoya chose to skip the MLS SuperDraft as a college senior and went abroad. His fist club in Europe was with Swedish club Örebro in 2009. With the Swedish club, he was a starting midfielder in a super attack formation of 4-3-3.
Bedoya later signed with Scottish team Rangers FC in 2011. With the Rangers, Bedoya helped the team get second place in the Scottish league. After one season, he went back to the Swedish league.
In 2012, Alejandro Bedoya signed with Helsingborg IF. With his new Swedish team, he reached third place in the club international tournament UEFA Europa League. After his success with Helsingborg, Bedoya ended up in the French league with FC Nantes.
Lately
Alejandro Bedoya's coach, Michel Der Zakarian, from his French club team Nantes considers him an intelligent player. In his exact words, Zakarian has stated that Bedoya is a "technically excellent" player. It was that characteristic that made Nantes sign Bedoya. Now, the French club team is in fourth place ever since Alejandro Bedoya joined the roster.
Read other United States men's national soccer team player profiles here
J.L. Herrera is a huge fan of football and has been following the Raiders since the 1980s during the LA era. J.L. is also a freelance writer and copywriter on the web. He taught English for a little more than a decade in Los Angeles at the secondary level. While writing for web based news outlets, J.L. enjoys reading, creative writing, and watching sports. His work can be found on Examiner.com.