Sacha Kljestan

Sacha Kljestan

Kljestan with Anderlecht in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Sacha Bryan Kljestan
Date of birth	(1985-09-09) September 9, 1985
Place of birth	Huntington Beach, California, United States
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Anderlecht
Number	19
Youth career
2003–2005	Seton Hall Pirates
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2005	Orange County Blue Star	2	(1)
2006–2010	Chivas USA	114	(15)
2010–	Anderlecht	114	(16)
National team‡
2004–2005	United States U20	16	(1)
2007–2008	United States U23	16	(3)
2007–	United States	45	(4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 February, 2014. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of November 24, 2013

Sacha Kljestan (/ˈsɑːʃə ˈklɛstʃən/;^[1] born September 9, 1985) is an American soccer player who currently plays for Anderlecht in the Belgian First Division.

Club career

Early career

Kljestan played for the Region IV Olympic Development Program team. He then played three years of college soccer at Seton Hall University. He was named NCAA Division I First-Team All-America in 2004 and earned third team honors in 2005. Kljestan was named Big East Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2005 and earned first-team All-Big East in 2004 and 2005. He holds the single-season assists record at Seton Hall with 15 in 2005 and ranks fifth all-time at the school with 28 over a three-year career. Kljestan finished his college career with 20 goals and helped Seton Hall University to three NCAA Tournament appearances. He then signed a Generation adidas contract with MLS, and played USL Premier Development League soccer for Orange County Blue Star in 2005. Kljestan was taken fifth overall at the 2006 MLS SuperDraft.

Chivas USA

He was a finalist for 2006 MLS Rookie of the Year and played for the US in Copa América 2007. He also played for the US Under-23s at the 2008 CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament and scored in a 3-0 win against Canada to send the US Under-23s through to the Olympics.

He was nominated for the Starting XI in the 2008 MLS All-Star Game, but chose instead to play for the U.S. Olympic Team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His performance for club and country has drawn attention from many clubs overseas, and he left the U.S. team's winter training camp in mid-January 2009 to go on trial beginning January 17 at Celtic,^[2] the Scottish Premier League reigning champions.

Controversy

On April 25, 2007, Kljestan was suspended for two games and fined $1,000 for "a serious foul play". Kljestan fouled Real Salt Lake midfielder Andy Williams in the second half of Chivas USA's 4-0 win on Saturday, April 21, and received a yellow card. Although the referee saw the incident and exercised his on-field judgment not to award a red card, a serious injury to Williams resulted. In this circumstance, the MLS disciplinary committee reviewed the play and concluded that the challenge was an unequivocal red card offense and egregious.^[3]

Anderlecht

In June 2010, he signed a 4-year contract with 2009–10 Belgian First Division champions Anderlecht.^[4] He made his competitive debut and scored his first goal in the same game on July 27, 2010 in a 3–1 win over Welsh club The New Saints in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League.^[5]

In March 2013, Kljestan signed a new 3-year contract with Anderlecht.^[6]

International career

Kljestan was part of the United States Under-20 team at the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. He had entered the U-20 program in 2004, earning a total of 16 caps, scoring 1 goal with the team up to 2005.^[7] In early 2007, Kljestan was called into training camp with the senior U.S. national team, but did not earn a cap in the following games. Kljestan made his debut for the senior national team on June 2, 2007, tallying an assist on Benny Feilhaber's winning goal, a 4-1 friendly match victory over China in San Jose, California. Kljestan was selected to Peter Nowak's roster for the U-23 Olympics in Beijing. He started all three games and finished the tournament as the United States' highest goal scorer with 2, an equalizer against Holland in the 2-2 draw,which was voted goal Best U.S. Mens Soccer goal of 2008, and a penalty against Nigeria in the 2-1 loss that knocked them out of the tournament. He started consistently for the United States under Bob Bradley as a central midfielder and has two assists (three total) in World Cup Qualifying. In a 3-2 victory over Sweden on January 24, 2009, Kljestan scored a hat trick, his first three goals with the senior team. The only other American to notch a hat trick in the same game as his first international goal was Aldo "Buff" Donelli who scored four goals on May 24, 1934. It was also the 11th hat trick in national team history. On February 24, 2010, Kljestan scored a 92nd minute goal that won the USA a friendly against El Salvador. Sacha proceeded to celebrate what was his 4th national team goal in emotional fashion. The goal, along with Kljestan's performance, was enough to keep Kljestan in contention for a World Cup spot.^[8] He was not picked in the final 23 man roster for the 2010 World Cup, but featured in a friendly against Brazil on the next international fixture date.

He has since been a regular part of USA squads under head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Personal life

His brother Gordon once played an Open Cup match for the New York Red Bulls and currently plays for FC Tampa Bay Rowdies in USSF Division 2. Kljestan's father Slavko Klještan, a Serbian from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a professional player playing for Željezničar Sarajevo.^[9][10]

Kljestan, along with Frank Lampard and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, was featured on the North American cover of FIFA 10.

Kljestan married longtime girlfriend Jamie Lee Darley in June 2012.

Career statistics

Club

As of February 23, 2012.

International

As of February 29, 2012.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	January 24, 2009	Home Depot Center, Carson, California	Sweden	1–0	3–2	Friendly
2				2–0
3				3–1
4	February 24, 2010	Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida	El Salvador	2–1	2–1	Friendly

• Goals scored by Kljestan are marked as bold in the "Score" column.

Honors

Club

R.S.C. Anderlecht

• Belgian First Division : 2011–12, 2012–13
• Belgian Supercup : 2010, 2012

Individual

• MLS Best XI: 2008

References

External links

• FIFA: Sacha Kljestan
• MLS player profile
• Sacha Kljestan bio on USSoccer.com
• Current Sacha Kljestan News at followUSsoccer.com

Sacha Kljestan international tournaments v t e United States squad – 2007 Copa América 1 Guzan 2 Wynne 3 DeMerit 4 Boswell 5 Feilhaber 6 Pearce 7 Califf 8 Gomez 9 Johnson 10 Davies 11 Gaven 12 Conrad 13 Bornstein 14 Olsen 15 Moor 16 Kljestan 17 Beckerman 18 Keller 19 Clark 20 Twellman 21 Mapp 22 Nguyen Coach: Bradley v t e United States men's football squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 Seitz 2 Wynne 3 Orozco 4 Bradley 5 McCarty 6 Edu 7 Holden 8 Szetela 9 Davies 10 Feilhaber 11 Adu 12 Altidore 13 Ianni 14 Rogers 15 Parkhurst 16 Kljestan 17 McBride 18 Guzan Coach: Nowak v t e United States squad – 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-up 1 Howard 2 Bornstein 3 Bocanegra 4 Casey 5 Onyewu 6 Pearce 7 Beasley 8 Dempsey 9 Davies 10 Donovan 11 Wynne 12 M. Bradley 13 Clark 14 Califf 15 DeMerit 16 Kljestan 17 Altidore 18 Guzan 19 Adu 20 Torres 21 Spector 22 Feilhaber 23 Robles Coach: B. Bradley v t e United States squad – 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup Runners-up 1 Howard 2 Spector 3 Bocanegra (c) 4 M. Bradley 5 Onyewu 6 Cherundolo 7 Edu 8 Dempsey 9 Agudelo 10 Donovan 11 Wondolowski 12 Bornstein 13 Jones 14 Lichaj 15 Ream 16 Kljestan 17 Altidore 18 Rimando 19 Rogers 20 Adu 21 Goodson 22 Bedoya 23 Hahnemann Coach: B. Bradley

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