Ben Lederman (; born 8 May 2000) is a professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

club

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

. Born in the United States, he was a youth international for Poland.

Early life

Lederman was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i expatriates of

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

descent, Danny and Tammy. His father was a small business owner and his mother, a real estate agent. In 2011, the entire family moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

so Ben could join La Masia,

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

's youth academy.

Club career

At age 11, Lederman was identified by scouts from FC Barcelona in a friendly match between his California State U10 team and FC Barcelona Academy Benjamin A. He was subsequently invited to train at La Masia and joined the academy thereafter. In January 2020, Lederman left Belgium and joined

Beitar Jerusalem Beitar Jerusalem Football Club (), commonly known as Beitar Jerusalem () or simply Beitar (), is an Israeli professional football club based in the city of Jerusalem, that plays in the Israeli Premier League, the top tier in Israeli football ...

on trial. He did not earn a contract with the Premier League side and instead signed with

Liga Alef Liga Alef () is the third tier of the Israeli football league system. It is divided into two regional divisions, north and south. History League football began in Israel in 1949–50, a year after the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Howe ...

's Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan. On 14 February 2020, Lederman made his first and only appearance for Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan in a Liga Alef South match against Maccabi Sha'arayim. Lederman started and went 65 minutes before being replaced by Michael Ben Baruch in a 1–0 loss. Lederman was released by the club on 27 February 2020 so he could join

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of natio ...

in the Polish

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

. Lederman made his first team debut on 20 June 2020, coming on as a substitute for David Tijanič in the 84th minute against

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. They currently compete in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system, ...

. On 2 May 2021, Lederman won the first trophy of his professional career as Raków Częstochowa defeated

Arka Gdynia Morski Związkowy Klub Sportowy Arka Gdynia () is a professional football club based in Gdynia, Poland, that plays in the Ekstraklasa after winning the 2024–25 I liga. The club was founded as Klub Sportowy Gdynia in 1929. History The h ...

in the final of the

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

. On 30 May 2025, Lederman moved on a free transfer to Israeli club

International career

Lederman represented

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at under-15 and under-17 levels. In May 2021, he was invited to a training camp with the Poland under-21 team in

Warka Warka () is a town in east-central Poland, located on the left bank of the Pilica river ( south of Warsaw), with 11,858 inhabitants (2013). It has been situated in Grójec County, in the Masovian Voivodeship, since 1999; previously it was in t ...

. Later that year, he earned his first official U21 call-up for

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2023) was the 24th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (27th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Association f ...

qualification matches against Germany U21 and Latvia U21 on 12 and 16 November 2021. In March 2023, he received his first call-up to the Poland senior national team for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches against

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

Personal life

Lederman is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and celebrated his

bar mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...

at a local synagogue in

Career statistics

Honours

Raków Częstochowa *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2021–22 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual *Ekstraklasa Young Player of the Month: December 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lederman, Ben 2000 births Living people Sportspeople from Calabasas, California Soccer players from California Polish men's footballers Poland men's under-21 international footballers American men's soccer players American people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish people of Israeli descent Polish people of American descent Men's association football midfielders Jewish footballers Jewish American soccer players Jewish Polish sportspeople 21st-century American Jews Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan F.C. players Raków Częstochowa players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Ekstraklasa players III liga players Polish expatriate men's footballers American expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Polish expatriate sportspeople in Spain American expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Polish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium American expatriate sportspeople in Belgium 21st-century Polish Jews 21st-century Polish sportsmen Polish Ashkenazi Jews American Ashkenazi Jews 21st-century American sportsmen