Lesly Fellinga (born September 29, 1985) is a

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an retired

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 played as a left back.

Playing career

Club

Fellinga was born in the

Cité Soleil Cité Soleil (; ; English: ) is an extremely impoverished and densely populated commune located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. Cité Soleil originally developed as a shanty town and grew to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 resi ...

commune of

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

, but adopted when he was a baby and grew up in

Zuidlaren Zuidlaren ( Noordenvelds: ''Zuudlaoren'') is a village in the province of Drenthe in the Northern Netherlands. Zuidlaren has just over 10,000 inhabitants and is situated on natural heightened land which is called the Hondsrug. The village is part ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He played youth soccer for local teams ZVZ and ZFC Zuidlaren. In 1996, he was scouted by

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, Groningen (province), Groningen province. Founded in 1971 as the successor of GVAV-Rapiditas, GVAV, Groningen compete in the Eredivisie, the first t ...

and started to play in the youth teams. In 2006, he joined

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

club

Veendam Veendam () is a town and municipality with a population of 27,752 in the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. Veendam was established in 1648 as a peat colony by Adriaan Geerts Wildervanck. Holland America Line has named fo ...

, and was a regular feature for the club in the 2007–2008 season.

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, ) is a town and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the m ...

picked him up in a summer 2008 transfer. He made his first team debut for Heerenveen on September 18, 2008, in a European match against Vitória in Portugal . He also played the return leg on October 2, 2008, in Heerenveen. On August 12, 2009, Fellinga signed with

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

following a successful trial. Fellinga made his debut for Toronto as a sub in a home game against

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Founded in ...

on September 12, 2009, and played four MLS games before being released in December of the same year, after

Preki Predrag Radosavljević ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг Радосављевић; born June 24, 1963), better known by the nickname Preki (), is a former soccer player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with Seattle Sounders FC in Major Le ...

became head coach. He joined Groningen amateurclub Gronitas halfway season 2009–2010 and since start season 2010–2011 he played for Frisian amateurclub Harkemase Boys in the Topklasse League, the highest amateur league of the Netherlands, while simultaneously studying communication in Groningen. In 2012 he moved on to fellow amateurs Oranje Nassau.

International

Fellinga was selected for the Dutch U15, U17 and U19 national teams while playing with Groningen, and played for the Dutch national U15 team against Spain during the international Walker tournament in England in 2001, but was never called up by the senior Dutch national team. Sensing that opportunities with the Dutch national team would be limited, Fellinga accepted a call up to the

Haiti national football team The Haiti national football team (, Haitian Creole: ''Ekip foutbòl Ayiti'') represents Haiti in international Association football, football. Haiti is administered by the Haitian Football Federation, Fédération Haïtienne de Football (FHF), ...

for a friendly against Panama in March 2007. He made his debut for the Haiti U21 selection in a game against the United States in Dallas, Texas, a few days later. After that he played four games with the Haitian Olympic team to qualify for the Olympic of Beijing 2008. His made his senior debut came in a World Cup qualifier against the

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

in June 2008.Reportage over Lesly Fellinga
/ref> He played five games in the qualification for the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

, and was a member of the Haitian team for the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup () is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament is held every two ...

in 2009.

References

External links

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Fellinga: Let’s put Haiti on the map
(fifa.com) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fellinga, Lesly 1985 births Living people Footballers from Port-au-Prince People from Tynaarlo Dutch people of Haitian descent Men's association football fullbacks Dutch men's footballers Haitian men's footballers 21st-century Haitian sportsmen Haiti men's international footballers 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players FC Groningen players SC Veendam players SC Heerenveen players Toronto FC players Eerste Divisie players Major League Soccer players Footballers from Drenthe Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Canada Haitian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Haitian emigrants to the Netherlands Naturalised citizens of the Netherlands Dutch adoptees