Mark Anthony Almeda Winhoffer (born 1 March 1999) is a Filipino-American

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 the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

) and the Philippines national team.

Early career

High school

Winhoffer played for

International School Manila International School Manila (abbreviation: ISM or IS Manila) is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian international school located in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Founded in 1920 as the American School by a group of Am ...

in the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) for three years. He won the golden boot in his sophomore year, and was the IASAS most valuable player (MVP) in his junior year. He was the top assist provider in each of his three seasons there, with a total of 46, and scored a total of 30 goals. He then graduated from

St. Charles North High School Saint Charles North (SCN) High School is a public four-year high school, located in St. Charles, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Community Unit School District 303 which also includes Saint C ...

in St. Charles, Illinois.

Youth

During his time in the Philippines, he was a youth player for

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

. He also played for Sockers FC when he was in the

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities ...

College career

Yale

Winhoffer played college soccer for the

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Bulldogs The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is a stocky, muscular dog of medium size, with a large head, thick folds of skin around the face and shoulders and a rel ...

. In his first year, he was the only rookie to feature in every game. In the

2019 season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

, Yale won the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

title, and Winhoffer was named the Offensive Player of the Year (the first Yale player to win the award) and was also among the First Team Honorees. The following season, he became Yale's team captain, but the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

University of North Carolina

In August 2021, as a graduate student, he joined the

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Tar Heels Tar Heel (or Tarheel) is a nickname applied to the U.S. state of North Carolina and its people. It is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams, students, alumni, and fans. The origins of the Tar Heel nickname trace ba ...

Club career

Global

Winhoffer and teammate Marco Casambre were among the youth players promoted to the first-team squad of

for the

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

United Football League (UFL) season. On 7 May 2016, he came on as a second-half substitute and scored in their 8–0 thrashing of

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

. Global won the

2016 UFL cup The 2016 United Football League Cup is the sixth edition of the United Football League Cup which started on February 6 and ended on April 9, 2016. There will be no guest teams with all competing teams also participating in the main UFL competiti ...

and

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

titles.

Azkals Development Team

In mid-2021, he reportedly joined the

Azkals Development Team The Azkals Development Team, commonly referred to as ADT, is a Philippine developmental football club that last competed in Philippines Football League, before officially withdrawing from the competition in May 2023. Founded in 2020, the team ...

(ADT) of the

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League (PFL) is a men's professional association football, football league in the Philippines. Sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and organized by Liga Futbol Inc., it is the country's Football in t ...

(PFL).

International career

Winhoffer represented the Philippines U-15 team at the

Football Association of Malaysia The Football Association of Malaysia (commonly abbreviated as FAM; ) is the national governing body of football in Malaysia, headquartered at Wisma FAM. The FAM is also one of the founding members of both the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) a ...

-Frenz ASEAN Champions Trophy in 2013. In 2016, he played for Philippines U-19 in the

China-ASEAN International Youth Football Tournament The China-ASEAN International Youth Football Tournament is an international youth football tournament held annually in Guangxi, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of Ch ...

and

AFF U-19 Youth Championship The ASEAN U-19 Boys' Championship (formerly AFF U-19 Youth Championship) is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations fro ...

, scoring once against Vietnam U-19 in the latter. He then represented Philippines U-22 at the

2019 AFF U-22 Youth Championship The 2019 AFF U-22 Youth Championship or AFF U-22 LG Cup 2019 was the 2nd edition of the AFF U-22 Youth Championship organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). Indonesia won the tournament after defeating Thailand 2–1 in the final. The ...

, and Philippines U-23 at the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers. He made his debut for the senior national team as a second-half substitute in their 2–0

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

loss to

China PR China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

on 7 June 2021.

Personal life

Winhoffer was born on 1 March 1999. His father, Ernest Winhoffer, played collegiate soccer for the

Fordham Rams The Fordham Rams are the varsity sports teams for Fordham University. Their colors are maroon and white. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference for most sports. In football, the Rams play in t ...

and

Mercy Mavericks The Mercy University Mavericks are the athletic teams that represents Mercy University located in Dobbs Ferry, New York, United States in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division II ranks, primarily competing in the East Coast Confer ...

. His mother, Mariels Almeda Winhoffer, was born and raised in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

. She moved to

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

as a teenager and eventually graduated from

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

(finance and computer science) and worked for

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. Mark has three siblings: Nicole, Ernest Jr., and Michael—who also played soccer for Fordham. The Winhoffers lived in St. Charles, Illinois until 2012, when they moved to the Philippines as Mariels became the president and country general manager of IBM Philippines. Mark lived in the Philippines for 5 years and studied at International School Manila before moving back to St. Charles. Winhoffer studied economics at Yale University. He was named twice in the Fall Academic All-Ivy League selection, a distinction for Ivy League student-athletes with

grade point averages Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as numb ...

(GPAs) of 3.00 or higher. He graduated in May 2021.

Honors

Yale Bulldogs *

Men's Soccer:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Global * United Football League:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* United Football League Cup:

Individual *Ivy League Men's Soccer Offensive Player of the Year:

*Ivy League Men's Soccer All-Conference First Team:

References

External links

*
Mark Winhoffer
at Yale University {{DEFAULTSORT:Winhoffer, Mark 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Kane County, Illinois Filipino men's footballers Philippines men's international footballers American men's soccer players Filipino people of American descent American sportspeople of Filipino descent Yale Bulldogs men's soccer players Global F.C. players Men's association football midfielders Azkals Development Team players Philippines Football League players 21st-century American sportsmen 21st-century Filipino sportsmen