Rhett Anthony Bernstein (born September 10, 1987) is an American former soccer player. In 2009, he won the

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

. He played for

Sevilla FC Puerto Rico Sevilla FC Puerto Rico was a Puerto Rican professional association football team based in Juncos, Puerto Rico. Founded in 2006, the team used to play in the Puerto Rico Soccer League. The club was founded in 2006 as a farm team for the Puerto R ...

Mjøndalen Mjøndalen is a built up area in Drammen municipality in Viken county (formerly Buskerud county), Norway. It is situated south of the Drammenselva River opposite of Krokstadelva. History Mjøndalen has traditionally been a railway site most ...

, and

Miami FC The Miami FC is an American professional soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 2016 s ...

Early and personal life

Bernstein was born in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, and is Jewish. As a teenager, he played soccer for the La Jolla Nomads. He attended University City High School in San Diego.

Club career

While playing soccer at Brown University, Bernstein was named to the 2008 ''

Jewish Sports Review ''Jewish Sports Review (JSR)'' is a bi-monthly magazine that was established in 1997. Its editors are Ephraim Moxson and Shel Wallman. The magazine identifies which star and professional athletes are Jewish. It also covers and has all-time lists ...

'' All-America First-Team, along with

Zac MacMath Zachary Michael MacMath (born August 7, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper in Major League Soccer for Real Salt Lake. MacMath was drafted No. 5 overall in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft by the Philadelphia Union. ...

and

Daniel Steres Daniel Steres (born November 11, 1990) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo. He was USL-Pro All-League Second Team in 2013 and 2014, USL All-League First Team in 2015, a ...

. He was nominated twice for the

, given to the best male college soccer player in America. In 2009, he won the Hermann Trophy. He played for Team USA at the

2009 Maccabiah Games The 18th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-18 ישראל תשס"ט), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Ol ...

in Israel. The team finished fifth in the Games. After graduating from Brown in 2009, Bernstein spent time in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, training with

Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Maccabi World Union, Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל מכבי תל אביב; ''Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv'') is an Israeli association football, football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv, ...

Bernstein joined

to participate in the SúperCopa DirecTV 2010 before moving to Europe. Bernstein joined

's first-team squad ahead of the 2011 season. He scored his first goals for Mjøndalen against

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the 21s ...

on May 9, 2015. They won the game 4–3. Bernstein led Mjøndalen in scoring in 2015 with 5 goals from his center back position, which was also the most goals of all defenders in the Tippligaen. After five years in Norway, Bernstein signed with expansion

ahead of the

2016 North American Soccer League season The 2016 North American Soccer League season is the 49th season of Division II soccer in the United States and Canada, and the 6th season of the modern North American Soccer League. Three expansion clubs joined the league, with Miami FC and R ...

. He chose uniform number 18, saying: "I want to wear number 18, '' Chai'', meaning life

n Hebrew N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

to express both my strong Jewish identity as well as a long career with Miami FC."

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernstein, Rhett 1987 births Living people American soccer players American expatriate soccer players Jewish American sportspeople Maccabiah Games competitors for the United States Maccabiah Games footballers Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Mjøndalen IF players Miami FC players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players North American Soccer League players Soccer players from San Diego American expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate footballers in Norway Association football defenders 21st-century American Jews

Early and personal life

Club career

Career statistics

See also

References