Terrence Anthony Boyd (born February 16, 1991) is a professional soccer player who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for 2. Liga club

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in severa ...

. Born in Germany, he represented the

United States national team The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

Early life

Boyd is the son of an African American serviceman and his German wife. The family returned to the U.S. shortly after his birth, settling in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. However, his parents soon divorced, and his mother returned to Germany along with Terrence. His father was soon out of his life, and his mother eventually remarried. Boyd credits his stepfather for much of his success, saying in a 2012 interview,

I don't think I would have become a pro without him because I am a lazy guy... He was really strict, but he helped me to stay out of the trouble and all the s*** that could do some problems for you. I'm a guy who is trying to get better every day, and that focus, I got it from him.

Club career

Early career

Boyd grew up playing in various youth systems but made his senior debut with

Hertha BSC II Hertha BSC II is the reserve team of Hertha BSC that is based in Berlin, Germany. Historically, during the time the senior team played in professional football the team has played as Hertha BSC Amateure. Since 2005 it permanently plays under its ...

in 2009. After a couple of seasons primarily on the bench, where he made eight appearances and four appearances, he found a role in the starting lineup and ended his final season with 13 goals. After his contract with Hertha expired, he signed with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional foot ...

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

and debuted with their reserve squad

Borussia Dortmund II Borussia Dortmund II are the reserve team of Borussia Dortmund. They play in the 3. Liga, at Stadion Rote Erde. Until 2005, the team played as Borussia Dortmund Amateure. History From Kreisliga to Oberliga (Until 1997) The second team of Borus ...

. On October 22, 2011 Boyd received his first call-up to the Borussia Dortmund first team in their Bundesliga match against

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballsp ...

. Although he dressed as part of the 18-man squad, Boyd did not play in Dortmund's 5–0 win over 1. FC Köln. He did not make any appearances for the first team and scored 20 goals in 32 appearances for the reserve team.

Rapid Wien

In June 2012, Boyd signed a three–year deal with Austrian club

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

. On July 21, making his professional first team debut, Boyd scored his first and second league goals and added an assist against

Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and ...

; Boyd was named the Man of the Match. The youngster was impressive for Rapid during his inaugural season in the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. The ...

, second on the team in scoring with 13 goals as the club finished in third place and securing a place in the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

of the

2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at th ...

. Boyd scored 37 goals in 80 appearances for Rapid.

RB Leipzig

In July 2014, Boyd was sold to

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red B ...

. On October 17, 2014, he made his debut in RB Leipzig's 1–0 loss to Nürnberg. He suffered a torn ACL in December 2014, missing the remainder of the season. Boyd finished the 2014–15 season with three goals in eight appearances. He did not make any appearances during the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons. However, he scored five goals in nine appearances for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

Darmstadt 98

After getting no playing time for Leipzig's senior team in the first half of the 2016–17 season, Boyd moved to

SV Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Spo ...

in January 2017. During the 2017–18 season, he scored four goals in 24 appearances.

Toronto FC

In February 2019, Boyd signed for Toronto FC.

Hallescher FC

In July 2019, Boyd returned to Germany, signing for

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

side

Hallescher FC Hallescher FC, sometimes still called by its former popular name Chemie Halle, is a German association football club based in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third highest level in the German footba ...

. He scored seven goals and made one assist in 17 league appearances in the 2021–22 season. Overall, he amassed 39 goals in 86 appearances.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

Boyd moved to a new 3. Liga team

in January 2022 and is currently their top scorer with 9 goals in 13 games for the German soccer club.

International career

Born to an African American serviceman and a German mother, Boyd holds dual citizenship. His path to the U.S. national team began when his Hertha youth teammate

Bryan Arguez Bryan Joshua Arguez (born January 13, 1989) is an American former professional soccer player. He has represented the United States national team at all youth levels including the Olympic team. Career Club Arguez was selected by D.C. United in ...

, then a United States U-20 international, told then U-20 Head Coach

Thomas Rongen Thomas Eddy Rongen (born 31 October 1956) is a Dutch American football coach who has spent the majority of his playing and coaching career in the United States. In December 2016, he was named Chief Scout of the United States Men's National Team ...

that there were several Americans on Hertha's books that Rongen needed to recruit. Rongen soon invited him to a U-20 training camp, but Boyd did not yet have a

U.S. passport United States passports are passports issued to citizens and nationals of the United States of America. They are issued exclusively by the U.S. Department of State. Besides passports (in booklet form), limited-use passport cards are issued by ...

. For Boyd, the process of obtaining a passport forced him to deal with the pain of his family's breakup, as he needed his biological father to sign the necessary paperwork. He eventually connected with other relatives on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

and used his paternal aunt as a go-between to get his papers signed. With his passport in hand, Boyd made several appearances for the United States U-20 team. Boyd was called into the U-23 camp in Europe in November 2011. Boyd also participated in the December 2011 U-23 camp in Florida. Boyd was initially called into the U-23 pre-Olympic Qualifying camp and was set to join the team for its February 29, 2012 match against Mexico's U-23 team. However, he instead made his debut with the full U.S. national team in its February 29 victory over Italy, coming on in the second half. Austria vs

Boyd was called to the U-23 Olympic Qualifying squad in March 2012. He scored two goals in the U-23 team's must-win game against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...

, but a late goal conceded sent the team out of the tournament in the group stage. On May 20, Boyd was announced as one of the final additions to the U.S. squad for a five-game series set to culminate in two

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by ...

matches. On May 26, he earned his first start ever for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in a 5-1 win against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. He cemented his status as an American in international soccer by playing in the FIFA World Cup qualifier on June 8, 2012 against

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two ...

. Later in 2012, Boyd played a major role in a landmark result for the U.S. in a friendly match against

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

at the

Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () is a multi-purpose stadium located in Mexico City. It is the official home of football clubs Club América and Cruz Azul as well as the Mexico national football team. The stadium sits at an altitude of above sea level. With ...

. His back heel allowed Michael Orozco Fiscal to score the only goal of the match, the United States' first ever victory at the stadium. Boyd was included on Jürgen Klinsmann's 30-man preliminary roster for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting rig ...

; however, he did not make the final 23-man roster for Brazil. Boyd has affirmed his commitment to the

USMNT The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT) represents the United States in men's international soccer competitions. The team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and is a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. The U.S. team ...

by getting a tattoo of the

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...

on his arm.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Terrence 1991 births Living people Footballers from Bremen German people of American descent Sportspeople of American descent Citizens of the United States through descent German people of African-American descent Association football forwards German footballers African-American soccer players American soccer players United States men's international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Hertha BSC II players Borussia Dortmund II players SK Rapid Wien players RB Leipzig players SV Darmstadt 98 players Toronto FC players Hallescher FC players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Major League Soccer players American expatriate soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria