Xavier William Valdez Derrig (born 23 November 2003) 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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

for Houston Dynamo. Born in the United States, he plays for the Dominican Republic national team.

Club career

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, Valdez began his youth career with

Manhattan SC Manhattan Soccer Club is an American soccer organization based in New York City. It has a large youth set-up, with over 80 teams and 1500 players spanning ages from 3-23. In December 2018, Manhattan SC launched an adult team that competes in US ...

where he played as a winger, and after a growth spurt was switched to a

. He moved to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

as a sophomore in high school, and joined

Shattuck-Saint Mary's Shattuck-St. Mary's (also known as Shattuck-St. Mary's School, Shattuck, or simply SSM) is a coeducational Episcopal-affiliated boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota, United States. Established in 1858 as an Episcopal mission school and se ...

where he continued playing football. After a couple of seasons there, he joined the youth academy at Houston Dynamo in July 2020. On 27 February 2022, he signed a

homegrown Homegrown may refer to any plants grown in a domestic setting. It may also refer to: Music *Home Grown, an American rock band formed in 1994 * ''Home Grown'' (Geri Allen album), 1985 * ''Homegrown'' (Dodgy album), 1995 * ''Home Grown'' (Blue Mou ...

contract with Houston Dynamo.

International career

Valdez was born in the United States to a Dominican father and American mother. In April 2022, he was called up to a training camp for the United States U20s. He played for the Dominican Republic U20s at the

2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship The 2022 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship will be the 7th edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship (28th edition if all eras included), the men's under-20 international football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It will be hosted in Hondura ...

, where the team finished in second place. He was also called up for the

2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup will be the 23rd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1 ...

. He made his debut with the senior Dominican Republic national team in a friendly 5–0 loss to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

on 17 June 2023.

References

External links

* 2003 births Living people People from Harlem Sportspeople from Manhattan Soccer players from New York City Dominican Republic men's footballers Dominican Republic men's international footballers Dominican Republic men's youth international footballers American men's soccer players American sportspeople of Dominican Republic descent Dominican Republic people of American descent Men's association football goalkeepers MLS Next Pro players Houston Dynamo FC players Houston Dynamo 2 players Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for the Dominican Republic 21st-century American sportsmen {{DominicanRepublic-footy-bio-stub