Midfielder Ben Lederman, who was born in the United States and spent his teenage years as part of Barcelona’s famed youth academy, could make his debut for the Polish men’s national football team this week after winning his first call-up. He qualifies for Poland thanks to his Israeli father’s Polish-Jewish roots.
The 22-year-old was a surprise inclusion in the squad named last week by the new coach of the national side, Fernando Santos, who was appointed in January after the previous incumbent, Czesław Michniewicz, left amid the fallout from a number of controversies at the World Cup in November.
“It was a very positive surprise,” said Lederman at a press conference on Monday, during which he spoke in Polish. “Being here [in the squad] is a great honour and pride.”
Lederman was born in Los Angeles to Israeli parents. He lived there until age 11, when his family relocated to Barcelona after Lederman was invited to join FC Barcelona’s La Masia academy. A practising Jew, Lederman celebrated his bar mitzvah in the city a couple of years later.
He was released by Barcelona aged 18 in 2018. After stints in Belgium with Gent and in Israel with Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan, Lederman, who had already obtained a Polish passport, signed for Raków Częstochowa in Poland in 2020.
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His arrival coincided with the start of the most successful period in the team’s history: it won the Polish cup in 2021, which was Raków’s first ever major trophy and meant that the club also qualified for its first ever appearance in European competition.
Raków won the cup again last year and finished runner-up in the Ekstraklasa, Poland’s top flight, for the second season running. This season, they currently sit top of the league, nine points ahead of second-place Legia Warsaw.
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“I’m loving everything in Poland – except for the weather,” Lederman told Goal.com last year. By then, he had already played for Poland’s under-21 side, having previously appeared at younger age groups for the United States.
“Poland wanted me more,” he told Goal.com. “The USA have never even contacted me in the last few years. Of course it was tough, but…I like to focus on things and places where I am wanted.”
Lederman qualifies for Poland thanks to his grandmother, a Polish Jew born in Kraków who later moved to Israel, where her son – Lederman’s father – was born.
Honor 🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/E8xS8q35cf
— Ben Lederman (@Ben_Lederman10) June 8, 2022
Last week, Santos stirred debate by handing Lederman his first call-up to the full national team while dropping veteran midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, 33, who is two caps short of reaching 100 appearances for Poland.
A further surprise came when Lederman was put forward to lead the team press conference on Monday. News website Interia reports that Santos has banned more senior players from giving interviews to avoid questions about last year’s controversies at the World Cup.
Lederman will be hoping to make his national team debut in Friday’s opening Euro 2024 qualifier against the Czech Republic in Prague, which is followed on Monday by another qualifier against Albania in Warsaw.
This is the overhead kick by Poland's Marcin Oleksy that has just been named goal of the year by FIFA https://t.co/VLPP9IZw9wpic.twitter.com/JbPV7Ke0Qt
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 27, 2023
Main image credit: Raków Częstochowa/Facebook
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
