Alejandro Bedoya

Alejandro Bedoya's most defining moment in Philadelphia had nothing to do with a goal at first. In August 2019, after netting against D.C. United, he grabbed the pitchside microphone and addressed Congress directly, calling for action on gun violence in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. MLS did not sanction him for it.

Bedoya's route to that stage ran through Europe. After starting out in American college football, he signed with Örebro in Sweden in 2009 and spent two seasons there before a move to Scotland's Rangers in 2011. Financial trouble at the club sent him back to Sweden within a year, this time to Helsingborg. In 2013 he crossed to France, joining Nantes for three seasons.

His move to MLS in August 2016, when Philadelphia Union signed him as a designated player for a fee reported by ESPN and The Philadelphia Inquirer at around $1 million, drew attention. Bedoya became the Union's captain and, by February 2024, had made 215 appearances for the club with 22 goals, one of only three players in its history to reach 20 goals and 20 assists. His best individual MLS season came in 2022, with six goals and six assists, the same year he was named MLS Works Humanitarian of the Year for his work off the pitch.

For the United States national team, Bedoya made his debut in January 2010 against Honduras and went on to win the CONCACAF Gold Cup twice, in 2013 and 2017, having also finished as a runner-up in 2011. Injuries interrupted his later years in Philadelphia — a torn quadriceps in 2019 and a groin injury in October 2022 that ruled him out of part of that season, including a playoff semi-final.