ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES
The Only Jewish Player in the World Cup
David Ostrowsky
July 1, 2026

Earlier this month, as the U.S. men’s national soccer team was gearing up for its World Cup debut match against Paraguay at Los Angeles Stadium (otherwise known as SoFi Stadium), there was great anticipation among Jewish sports fans from Malibu to Caribou that goaltender Matt Turner would get the starting nod for the Stars and Stripes. Turner, a product of St. Joseph’s Regional High School in Montvale, N.J., who has excelled for the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer (MLS), even acknowledged that there was “not a ton of clarity” as to whether he or Matt Freese, a talented netminder for New York City FC but a relative newcomer to international soccer, would receive the career-defining honor in representing one of the World Cup’s host nations…Israel, which hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 1970, is once again not participating — this is partially due to geopolitics that nudged its soccer federation to compete in the talented European body, rather than in Asia…READ MORE