Jeremiah White Amongst Trialists At The Philadelphia Union’s First Day Of Publicly Open Preseason Practices

[Editor's Note: Jeremy instead of Jeremiah was an early morning slip up. Don't try pre-5 am articles without coffee, kids.]

The Philadelphia Union held its first day of publicly open practices at the Youth Sports Complex (YSC) and there were five new faces, including Jeremiah White, former Wake Forest star and European club journeyman.

White, only one of two of the five players on trial that could be identified by those at the practice (the other being goalkeeper Thorne Holder), last played with GKS Belchatow of the Polish Ekstraklasa. The Union did not release any names of the trial players based upon team policy; White was identified by American Soccer News Philadelphia Union and Holder by Newsday.co.tt.

Versatile enough to play in the midfield, on defense up front, White utilizes blazing speed – the 28-year-old can run the 100m dash in around 10 seconds – to succeed at the positions he is typically plays: wide midfielder, fullback or wide forward/out-and-out striker.

Losing midfielder Shea Salinas to the Vancouver Whitecaps and Fred to the New England Revolution in the 2010 Expansion Draft took away one of the Union’s two speed players and both of its veteran right midfielders. Taking UMBC’s Levi Houapeu in the third round (41st overall) of the 2011 MLS SuperDraft helped to fill the hole left by the departure of Salinas but the team still lacks a veteran on the right side of attack. White would seemingly satisfy both needs that the Union currently have for its squad.

The FC Delco product, the same club team that produced the Union’s first ever home grown player Zach Pfeffer, has stated in the past that he loves Philadelphia and would like to at least live in the area again. In an article written by Breton Bonnette for SonsOfBen.com, White was quoted as saying (at the time White played for AGF Arhus), “I do enjoy being in Denmark, in Aarhus, but I’m looking for houses [in Philadelphia]. I like the area. This is my home.”

A journeyman career began with White's choice of Europe over MLS, choosing to head to Serbia instead of sign with the Revolution, who drafted him in the third round of the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. His senior year of college at Wake Forest ended with White being named ACC player of the year. But White did not have time to prove himself with Serbian side OFK Beograd, mutually ending his contract with the team after only three months. The next two years would be spent in Greece or on trial throughout Europe.

Eventually White ended up with Ligue 2 side FC Gueugnon in France, where he scored seven goals in 25 games from 2005-2007. Frustration with his playing time with the French club led to leaving the team and France at the end of his contract, getting trials in Scandinavia before signing with Denmark’s AGF Aarhus. Fellow American Benny Feilhaber arrived a year-and-a-half after White joined the club. After two seasons in Denmark White moved to Saudi Arabia and then to Poland in the course of six months.