Position: Midfielder
Birthdate: March 10, 2003
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Height: 6-foot-1
Pronunciation: Elijah Wynder
Previous Team: Louisville City FC Academy
2024: Wynder remains under contract through the end of the 2024 season.
Last Season: The young midfielder made himself a regular contributor, numbering 17 starts, 30 total appearances and scoring 3 goals.
Highlights in Purple: Wynder wrote himself into LouCity lore when he scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0, 2022 Eastern Conference Final victory over Tampa Bay Rowdies. The extra-time strike, on a scramble in the box following a corner kick, came as City played a man down. He would go on to be voted the USL Championship’s Comeback Player of the Year for the season having returned from a leg injury that stole his 2021 season. The midfielder made his USL Championship debut when subbing on in an Aug. 15, 2020, win over Loudoun United. That offseason, he then became the first-ever player to complete City’s path to pro by signing a first-team contract. At 16 years and two months old, Wynder also previously became one of the youngest documented players to appear for a professional side in U.S. Open Cup history when coming on in a May 16, 2019, victory over Reading United AC. That marked his debut for the LouCity first team.
Before Louisville City: Wynder, high school standout for Louisville Collegiate, signed LouCity’s first ever academy contract, which allowed him to train and play for the first team while retaining amateur status. He continued with Collegiate in 2019, pouring in 24 goals and tallying 12 assists as a junior on his way to being named Boys Soccer Player of the Year at the Courier Journal Sports Awards. On the club side, Wynder came up through Ohio Elite Soccer Academy-Kentucky. He was named the Courier Journal’s Boys Soccer Player of the Year in 2019.