 Pérez in 2021 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Hugo Ernesto Pérez Granados | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1963-11-08)November 8, 1963 (age 62) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | San Salvador, El Salvador | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Midfielder | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1982 | Los Angeles Aztecs | 0 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1982–1983 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 20 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1983–1984 | San Diego Sockers | 29 | (7) | ||||||||||||||
| 1984–1990 | San Diego Sockers(indoor) | 125 | (107) | ||||||||||||||
| 1986 | Los Angeles Heat | ||||||||||||||||
| 1990 | Red Star Paris | ||||||||||||||||
| 1990–1991 | Örgryte IS | 2 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1992 | Al-Ittihad | ||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | Los Angeles Salsa | ||||||||||||||||
| 1994–1996 | CD FAS | ||||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1984–1994 | United States | 73 | (13) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2002–2005 | San Francisco Dons (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2007 | California Victory (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2012–2013 | United States U14 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2012–2014 | United States U15 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2015 | El Salvador (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2016 | El Salvador (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2021 | El Salvador U23 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2023 | El Salvador | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Hugo Ernesto Pérez Granados (born November 8, 1963) is a former professionalsoccer player andcoach who previously coached theEl Salvador national from 2021 to 2023. Born in El Salvador, he represented theUnited States national team.
During his fourteen-year career, he played professionally in the United States, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and his native El Salvador. Although born in El Salvador, he gained his U.S. citizenship as a youth and earned 73caps, scoring sixteen goals, with theU.S. national team between 1984 and 1994. He was a member of the U.S. team at both the1984 Summer Olympics and the1994 FIFA World Cup. He was the 1991U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year and was inducted into theNational Soccer Hall of Fame in 2008.
Pérez was born in El Salvador, where both his grandfather and father both played professionally forC.D. FAS, the club with which Pérez would finish his career. He migrated with his family to the United States when he was 11 and gained his U.S. citizenship in the mid-1980s.[1] He chose to forego college.
In 1982, Pérez signed with theLos Angeles Aztecs of theNASL. He also spent time with theTampa Bay Rowdies before ending up with theSan Diego Sockers. In 1988, he was the championship MVP when the Sockers won theMISL championship. That summer he joinedAjax during the team's pre-season. Ajax managerJohan Cruyff expressed an interest in signing him, but the Sockers refused to release Pérez. In 1989, he played for theLos Angeles Heat of theWestern Soccer Alliance.[2]
Cruyff then attempted to work a transfer for Pérez to Italian clubParma in 1990, but Parma needed Pérez to play in the World Cup in order to get him a work permit. Pérez was part of the 1990 World Cup Roster, but when U.S. coach Gansler left Pérez off the U.S. team that traveled, due to a question of match fitness due to injury, this nixed the move to Italy. Instead, Pérez moved toFrance where he played withRed Star Paris. From France, Pérez moved to SwedishFirst Division clubÖrgryte IS then Saudi ArabianFirst Division clubAl-Ittihad.
In 1994, he returned to the United States and played in the 1994 World Cup and after played for theLos Angeles Salsa of theAmerican Professional Soccer League. Hugo played with the Salsa while negotiating a contract with C.D FAS. The Salsa folded at the end of the 1994 season and Pérez made his last move, toPrimera División de Fútbol de El Salvador clubC.D. FAS, commonly known as C.D. FAS. In both of Pérez' years with the club, 1994–1995 and 1995–1996, C.D. FAS won the El Salvador championship. He retired in 1996 from professional soccer.
Pérez was a member of theAmerican squad that competed at the1983 FIFA World Youth Championship and1984 Summer Olympics.[3] He also helped the U.S. qualify for the1988 Summer Olympics and the1990 FIFA World Cup, which he missed when he tore ligaments in his leg playing forRed Star Paris, a FrenchSecond Division club.[4] He was namedU.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 1991. He played 73 international matches for the U.S. between 1984 and 1994, in which he scored thirteen goals. At the1994 FIFA World Cup, Pérez played in the second-round game against Brazil.
After retiring from playing, Pérez moved to the San Francisco area where he has served as the principal for the Living Hope Christian School. On March 10, 2008, Pérez was elected to theNational Soccer Hall of Fame.[5]
He is the uncle ofUD Ibiza andEl Salvador U-23 player,Joshua Pérez.[6][7]
In August 2002, he joined theUniversity of San Francisco as an assistant coach to its men's soccer team.[8] On December 7, 2007, theCalifornia Victory, aUSL First Division expansion franchise, announced that Pérez had joined its staff as an assistant coach.[9]
Pérez was coach of the U15s from August 7, 2012, to August 23, 2014. He resigned afterwards. He stated "Yes, this is my last camp, I don't know [what is next for me]; that is up to U.S. Soccer. Obviously, I'm employed by them and whatever they do I am open to it. It's been an honor to work with these kids and an honor to get to know them."[10]
AfterAlbert Roca resigned as coach ofEl Salvador in July 2015, Pérez once again expressed his interest in coaching El Salvador.[11][12] On August 21, 2015, it was announced that Pérez has been hired as the new assistant coach of El Salvador toJorge Rodríguez.[13] In April 2021, after having coached theEl Salvador under-23 national team, Pérez was named head coach of thesenior team, the first American to coach El Salvador after 91 years.[14] Under this tutelage, El Salvador began recruiting players born in the United States to Salvadoran parents, who later made up a quarter of their World Cup qualifying roster in 2021.[1] On September 11, 2023, Pérez was fired as the head coach of the El Salvador national team the day following a 2–3 loss toTrinidad and Tobago during the2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League.[15]
His nephewJoshua Pérez is a professional soccer player who plays for American sideTampa Bay Rowdies.[6][7]
| National team | Year | Apps | Starts | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1984 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 1985 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1988 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1989 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1990 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1991 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 2 | |
| 1992 | 17 | 17 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 2 | |
| 1994 | 17 | 16 | 3 | 3 | |
| Total | 73 | 66 | 13 | 8 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 4, 1985 | Portland, Oregon |  Canada | 1–1 | 1–1 | Friendly |
| 2 | August 13, 1988 | St. Louis, Missouri |  Jamaica | 2–1 | 5–1 | 1990 World Cup qualifying |
| 3 | September 17, 1989 | Tegucigalpa, Honduras |  El Salvador | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1990 World Cup qualifying |
| 4 | July 3, 1991 | Los Angeles, California |  Costa Rica | 2–2 | 3–2 | 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup |
| 5 | March 18, 1992 | Casablanca, Morocco |  Morocco | 1–2 | 1–3 | Friendly |
| 6 | April 4, 1992 | Palo Alto, California |  China | 1–0 | 5–0 | Friendly |
| 7 | 5–0 | |||||
| 8 | March 14, 1993 | Tokyo, Japan |  Japan | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1993 Kirin Cup |
| 9 | October 16, 1993 | High Point, North Carolina |  Ukraine | 1–0 | 1–2 | Friendly |
| 10 | December 5, 1993 | Los Angeles, California | El Salvador | 5–0 | 7–0 | Friendly |
| 11 | February 20, 1994 | Miami, Florida |  Sweden | 1–3 | 1–3 | Friendly |
| 12 | March 26, 1994 | Dallas, Texas |  Bolivia | 1–1 | 2–2 | Friendly |
San Diego Sockers
FAS
United States
Individual
International tournaments | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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