Hugo Pérez (Photo by Alex Peña/Getty Images)
We are just one year away from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which the United States, Canada and Mexico will co-host. It will be the second time that the United States hosts the biggest tournament in sport, having previously done so in 1994. Two years after the World Cup, the Summer Olympics will return to Los Angeles for the second time, having previously hosted them in 1984.
Out of the 38 Americans who competed for the United States in the 1984 Olympics and the 1994 World Cup, only one player had the chance to participate in both: Hugo Pérez.
“I remember watching my first-ever World Cup final between Italy and Brazil in 1970 and saying to myself, ‘I’m going to play in the World Cup one day,’” Pérez stated in an exclusive RG interview. “My dream growing up was to reach a World Cup, so after I got there, I didn’t want to play for the national team anymore. I could’ve stayed in shape and made it to the 1998 World Cup, but I decided not to. There’s no tournament that’s as big as the World Cup, but the Olympics are special because you can watch and meet people competing in different sports. I thank God that I was lucky enough to have played in both.”
Growing up in El Salvador
Born in San Salvador on Nov. 8, 1963, Pérez emanates from a noteworthy soccer lineage: his grandfather Antonio “Conejo” Pérez founded Club Deportivo Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos (FAS) in 1947, El Salvador’s most successful club with 19 championships. His father Hugo also played for FAS before starting a successful business in which he would purchase trucks in the U.S., drive them to El Salvador and sell them there. In 1974, Hugo Sr. decided to move his family to Los Angeles; five years later, the Salvadoran Civil War broke out between the U.S.-backed government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), leading to 75,000 deaths and 8,000 disappearances between 1979 and 1992.
“My childhood in El Salvador shaped me into what I would become: a soccer player. Soccer had been my passion since I started walking. I was used to coming back from school and playing pickup games with my friends—I missed it a lot when I moved here. My new friends didn’t have the same schedule in terms of playing soccer all day, every day. I had to adjust to a different culture, but after school ended, I’d go to the Red Shield Community Center, do my homework, stay until my parents got back from work and play soccer there.”
“When I was young, there were no restrictions. My dad and granddad never told me ‘You can’t play today.’ They gave me the freedom to enjoy what I liked. I was 8 years old playing against 15-year-olds, which sped up my development. In those days, there were no academies to teach you how to play soccer. It was on the streets where you spent so many hours learning skills and technical abilities, learning to play in tight spaces and doing tricks with the ball, and I took that into my career. Some coaches would tell me not to dribble, but I never listened to them: I knew how to dribble, create and read the game; I had no fear of making mistakes.”
Eventually, these dazzling abilities earned him the interest of the North American Soccer League (NASL) side Los Angeles Aztecs, who offered him a contract in 1978 worth $1,500 per month ($7,357.34 adjusted for inflation). Pérez moved to Florida in 1982 and signed for the Tampa Bay Rowdies before returning to Southern California in 1983 and joining the San Diego Sockers. The NASL folded after the 1984 season, and it would take the United States another 12 years to find a successor for its premier soccer league. But unlike Tom Byer, who, after training with Tampa’s reserves, decided to try his luck in Japan following the NASL’s collapse, Pérez remained in San Diego, playing in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), winning five championships in six years and being named league MVP in 1988.
When El Salvador was preparing to play in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, Hugo approached his cousin, who was playing for El Salvador, and asked if he might be given an opportunity to be seen by the coach, only to learn that they didn’t want a player who was living outside El Salvador. Instead, Pérez became a U.S. citizen just in time to represent his new country in the qualifiers for the 1983 FIFA Youth World Cup in Mexico.
“That hurt me a lot. It was stupidity from narrow-minded people.
I said, ‘Look, that’s fine, but when I play El Salvador, the first thing on my mind is to score and show that they had made a mistake.’ In 1987, I went to San Salvador for an Olympic qualifier and scored twice. The Salvadoran fans were hostile, cursing me and calling me a traitor, but I didn’t care—I celebrated those two goals with everything. Two years later, I scored the winner in Honduras against El Salvador, which took us to the final round of World Cup qualifiers.”
Learning from Cruyff and Feuding with the USSF
Whenever the MISL season ended, Pérez would spend another three to four months playing outdoor soccer with the Los Angeles Salsa. One day in 1988, his manager Wim Suurbier asked him, “What are you doing here? You’re wasting your time. Would you like to go to Europe?” Hugo didn’t have an agent or any connections to European soccer, but that didn’t stop Suurbier from calling his old pal Johan Cruyff, with whom he had dominated Dutch football at Ajax and reached the World Cup final with the Netherlands. At that time, Cruyff had recently transitioned from playing to coaching Ajax alongside Frans Hoek. Pérez packed his bags for Amsterdam and started preseason training with the Ajax first team. After just two days, he had done enough to impress Cruyff, who pushed for his signing on a permanent transfer.
“Cruyff was tough. He’d have me stay for 20 minutes after practice and work on 1v1 drills, dribbling and scoring against their best defenders. I learned more in three weeks from him than anyone else. At first, people were asking, ‘What is this American doing here?’ but that motivated me even more. I went to start an exhibition game for Ajax, and Frank Rijkaard went up to me and said, ‘You deserve it, you’re a great player, we respect you, go on and enjoy yourself. I’m gonna be behind you, don’t worry about anything, just do your magic like you’ve done for three weeks.’”
Unfortunately for Pérez, the rules permitted teams only two foreigners, and they required any foreign signing to have accumulated 30 international caps or more, prompting the Dutch government to deny him a work permit. Cruyff directed him to join Spanish club Sabadell, where he participated in two exhibition games and scored. After one week, they looked set to sign him until the head coach told the president that he didn’t want a No. 10 like Pérez but rather a No. 9. Pérez would end up trialing at Scottish side Hearts before returning to San Diego. In the summer of 1989, Pérez finally crossed the Atlantic after joining French side Red Star, where he caught the attention of newly promoted Serie A side Parma, who were offering to quadruple his wages. The only catch? He needed to play in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, where the USA were finally returning after a 40-year drought. Those plans were thrown into disarray when, just three months before the tournament, Pérez fractured his fibula.
“Hardly anybody knows the real story. I wasn’t picked for the World Cup because of injury but because I had issues with the federation—I always stood up for what I believed was the right thing to do. At that time, we were fighting for shoe contracts because the federation had an agreement with Adidas, which only picked certain players and paid them. I said, ‘I have a contract with Puma, I need to go to the World Cup and wear my shoes because they’re paying me,’ and that became an issue and Puma sued the federation. Now, anybody can wear whatever boots they want, but I’d have to say that was the biggest disappointment of my career.”
Redemption with the Stars and Stripes
Heartbroken and distraught, Pérez believed that his chapter with the USMNT was over. Instead, the appointment of Bora Milutinović in 1991 convinced him to return to the fold—13 years earlier, the Serbian manager had attempted to sign him for Mexican side Pumas. Pérez was named the 1991 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year after winning the inaugural CONCACAF Gold Cup, playing overseas with Swedish outfit Örgryte IS and Saudi side Al-Ittihad before returning to the U.S. Three months after starting in a 1-0 defeat to eventual World Cup champions Brazil on July 4, 1994, Pérez called it quits after playing in a friendly match against England at Wembley Stadium, retiring with 13 goals in 73 caps. Pérez spent a brief stint with the Los Angeles Salsa before returning to El Salvador and joining FAS, where he helped them end an 11-year title drought, winning championships in 1995 and 1996 before retiring at the age of 32.
“I received an offer after the 1994 World Cup to play in MLS, but I didn’t think the contract was fair. Also, I had recently become a Christian, and I wanted to return to my country and share the word of God. I had studied different religions, but I never thought I needed God until one day in September 1991 when we were coming back from a match in Turkey with the national team. We were about to land in LA when another plane was crossing onto the runway, and we all thought we were gonna die. Everyone was quiet and waiting for the impact, but somehow, a miracle happened and the pilot managed to avoid it, head back to the ocean, come back around and land. That experience changed my life and made me realize God is real. When the owner of FAS asked me how much I wanted to earn, I said, ‘Pay me whatever you want. My grandfather’s dream was to see me play there before he died, and he did that.’”
After hanging up his boots, Pérez moved to the San Francisco area and served as the principal for the Living Hope Christian School while also working as an assistant coach for the University of San Francisco’s men’s soccer team and the USL First Division side California Victory. Four years after being elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, Pérez worked as manager of the United States’ U-14 and U-15 national teams, helping mold future USMNT internationals like Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, spending two years in charge before being dismissed in August 2014.
“I enjoyed it at first. I wanted to make a difference, and they gave me the liberty to change the structure of how we did these eight-day camps four times a year. After two years, I had some issues inside the federation: there was a coach from the U-17 team who felt that we wanted to take their jobs because our group was being applauded for the way we played football, so he went to the top and said, ‘You need to fire him.’ They also told me, ‘We don’t want you speaking Spanish to the Latino players.’ They said if I didn’t stop, they’d fire me. I thought that was cruel and discriminatory.”
Leaving His Legacy on La Selecta
After Spanish coach Albert Roca resigned as El Salvador manager in July 2015 following their group-stage exit in the Gold Cup, Pérez threw his hat in the ring for the vacant position via his Twitter account. A few weeks later, Pérez was hired as the new assistant coach to El Salvador manager Jorge Rodríguez, while also managing El Salvador’s U-23 side. In April 2021, Pérez became the first American head coach of El Salvador in 91 years. Under Pérez’s tenure, Los Cuscatlecos began recruiting players of Salvadoran descent who were raised in the U.S., like his nephew Joshua Pérez. They also reached the final round of World Cup qualifiers for the first time in 12 years, but ultimately, they failed to book their ticket for Qatar. After succumbing to a 3-2 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago, Pérez was relieved of his duties on Sept. 11, 2023.
“I wanted to compete against the U.S. and show that our players, even though they don’t make a lot of money, can compete if you train them correctly. We put ourselves on the map again and played our own style, which was something that hadn’t been done in years—not just sitting in our own half and trying not to get beaten too badly. The press in El Salvador is so bad—they don’t understand what needs to be done to compete in international football, they just care about winning at all costs. Thinking that the way you play doesn’t matter hasn’t taken them anywhere. They haven’t played in a World Cup since 1982.”
Since leaving El Salvador, Pérez has spent the past two years in the Bay Area overseeing the development of his five children, undertaking coaching courses and occasionally coaching children at the local soccer club Silicon Valley Albion. Above all, he’s patiently waiting for his next head coaching role. He came close to being hired as D.C. United manager, only to miss out on the role to Troy Lesesne, and while various Central American clubs have approached him, he is keen on either working in MLS or starting a new chapter in Asia.
“We’ll see what happens. I’m just waiting to get an opportunity again. I’d like to go to Asia if I don’t get an opportunity in MLS. I’d be open to working as a general manager or a scout or technical director at a club, but first, I want to see if I can still coach a couple more years.”
At 61 years old, it remains to be seen whether Pérez will return to coaching, but one thing’s for sure: nobody will erase the impact that he has left on both American and Salvadoran soccer.
Zach Lowy is a freelance football journalist who has written for leading outlets like FotMob, BetUS, Apuestas Deportivas, and who has appeared as a radio and television guest for BBC, SiriusXMFC, and various other platforms. After pursuing a global sports journalism degree at George Washington University, Zach has been able to tap into his multilingual background and interview major footballing figures in Spanish and Portuguese as well as operate the weekly podcast 'Zach Lowy's European Football Show' on BET Central.
