Paul Caligiuri

Paul Caligiuri played college soccer (football) for UCLA, graduating in 1985, twice earning All-American honors and captaining the Bruins to the 1984 NCAA Championship. In 1986 he joined the San Diego Nomads of the Western Soccer Alliance, earning the league’s MVP award. Caligiuri spent the next six years in Germany, playing for Hamburger SV, SV Meppen, Hansa Rostock, and SC Freiburg. He was a member of the US National team from 1984-97, earning 110 international caps. In 1990 Caligiuri scored against Czechoslovakia in the FIFA World Cup, the first US goal in the World Cup since 1950. Caligiuri had also scored the winning goal in a 1989 World Cup qualifier against Trinidad & Tobago that sent the US to the 1990 World Cup.

In 1995, after two years off the pitch, Caligiuri signed with the Los Angeles Salsa of the American Professional Soccer League. He also played some games that season in the Bundesliga, on loan to FC St. Pauli. He then played in Major League Soccer (MLS) with the Los Angeles Galaxy and Columbus Crew, ending his playing career in 2001. Caligiuri went into coaching, serving as head coach for both the men’s and women’s teams at Cal Poly Pomona, and also coaching at the California Football Academy in Mission Viejo, California.