David Ochoa (born January 16, 2001) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

club Atlético San Luis. Born in the United States, he has represented both the Mexico national under-21 team and U.S. national youth teams.

Early life

Born in California to

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

parents, Ochoa was introduced to the sport at a young age by his father, who also played as a goalkeeper. He played youth soccer with AC Brea, gaining national attention at the 2015

Dallas Cup The ''Dallas Cup'', is an annual international Football (soccer), football tournament for invited youth teams. The tournament was established i1980and is held in Dallas, Dallas, Texas, with FC Dallas serving as its host club. Venues used for the t ...

youth tournament, where he helped his team win the U14 tournament. He drew attention from Mexican clubs

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

and

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

and American clubs

LA Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pl ...

and

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

. In April 2015, he earned his first US youth team call-up to play for the United States U14 team. He joined the Guadalajara youth academy, but was unable to play in competitive matches due to Mexican regulations requiring his parents to be present since he was a minor. During his time in Mexico, Ochoa also trained with the Mexico U16 team. Afterwards, he returned to the USA, joining the Real Salt Lake Academy.

Club career

Ochoa appeared for

USL The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

side Real Monarchs on April 22, 2018 in a 2–0 loss to Tampa Bay Rowdies, becoming the second-youngest goalkeeper ever to debut in USL. On August 8, 2018, it was reported that Ochoa was training with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and had further trials planned with clubs from Spain and Germany. Ochoa signed with

on November 28, 2018, ahead of the 2019 season. Ochoa was loaned to the Real Monarchs for his first season and won the USL Championship, defeating Louisville City FC on November 17, 2019 in Louisville, KY. In 2019, he played in the MLS Homegrown game at the

2019 MLS All-Star Game The 2019 Major League Soccer All-Star Game was the 24th edition of the annual Major League Soccer All-Star Game. It was held on July 31 at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida against Spanish club Atlético Madrid. Atlético won the game 3� ...

. Ochoa made his Real Salt Lake debut on November 8, 2020 against

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

. Ochoa was fined for kicking the ball into the stands during an April 24, 2021 match against

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United FC is an American professional soccer club based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that plays in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The club began play in 2017 as the league's 22nd club, and replaced the North American Socc ...

. He recorded his first Major League Soccer shutout on May 15, 2021 against

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is a Major League Soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in the league in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned ...

International career

United States

Ochoa was eligible to play for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Originally called up to the Mexico under-16s, Ochoa instead opted to play for the United States at multiple youth levels. Ochoa has been capped at under-16, −18, and −20 levels for the U.S. and has also been a member of the under-17 residency program. On August 25, 2018, Ochoa made multiple penalty saves in the final of the 2018 Vaclav Jezek Tournament in helping the U.S. under-18s to winning the tournament. On December 1, 2020, Ochoa was called up to the United States senior team by head coach

Gregg Berhalter Gregg Matthew Berhalter (, ; born August 1, 1973) is an American soccer coach and former player. He is also the current head coach of the United States men's national soccer team. Berhalter previously coached Columbus Crew SC in Major League Soc ...

for the friendly against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

on December 9, but was replaced by San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper

JT Marcinkowski James Thomas "JT" Marcinkowski (born May 9, 1997) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes. Career College and amateur Marcinkowski played for the Georgetown Hoyas fo ...

after Ochoa was diagnosed with a right quad strain. Ochoa was named to the final 20-player United States under-23 roster for the

2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship The 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship was the fifteenth and final edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted football tournament organised by CONCACAF to determine which men's ...

in March 2021. Ochoa started three games for the under-23 team during Olympic qualification. The United States failed to qualify for the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

after losing 2–1 to

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

; Honduras scored their second goal after Ochoa played an errant pass that ricocheted off

Luis Palma Luis Enrique Palma Oseguera (born 17 January 2000) is a Honduran professional footballer who plays as a winger or midfielder for Super League Greece club Aris and the Honduras national team. Club career Vida Palma made his professional and Lig ...

and into the United States goal. On May 24, 2021, Ochoa was named to the United States' roster for the

2021 CONCACAF Nations League Finals The 2020 CONCACAF Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2019–20 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the member associatio ...

Mexico

On August 2, 2021, Fox Sports reported that Ochoa had submitted and filed a one-time switch with FIFA in order to make a full move to the

Mexico national football team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF. Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified conse ...

. On October 9, 2021, Ochoa made his Mexico U21 debut in a friendly match against the Romania U21 side. On April 21, 2022, Ochoa received his first call-up to the senior national team by manager

Gerardo Martino Gerardo Daniel "Tata" Martino (born 20 November 1962) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. Martino played mostly for Newell's Old Boys in his native Rosario. He holds the record of appearances with the team playing a ...

for a friendly match against

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Real Monarchs *

USL Cup The USL Championship Final is the post-season championship match of the USL Championship, the second tier of professional men's soccer in the United States. The winner is crowned champion in the same manner as in other North American sports lea ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

United States U20 *

CONCACAF U-20 Championship The CONCACAF Under-20 Championship is the second longest running international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, CONCACAF, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

United States * CONCACAF Nations League: 2019–20

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ochoa, David 2001 births Living people American sportspeople of Mexican descent American soccer players Mexican footballers Soccer players from California Sportspeople from Oxnard, California Association football goalkeepers C.D. Guadalajara footballers Homegrown Players (MLS) Real Monarchs players Real Salt Lake players D.C. United players Atlético San Luis footballers Major League Soccer players USL Championship players MLS Next Pro players United States men's youth international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Mexico youth international footballers