Marcelo Balboa (born August 8, 1967) is an American former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

who played as a defender in the 1990s for the United States national team, becoming its

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. After retiring from playing, he has worked as a commentator for

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and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and MLS games on HDNet and

Altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

, as well as

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

games on

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

. He is the head boys' soccer coach for Monarch High School in

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Club career

Youth

Balboa, who is of Argentine descent, was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, and grew up in

Cerritos, California Cerritos (Spanish for "Little hills") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is one of several cities that constitute the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. It was incorporated on April 24, 1956. As of 20 ...

. Balboa played youth soccer for Fram-Culver, which won the 1986 McGuire Cup (U-19 National Championship). Balboa's father, Luis Balboa who played professionally in Argentina and with the Chicago Mustangs of the North American Soccer League, coached him. In 1985, Balboa graduated from

Cerritos High School Cerritos High School, also called CHS, is a comprehensive, four-year public high school located in Cerritos, California, serving grades 9-12. It is part of the ABC Unified School District. As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrol ...

. Balboa attended

Cerritos College Cerritos College is a public community college in Norwalk, California. It offers degrees and certificates in 87 areas of study in nine divisions. History The college was founded in 1955. It was named after Rancho Los Cerritos, a local r ...

, a local two-year community college from 1986 to 1987. At Cerritos, Balboa was both placekicker on the football team and a two-time 1st Team All-South Coast Conference soccer player. Cerritos College has retired Balboa's jersey number – #3. In 1988, Balboa transferred to

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

where he was a 1988 First Team and a 1989 Second Team All American soccer player.

Professional

From 1987 to 1989, Balboa played the collegiate off-seasons on an amateur contract with the professional

San Diego Nomads Nomads Soccer Club (formerly San Diego Nomads) is an American soccer club based in San Diego, California. From 1986 to 1990, the club fielded a professional senior team, but has since operated as an amateur and youth club. History The Nomads we ...

of the

Western Soccer League Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer All ...

. He was the 1988 WSA MVP. In 1990, Balboa began his professional career with the

San Francisco Bay Blackhawks San Francisco Bay Blackhawks were a professional soccer team which came into existence in 1989 as a team in the Western Soccer League (WSL). The Blackhawks spent time in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and the United States Interreg ...

of the American Professional Soccer League. In 1992, he moved to the

Colorado Foxes The Colorado Foxes were a professional soccer team, based in Commerce City, Colorado, that played in the American Professional Soccer League, and later in the A-League, between 1990 and 1997. The Foxes won two APSL titles, in 1992 and 1993. In 19 ...

. He played for León in the

Mexican League The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country. The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...

in 1995 and 1996. In 1996, Balbao signed with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

and the

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, lat ...

. Balboa played six seasons for the Rapids, leading as the team's all-time leader in many statistical categories. Traded to the MetroStars in 2002, he played only five minutes all year, sitting out the rest with injuries, and retiring afterwards. Balboa ended his MLS career with 24 goals and 23 assists in 152 games. In 2005, Balboa was named to the

MLS All-Time Best XI The Major League Soccer All-Time Best XI was selected In 2005 as part of the league's tenth anniversary celebrations. Major League Soccer, the top soccer league in the United States, named its All-Time Best XI, a selection of the best eleven playe ...

and elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on the first ballot along with Nick Folan. In 2012, he was inducted into the Colorado Hall of Fame. A goal by Balboa for the Rapids in 2000 against the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

was named the MLS Goal of the Year for that season.

International career

Balboa earned his first cap with United States national team on January 10, 1988 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 ...

. He anchored the American defense in the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

s, in the latter receiving international attention for his near miss with a

bicycle kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick, scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before d ...

in the United States' win over

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. He was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 1992 and 1994. In 1995, he became the first United States player to break the 100-

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barrier. In 1998, he joined

Tab Ramos Tabaré "Tab" Ramos Ricciardi (born September 21, 1966) is an American former soccer player and current head coach of Hartford Athletic in the USL Championship. Over his thirteen-year professional career, Ramos played as a midfielder in Spain, ...

and Eric Wynalda as the first United States players to play in three World Cups. Balboa ended his United States career with 128 caps and 13 goals, and his final appearance came in a friendly against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

on January 16, 2000.

Post-retirement

Team executive

After the 2004 MLS season, Balboa assumed a front office position with the Rapids.

Broadcaster

Balboa debuted as a sideline reporter during ABC's coverage of the 2003 MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup. In 2004, he became a regular announcer for ABC and ESPN's

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

coverage of the United States national team. Most recently, Balboa has paired up with baseball announcer Dave O'Brien as networks' #1 U.S. announcing team for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. In 2007, Balbao started a soccer radio show, ''From The Pitch'', which airs on Denver station Mile High Sports Radio. Balboa served as an analyst for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

coverage of Soccer at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He has been a guest soccer analyst on Telefutura's ''

Contacto Deportivo ''Contacto Deportivo'' is an American Spanish-language sports news program. Previously airing on UniMas, the program airs nightly at midnight on Univision and Univision Deportes Network. In September 2015, Univision Communications announced tha ...

''. In 2014, he was commentator of the United States team matches for

at the World Cup in Brazil.

Coaching

In 2012, Monarch High School hired Balboa to coach the boys' soccer team.Marcelo Balboa hired to coach Monarch High boys' soccer
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Personal life

Balboa, who is the son of Argentine immigrants, resides in the town of

Superior, Colorado Superior is a statutory town in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, with a small, uninhabited segment of land area extending into Jefferson County. According to the 2020 census, the population of the city was 13,094. History Superior's ...

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list the United States' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Balboa goal.''

References

External links

Interview on Role Models from CaptainU
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balboa, Marcelo 1967 births Living people American people of Argentine descent People from Cerritos, California Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Soccer players from California Soccer players from Chicago American soccer players Association football defenders San Diego State Aztecs men's soccer players All-American men's college soccer players Nomads Soccer Club players San Francisco Bay Blackhawks players Colorado Foxes players Club León footballers Colorado Rapids players New York Red Bulls players Western Soccer Alliance players American Professional Soccer League players Liga MX players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's international soccer players 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1992 King Fahd Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players FIFA Century Club National Soccer Hall of Fame members American expatriate soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Mexico American soccer coaches Colorado Rapids non-playing staff Association football commentators Major League Soccer broadcasters High school soccer coaches in the United States