José Mauricio Cienfuegos (born 12 February 1968) is a Salvadoran former 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 ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Cienfuegos began his professional career in 1985 with Racing Junior. He played the next two seasons for

Soyapango Soyapango is a municipality in the San Salvador department of El Salvador. Soyapango is a commercial center. The municipality is the third most populated area in the country, with 290,412 inhabitants. Soyapango is a satellite city of San Salvador ...

, and then moved to Luís Ángel Firpo, where he would play for four years. Cienfuegos moved to

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 ...

to play for

Atlético Morelia Club Atlético Morelia is a Mexican football club based in Morelia, Michoacán. Founded on 4 June 1950, the club currently plays in the Liga de Expansión MX. The club play their home games at Estadio Morelos. From 1981 to 2020, the club played ...

in the 1991, and then signed with Santos in 1992. However, after just one season at

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

, Cienfuegos became unhappy with how he was being used at the club and decided to try his luck in Europe. In the summer of 1993, he had trials with Swiss champions

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

and

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

side Lleida. Cienfuegos was close to signing with the Spanish side, but ultimately he was not offered a contract, and he returned to El Salvador with a brief stint with Tampico Madero during the second half of the 1994-95 season.

Los Angeles Galaxy

Cienfuegos played two more seasons with Luis Ángel Firpo before joining Major League Soccer for its inaugural 1996 season. Cienfuegos played for

Los Angeles 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 pla ...

for eight years as a midfielder, from 1996 until his retirement after the 2003 season. During those years, he established himself, along with

Carlos Valderrama Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (Colombian Spanish: ; born 2 September 1961), also known as ''El Pibe'' ("The Kid"), is a Colombian former professional footballer and sports commentator for Fútbol de Primera, who played as an attacking mid ...

Marco Etcheverry Marco Antonio Etcheverry Vargas (born 26 September 1970) is a Bolivian retired professional footballer who played as a forward. A creative playmaker, he is considered one of the greatest Bolivian players of all time. Etcheverry played for D.C. ...

, and Peter Nowak, as one of the best playmakers in the league. He was elected to the

MLS Best XI The MLS Best XI is an annual acknowledgment of the best eleven players in Major League Soccer. Winners *Players in bold were awarded the Landon Donovan MVP Award for that season. Most appearances by a player The following players have appeared ...

three times, in 1996, 1998, and 1999, and played in seven

MLS All-Star Game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from Liga MX. MLS initially adopted a traditional all-star ...

s as a central midfielder. During his MLS career, Galaxy won the 2000

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Americ ...

, the 2001 U.S. Open Cup, and the 2002

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

. He finished his MLS career with 78 assists and 35 goals in 206 games for the club.

International career

Cienfuegos was an important player for the El Salvador national team, joining the team as a teenager, and continuing to lead his national side well into his thirties. He has earned a total of 68 caps, scoring 8 goals, all of them during a home game. He has represented his country in a massive 32 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and played at the

1995 UNCAF Nations Cup Six national football teams from Central America competed in the 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup (''Copa Centroamericana''). The winning team was Honduras, defeating Guatemala in the final. Squads Preliminary round Stadium First round Group A ''p ...

as well as the 1996 and

1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the fourth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament was once again held in the United States, in Los Angeles, Miami, and Oakla ...

s. Cienfuegos played his final international game in July 2003, in a testimonial match against

, played at the Galaxy's

Home Depot Center Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignit ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list El Salvador's goal tally first.''

Coaching career

Cienfuegos was appointed head coach of Nejapa in El Salvador's Primera División de Fútbol Profesional in 2008. Despite having a good first season, a poor start to his second season in charge and non-payment of his players led to him to resign as head coach of the team. On 22 June 2011, it was announced that Mauricio Cienfuegos had been appointed as a technical coach for the LA Galaxy Academy.

Honors

CD Luis Ángel Firpo * Primera División de Fútbol Profesional: 1988–89, 1990–91, 1991–92 Los Angeles Galaxy * CONCACAF Champions' Cup:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

:: (Runner-up 1997) *

: 2002 :: (Runner-up : 1996, 1999, 2001) *

MLS Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, 2002 :: (Runner-up : 1996, 1999) * U.S. Open Cup: 2001 : (Runner-up : 2002) Individual *

: 1996,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Personal life

Cienfuegos lives with his wife and three children in the San Gabriel Valley, California.What Ever Happened To: Mauricio Cienfuegos
– LA Galaxy

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cienfuegos, Mauricio 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from San Salvador Association football midfielders Salvadoran footballers Salvadoran expatriate footballers El Salvador international footballers 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo footballers Atlético Morelia players Santos Laguna footballers LA Galaxy players Tampico Madero F.C. footballers Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate soccer players in the United States Salvadoran football managers Liga MX players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars LA Galaxy non-playing staff Salvadoran expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Salvadoran expatriate sportspeople in the United States