Wílmer Cabrera Linares (born September 15, 1967) is a Colombian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender and current head coach of Rio Grande Valley FC Toros in the USL Championship. He previously coached for Chivas USA and

Houston Dynamo Houston Dynamo FC (formerly officially, but still commonly, called the Houston Dynamo) is an American professional soccer club based in Houston. The Dynamo compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Establi ...

, as well as the United States men's national under-17 soccer team. During his playing career, Cabrera played as a right back for clubs in the Colombian league and the Colombia national team, representing the country at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

Career

Cabrera, born in

Cartagena, Colombia Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...

, and raised in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, made his professional debut at the age of 17 for Santa Fe. His 18-year playing career included stints at

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

(reaching the

1996 Copa Libertadores Final The 1996 Copa Libertadores Final was a two-legged football match-up to determine the 1996 Copa Libertadores champion. It was contested by Argentine club River Plate and Colombian club América de Cali. The first leg was played at Pascual Guerrer ...

), Millonarios, Chicó, Independiente of Argentina, Herediano of Costa Rica and the Long Island Rough Riders of the United States.

International career

Cabrera was capped 48 times and scored 3 international goals for

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 ...

between 1989 and 1998. He was an unused substitute during the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

but played in all of the country's three matches in the

. He also played in four

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

competitions in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Coaching career

After retiring, Cabrera settled permanently in the United States to pursue work as a helicopter pilot in the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

area. He began working with the

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 ...

front office as a community development manager working on Hispanic grassroots and youth programs. He also worked as an assistant coach for the

Suffolk County Community College Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) is a public community college in Selden, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and is funded in part by Suffolk County, New York. Suffolk County Community College was ...

men's soccer team as well as top-ranked youth soccer club B.W. Gottschee, based in Queens, New York. Cabrera earned his United States Soccer Federation A Coaching License in 2005 and became an assistant coach with the United States men's national under-18 soccer team in 2007. He was named by the USSF as head coach of the United States men's national under-17 soccer team on October 25, 2007, becoming the first Latin American head coach in the U.S. national team system. On January 24, 2012, he was replaced in this role by Richie Williams. In January 2012, Cabrera was named assistant coach for the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. In January 2014, Chivas USA appointed Cabrera as head coach. The club was dissolved by the league at the end of the season, with Cabrera's team finishing seventh in the Western Conference, the highest finish for Chivas USA in their final five seasons. Cabrera was named head coach of the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the United Soccer League on December 2, 2015. Cabrera was named head coach of the

on October 28, 2016. He and the Dynamo parted ways on August 13, 2019. Cabrera became head coach of the Montreal Impact on August 21, 2019. On October 24, 2019, the Impact announced that his contract would not be renewed for the 2020 season.

Managerial statistics

Honours

;Players ;Coach

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cabrera, Wilmer 1967 births 1989 Copa América players 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1991 Copa América players 1995 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 1998 FIFA World Cup players América de Cali footballers Argentine Primera División players Boyacá Chicó F.C. footballers C.S. Herediano footballers Categoría Primera A players Chivas USA coaches Club Atlético Independiente footballers Colombia international footballers Colombia under-20 international footballers Colombian expatriate footballers Colombian football managers Colombian footballers Colorado Rapids non-playing staff Deportes Tolima footballers Expatriate footballers in Argentina Expatriate footballers in Costa Rica Expatriate soccer players in the United States Independiente Santa Fe footballers Living people Long Island Rough Riders players Major League Soccer coaches Millonarios F.C. players USL Second Division players Association football defenders Houston Dynamo FC coaches Rio Grande Valley FC Toros coaches CF Montréal coaches Sportspeople from Cartagena, Colombia