Orlando Perez (born July 12, 1977 in Pomona,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

defender, who played eight seasons in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. Perez never played college soccer, but he was drafted twice in MLS, both times by coach Octavio Zambrano. The first came in the first round of the 1999 MLS Supplemental Draft, when Zambrano was with the

Los Angeles Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

. Perez failed to make the team and played with A-League's Orange County Zodiac. With Zambrano moving to the MetroStars in 2000, he plucked Perez again, this time in the fourth round of the

2000 MLS SuperDraft The 2000 Major League Soccer MLS SuperDraft, SuperDraft was held on February 6, 2000 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and consisted of six rounds. One of the most successful draft picks was goalkeeper Nick Rimando, a third round pick, who went on t ...

. Perez would spend the next two and a half seasons with the Metros, a part-time player his first, a starter at left back his second. Zambrano dealt him midway through the third, to D.C. United with Petter Villegas for Mark Lisi and Craig Ziadie. Perez then became only one of two players in MLS history ( Winston Griffiths is the other) to play for three teams in one season as DC traded him the Chicago Fire for a draft pick after only eight games. Perez was in-and-out of the Fire lineup since. He scored two goals in six years in MLS. Perez was taken by Chivas in the 2004 MLS Expansion Draft. He was waived at the end of the 2007 season.

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* 1977 births Living people Orange County Blue Star players New York Red Bulls players D.C. United players Chicago Fire FC players Chivas USA players American sportspeople of Puerto Rican descent Puerto Rican men's footballers Sportspeople from Pomona, California Soccer players from Los Angeles County, California Major League Soccer players A-League (1995–2004) players New York Red Bulls draft picks LA Galaxy draft picks Men's association football defenders {{PuertoRico-footy-bio-stub