Óscar Pareja as Orlando City’s next manager almost made too much sense. A coach who had achieved playoff berths at every stop in his career, who had built the most thriving academy system in Major League Soccer, and who had an established relationship with Orlando’s new brain trust? How could they not match up?
Well, as it turns out, they did. Pareja was announced Wednesday morning as Orlando City’s new head coach. The Colombian is a walking checklist for EVP of Soccer Operations Luiz Muzzi, who worked with Pareja developing a homegrown juggernaut at FC Dallas. The two worked to take Los Toros Tejanos to the top of MLS by building from the ground up—FCD’s academy has produced 26 Homegrown players, more than any other club in the league, almost all of whom were either brought into the academy or the first team by Pareja himself.