Fernando Clavijo

Fernando began his professional career at the age of 16 in his native Uruguay, where he played for the national junior team and then for Atletico Atenas in the Uruguyan Second Division.

He came to the United States in 1979 with his wife Martha to play for New York Apollos in the American Soccer League (ASL), and remained in the league in 1980 and 1981 while playing for New York United. In his ASL career he appeared in a total of 66 games and scored five goals. During the winter of 1981-82 Fernando moved indoors to play for the New York Arrows of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and thus began a long indoor career. Following two seasons with the Arrows, he moved to the west coast where he played for San Diego Sockers starting in the winter of 1984-85 through to the end of the 1987-88 season.  During his years with San Diego the team won six MISL championships. He spent the 1988-89 season with Los Angeles Lazers and the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons with St. Louis Storm. During these eleven years he played in 397 regular season games and 79 play off games and scored a combined total of 117 goals.  He was one of the most outstanding players in the history of the MISL being named to the All-Star team 12 times.

In the declining years of the North American Soccer League (NASL) he played with the Golden Bay Earthquakes during the 1983 and 1984 seasons, appearing in 40 games and scoring one goal. In the 1984 season he was selected to the NASL All-Star team.

Having obtained U.S. citizenship in 1987 he attracted the attention of the U.S. Men’s National Team coaches and made his debut for the National Team against the Soviet Union in November 21, 1990, going on to play 61 times for his adopted country. He was a member of the 1994 FIFA World Cup team at the age of 37, the oldest member of the squad, being brought into the line-up after the first game because his speed was needed on the backline. Playing as an outside full back he was crucial to the successful strategy of forcing Colombia's attack into the center of the field, and was one of the unsung heroes of the United States' upset victory.  He also played against Romania and Brazil. He retired from the Men’s National Team following the World Cup.

After his playing career was over he turned to coaching and coached the Seattle Sea Dogs of the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) and in three years led the Sea Dogs to an impressive 27-7 record. Later he coached the Florida Thundercats of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL).

In 1998 he took his coaching outdoors as an assistant coach for the U.S. Project-40 team and also spent part of 1998 as head coach of the U.S. National Futsal Team.  In that same year he was named assistant coach of the Nigerian National Team in the World Cup finals in France.

In 2000 he was appointed Head Coach of the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS) and in his first season the club enjoyed its most successful season to that date finishing with a 13-13-6 record.  He spent three seasons with New England during and led the team to the final of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 2001.

In 2004, he coached the Haitian National Team in FIFA World Cup qualifying and after the team was eliminated he was hired as the head coach of the Colorado Rapids in December of 2004.

U.S. National Team Statistics