Óscar Pareja signs with Club Tijuana

Club Tijuana announced today that Óscar Pareja would be the club’s manager going in to 2019, ending weeks of speculation. The 50 year old Colombian comes to Tijuana after a four year stint as the manager of FC Dallas in Major League Soccer.

Pareja’s stint in Dallas is widely lauded as a success story. Pareja took a team that had missed the playoffs for two consecutive seasons and would guide them to the playoffs for four of his five seasons. He would win the Supporters Shield (awarded to the team with the most points at the end of the regular season) and the U.S. Open Cup tournament in 2016. He also guided the team to the Semifinals of the Concacaf Champions League in 2016-17 and the Round of 16 in 2018.

Pareja is widely renowned for being able to develop young players through the FC Dallas Academy. Eight players on the Dallas roster this past season were considered “Homegrown”, having played in the Dallas Academy prior to signing a professional contract with the team.

Pareja inherits a Tijuana team that missed the playoffs this past season, finishing 15th out of 18. Much like FC Dallas, Tijuana has a very strong academy pipeline and is seeing more players come through the U17s and U20s to the first team. Pareja is also bilingual, which will be an asset for a club that prides itself on its reach on both sides of the United States-Mexico border.