Paul Caligiuri

Paul Caligiuri

Paul David Caligiuri is a former professional football player from Westminster, California, United States. Born on May 9, 1964, Caliguiri enjoyed a long professional career that spanned 16 years. During those years, he played for various teams in the United States as well as in Germany.

Caligiuri has been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and is known for making a game-winning goal that has made history as the “Shot heard round the world”. This was when he was able to score a goal that made the United States gain a qualifier victory for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. This was the first victory that the United States had won since the World Cup was created.

During his college years, Caligiuri started playing football, and proved to be good at the sport. As a result, he was named an NCAA All-American two times. After graduating from college, Caligiuri joined the San Diego Nomads in 1986, where he became the Most Valuable player of the Western Soccer Alliance, as well as being named the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year.

A year after, Caligiuri joined Hamburg where he spent another year honing his skills. Then came a slew of other offers from other clubs throughout the years including Meppen, Hansa Rostock, Freiburg, and his last one was the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Caligiuri was also a part of the United States national football team where he had a total of 110 caps and 5 goals. After retirement, Caligiuri had stints managing teams such Cal Poly Pomona from 2002 to 2008.