Orlando City Signs Head Coach Oscar Pareja Through 2025

Orlando City has announced that the club has reached an agreement with Head Coach Oscar Pareja on a new contract through 2025. The most successful coach in the club’s MLS era is locked down through the next two years after leading the Lions to four consecutive postseason appearances and the 2022 U.S. Open Cup championship.

“Oscar has been integral to what we are building, and his leadership and dedication to winning championships has set an example for everyone at our club,” Orlando City Chairman Mark Wilf said in a club press release. “Oscar takes great pride in representing Orlando City SC and has established a culture that embodies everything our organization is about and a team of which our fans can be proud. The positive relationships and respect Oscar creates with his players has built a critical foundation for success. We are excited to have Oscar continue to lead us into the future.”

“I first want to say how grateful I am to the Wilf family and the whole ownership group for the support that they’ve given us and allowing us to create the culture here that we have built these last few years,” Pareja said in the club’s release. “The support that the fans have shown us has been incredible through everything and, along with everyone working at the club, they’ve made me feel like this is home. We know that there are things left that we want to achieve here in Orlando and I feel like we can accomplish those objectives. I’m excited to stay here in Orlando and for what’s to come.”

Orlando City hired Pareja, 55, as head coach four years and 15 days ago on Dec. 4, 2019. He succeeded James O’Connor, Jason Kreis, and Adrian Heath as OCSC head coaches in the club’s MLS era. Since then, Pareja has piloted Orlando to a 65-42-42 record in all competitions, leading the side to MLS Cup playoff appearances every year. He has also led the Lions to two-straight appearances in Concacaf Champions Cup (formerly Concacaf Champions League), and the club’s first major trophy in its MLS era with the 2022 U.S. Open Cup title. In 2023, Pareja led Orlando City to new club records for wins (18) and points (63) in an MLS season, as well as the league’s best road record (9-4-4). During the pandemic, Pareja’s Lions reached the championship match of the MLS is Back Tournament.

Pareja became the 10th coaching casualty for the Xolos in seven years. He left FC Dallas in November of 2018 to make the move to Tijuana. Pareja took over late during the 2018-2019 Torneo Apertura, but the Xolos finished out that season with Frankie Oviedo as the caretaker coach. Pareja’s first season at the helm with Tijuana was in the 2019 Torneo Clausura, in which his side finished eighth with a record of 9-7-1 to qualify for the postseason Liguilla. Tijuana then lost in the quarterfinals to top seed Leon by a 5-2 aggregate.

As the 2019-2020 Torneo Clausura drew near a close, Pareja had Tijuana in the postseason qualification places with three matches remaining, but the club lost those three games, with one of them being a bitter and controversial 2-1 loss to second-place Leon in the finale.

Pareja led FC Dallas to a record of 97-50-55 in 202 matches in all competitions in five seasons from 2014-2018. His Dallas teams reached the postseason in four of his five seasons at the helm — finishing fourth or better in the conference each time they made the playoffs. They won the 2016 Supporters’ Shield and U.S. Open Cup, and were the 2015 Shield runners-up due to losing a tiebreaker. He was 2-4-4 in playoff matches, advancing on penalties after one of those draws and getting eliminated by the away-goals rule after another. Pareja also led his team to the semifinals of the Concacaf Champions League in 2017.

Prior to joining the Hoops, Pareja spent two seasons with the Colorado Rapids, where he went 25-31-13 in 69 matches. The Rapids did not make the playoffs in Pareja’s first season of 2012, going 11-19-4, but finished fifth in the West in 2013 before losing to Seattle in the knockout stage of the playoffs. You may recall that Orlando City’s USL side knocked Pareja’s Colorado side out of the U.S. Open Cup that season.

As a player, Pareja spent 1987-1995 with Independiente Medellin in his native Colombia as a midfielder, appearing in 263 matches and scoring 18 goals. He moved to Deportivo Cali, where he scored 11 more goals in 122 games from 1995-1998 and then joined the New England Revolution, appearing in 13 games that year. He finished his playing career with FC Dallas, scoring 13 goals in 170 appearances from 1998-2005. He also earned 11 caps from 1991 to 1996 with Colombia’s national team, scoring three goals.

What It Means for Orlando City

Quite simply, it means the Lions retain their most successful coach since joining Major League Soccer. Pareja has created a culture and an identity that was lacking at the club prior to his arrival. While it’s common for players to say the team feels like a family and a city feels like “home,” the Lions have walked that walk during Pareja’s tenure in the City Beautiful.

Pareja’s challenge for the upcoming season is to improve upon the club’s best finish. That’s not an easy task considering the Lions completed the 2023 season second in the Supporters’ Shield race to FC Cincinnati. Beyond that, Pareja must find a way to integrate Designated Player Martin Ojeda into the starting lineup and find some continuity in the wake of the departures of Mauricio Pereyra and Antonio Carlos this off-season.

Additionally, of course, Pareja’s tenure with Orlando City will be measured in trophies. So far, he’s won one of them, and his squad came up just inches short of knocking 2023 MLS Cup-winning Columbus out of the playoffs when Ojeda’s late attempt skipped inches wide of the right post — despite the fact that his team had been down a man for about 20 minutes. Pareja has shown an ability to adapt to his personnel in his four years in Orlando. He’ll need to be able to do that again after the club parted ways with a few veterans since the season ended.

The next steps for the club should be locking up Executive Vice President and General Manager Luiz Muzzi and upgrading the roster for 2024.

Oscar Pareja’s Coaching Record at Orlando City (W-L-D)

Major League Soccer Regular Season: 125 games, 56-34-35
MLS Playoffs: 7 games, 2-4-1
U.S. Open Cup: 7 games, 4-1-2
Concacaf Champions League: 2 games, 0-0-2
Leagues Cup: 4 games, 1-2-1
MLS is Back Knockout Stages: 4 games, 2-1-1

Total: 149 games coached, 65-42-42