Galaxy icon Cienfuegos returns to club

i-3c1036603807377f3e0facf4afffc3e3-Galaxy02-1.6-7-03.BK.JPGHot stuff: Former Galaxy midfield general Mauricio Cienfuegos has returned to the club as a coach (Daily Breeze file photo).

Mauricio Cienfuegos, the diminutive Salvadoran who made more than 200 hugely influential appearances for the Galaxy in an eight-year career with the club that ended in 2003, is returning as technical coach for the LA Galaxy Academy.

Cienfuegos holds a USSF “A” coaching license and in 2008 served as coach of Nejapa in El Salvador’s top division.

“I’m very happy to be back with the club, and to have the opportunity to work with the young players in the Academy is something that I’m very much looking forward too,” Cienfuegos said. “I’m going to be doing something that brings a lot of joy to me, which is teaching the game to kids. Hopefully, one of those players will go on to play for the first team – that’s everyone’s goal.”

The 43-year-old will “work primarily with attacking players within the younger age groups of the Galaxy Academy,” the club said in a news release.

“We’re excited to have Mauricio Cienfuegos join us and use some of his expertise from all his years of coaching and playing,” said Chris Klein, senior academy director. “He is one of the greatest players in the history of the LA Galaxy and still has that fire. He has a great desire to work with, what we hope to be, the future of this club.”

The seven-time MLS All-Star led the club to the 2000 CONCACAF Champions Cup, the 2001 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and the 2002 MLS Cup.

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