Arturo Alvarez never managed to play for the senior U.S. men’s national team, but he’s helping to uncover the next generation of USMNT internationals.

Born on June 28, 1985, José Arturo Alvarez Hernández was born and raised in Houston by Salvadoran parents and got his start in professional soccer after signing a Project-40 contract and being selected with the 13th overall pick in the 2003 MLS SuperDraft by the San Jose Earthquakes.

While Alvarez was able to win the MLS Cup in his debut season, he struggled for regular minutes before being traded to FC Dallas, where he established himself as one of the promising wingers in the league before returning to San Jose, followed by a brief spell at Real Salt Lake. He wasn’t just able to make an impact at the club level, but the international level: after representing the USA at the U-17, U-18, U-20 and U-23 level, Alvarez switched over to El Salvador, where he scored 4 goals and 7 assists in 45 appearances for La Selecta.

Alvarez then tested his skills in Europe with Portuguese outfit Paços de Ferreira and Hungarian side Videoton – where he won the Nemzeti Bajnokság I – until returning to the USA and spending two years with Chicago Fire. And after an impressive swan song with Houston Dynamo that saw him win the U.S. Open Cup, Alvarez announced his retirement from professional soccer in 2019.

He’s remained in his hometown ever since, and after spending his first few years of retirement completely detached from soccer, he’s back in soccer with his role as the U.S. Soccer Talent ID Manager-South.

SOCCER AMERICA: Let’s start by talking about your childhood in Houston. What was it like growing up in one of the most diverse cities in the country during the ‘90s, and how did that shape your development?

ARTURO ALVAREZ: It’s funny how much soccer has grown in the last 20 or so years. You would think that it was kind of in its infancy, but I also feel like everyone played soccer whenever I was growing up, especially here in Houston.

Growing up in a prominent Hispanic community, a diverse city with people from all over the world, my first and only club coach was Brazilian, my parents were from El Salvador, and I knew a lot of people from Mexico, Honduras, South America. … Soccer was just everywhere, to be quite honest. My dad never played professionally, but he would get together with friends and go to a park and just play pickup soccer, and I would want to go with them. The adults would be playing on one side, the kids would be playing on the other side, so that was my upbringing in Houston as far as playing soccer at a young age. And then club soccer, obviously, there were no professional teams or academies at the time, so it was just club soccer, and it was fun.

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