Jorge Salcedo (born September 27, 1972) is an American former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player and coach. He was the head coach of the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

men's soccer team. He is a retired American

defender who played professionally in Mexico and

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

. He earned three caps with the

United States men's national soccer team The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT) represents the United States in men's international soccer competitions. The team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and is a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. The U.S. team h ...

. Salcedo was arrested March 12, 2019 for conspiracy to commit

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...

for alleged participation in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. He resigned from his coaching position in the wake of the scandal. He pleaded guilty to the charges in April 2020. He was later sentenced in March 2021 to, among other things, eight months in prison.

Playing career

High school and college

Salcedo, son of soccer player Hugo Salcedo, grew up in Cerritos, California. He attended

Cerritos High School Cerritos High School, also called CHS, is a comprehensive, four-year public high school located in Cerritos, California, serving grades 9-12. It is part of the ABC Unified School District. As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrol ...

where he twice earned Parade high school soccer All-America recognition. He then attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

and played soccer for the Bruins from 1990 to 1993. During his four seasons with the Bruins, Salcedo 74 games, scored six goals and added seven assists. In 1990, his freshman season, Salcedo scored the decisive penalty kick shootout goal to give the Bruins the

NCAA Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

. He was a 1993 first-team All-American, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science.

Professional

Following his four seasons with the Bruins, Salcedo signed with the Los Angeles Salsa of the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

. He then moved to Monarcas Morelia of the México Primera División for half a season in 1995. He joined

in 1996. In his rookie season in the league, he was a starter for the

Los Angeles Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pla ...

and helped take his team to the

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

Final. On February 1, 1997, The Galaxy traded him to the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

for the first pick in the 1997 Supplemental Draft. On November 6, 1997, the Chicago Fire selected Salcedo with the ninth pick of the

Expansion Draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...

. Half way through the 1998 season, on June 29, 1998, the Fire traded him to the Tampa Bay Mutiny for Josh Keller and a first-round pick in the

1999 MLS College Draft The 1999 Major League Soccer College Draft was held on February 6 and 7, 1999 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The first round of the draft took place on February 6 with the second and third rounds on February 7. The College Draft was followed by the ...

. On August 13, 1999, the Mutiny traded Salcedo to the Galaxy for Daniel Hernandez. The Galaxy released him during the season and he played two games with the Orange County Zodiac of the USL A-League.

International

Salcedo was also a member of the US men's national soccer team, earning three caps with the full national team and captaining the U-17 team at the 1989 World Youth Championships and the U-20 team at the 1990

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; types ...

Tournament.

Coaching career

In 2001, Salcedo became an assistant coach with the UCLA Bruins. During his three seasons as an assistant, UCLA won the 2002 NCAA Championship and two

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divisio ...

championships. In 2002, he spent two short stints as acting head coach. In early 2004, UCLA hired Salcedo to replace Tom Fitzgerald as head coach. Salcedo was named the 2004 Pac-10 Co-Coach of the Year after leading UCLA to its third-straight conference title. In 2006, the Bruins went to NCAA Championship Game where they lost to UC Santa Barbara.

Arrest and indictment

On March 12, 2019, Salcedo was arrested, and

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...

by a

federal grand jury Grand juries in the United States are groups of citizens empowered by United States federal or state law to conduct legal proceedings, chiefly investigating potential criminal conduct and determining whether criminal charges should be brought ...

in Boston for conspiracy to commit

for alleged participation in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. His indictment charged Salcedo with taking $200,000 in bribes to help two students, one in 2016 and one in 2018, get admitted to UCLA using falsified soccer credential admission information. As a result, he was placed on leave by UCLA from his coaching position at the school. On March 21, 2019, it was announced that he had resigned. On April 21, 2020, it was announced that he had agreed to plead guilty to the charges against him. His plea was accepted on January 14, 2021. On March 19, 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Salcedo to 8 months in prison, 1 year of supervised release and a forfeiture of $200,000. Salcedo was imprisoned in the United States Penitentiary, Lompoc, and was released on December 30, 2021.

References

External links

November 2006 Interview

Sams-Army profile
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salcedo, Jorge 1972 births Living people All-American men's college soccer players American sportspeople of Mexican descent American Professional Soccer League players American soccer coaches American soccer players American expatriate soccer players Association football defenders Chicago Fire FC players Columbus Crew players LA Galaxy players Los Angeles Salsa players Major League Soccer players Atlético Morelia players People from Cerritos, California Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Tampa Bay Mutiny players UCLA Bruins men's soccer coaches UCLA Bruins men's soccer players United States men's international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's youth international soccer players A-League (1995–2004) players Liga MX players People charged with fraud Expatriate footballers in Mexico American expatriate sportspeople in Mexico