Miguel Berry (born 16 September 1997) is a Spanish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker for

LA Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

Youth and amateur career

Berry was born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain to American parents. They moved back to the United States when Berry was eight-years old and Berry grew up in

Poway, California Poway () is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. Poway's rural roots influenced its motto "The City in the Country". The city had a population of 48,841 as of the 2020 United States census. Poway is part of San Diego's East ...

, attending

Poway High School Poway High School is a four-year high school in Poway, California, United States. Established in 1961, its approximately 2,408 students are from Poway and the community of Rancho Bernardo. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools ...

. Berry also played with Development Academy side San Diego Surf until 2016, having also previously played for San Diego SC. In 2016, Berry went to play

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in San Diego, California, United States. Chartered in 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University ...

. He played with the Toreros for four years, making 72 appearances, scoring 38 goals and tallying 16 assists. In his senior year, Berry was named the WCC Co-Player of the Year and he was a semifinalist for the MAC National Player of the Year award. He'd previously been named WCC All-Freshman Team in his freshman year, was named to the All-WCC First Team and All-Far West Region Second Team in his sophomore year and earned All-WCC First Team and USC All-Far West Region Second Team honors in his junior season. While at college, Berry also played in the

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States, forming part of the United States soccer league system. The league will featu ...

for both Seattle Sounders U-23 and Orange County SC U-23.

Professional career

Columbus Crew

On 9 January 2020, Berry was selected 7th overall in the

2020 MLS SuperDraft The 2020 MLS SuperDraft was the 21st edition of the SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The 2020 SuperDraft was the first SuperDraft held exclusively via conference call and web streaming. The first two rounds of the 2020 SuperDraft we ...

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

. He officially joined the club on 27 February 2020. After having made no appearances for the team during the first half of the season, and with a lack of future opportunities due to the cancellation of the

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...

, Berry was loaned to San Diego Loyal of the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

. Though Berry failed to make any appearances in his first season with the Crew, he was part of the squad that won the 2020 MLS Cup. On 14 December 2020, the Crew announced that they had exercised the option to retain Berry for the 2021 season. During the beginning of the 2021 season, Berry appeared in just one league game, playing only one minute. Seeing no opportunity on the horizon, Berry asked to be loaned back to the San Diego Loyal to get some playing time. The Columbus Crew recalled Berry in early July, due to starting striker

Gyasi Zardes Gyasi A. Zardes (born September 2, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward. Born in Hawthorne, California, Zardes was part of the LA Galaxy youth academy before playing college soccer for Cal State Bakersfield. ...

being called up to the Gold Cup. Berry went on to make 18 appearances, scoring 8 goals at a rate of 1 goal every 105 minutes.

Loan to San Diego Loyal

On 28 August 2020, Berry was loaned to

side San Diego Loyal for the remainder of the 2020 season. He made his debut the following day, starting in a 0–0 draw with

Orange County SC Orange County Soccer Club is an American soccer team based in the Orange County, California city of Irvine. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second tier ...

. Berry played in all seven matches that he was available for the Loyal, scoring three goals. Notably, Berry was a part of the team that both forfeited and walked off the field for matches against Los Angeles Galaxy II and Phoenix Rising respectively, due to unpunished racist and homophobic slurs directed at teammates. These moves were widely applauded, however, they cost the team a spot in the 2020 playoffs. On 28 May 2021, Berry re-joined the club on loan for the 2021 season. However, he was recalled early in July by Columbus.

D.C. United

On July 18, 2022, Berry was traded to D.C. United for $225,000 in General Allocation Money spread across 2 years; with an additional $100,000 able to be earned if Berry meets certain performance-based incentives.

LA Galaxy

On January 16, 2024, Berry was signed by

on a two-year contract with a club option for 2026.

Career statistics

Honours

Columbus Crew *

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

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Campeones Cup The Campeones Cup is an annual North American association football match contested between the winners of the previous MLS Cup from Major League Soccer and the winners of the Campeón de Campeones from Liga MX. The competition was established by ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

LA Galaxy *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Notes

References

External links

Columbus profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Miguel 1997 births Living people Footballers from Barcelona Sportspeople from Poway, California Spanish men's footballers American men's soccer players Spanish people of American descent Soccer players from San Diego County, California Men's association football forwards San Diego Surf SC players Columbus Crew draft picks Columbus Crew players Orange County SC U-23 players San Diego Loyal SC players San Diego Toreros men's soccer players Seattle Sounders FC U-23 players USL Championship players USL League Two players Major League Soccer players D.C. United players Atlanta United FC players LA Galaxy players 21st-century American sportsmen 21st-century Spanish sportsmen