Paul Bravo

Professional

In 1991, Bravo signed with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL). He earned Rookie of the Year honors that season as the Blackhawks took the APSL championship. In 1993, the Blackhawks ownership moved the team to the lower division USISL and renamed the team the San Jose Hawks. Despite the reduced team costs, the Hawks folded at the end of the 1993 season. Bravo then remained in the San Francisco area with the San Francisco Greek-Americans, winning the U.S. Open Cup in 1994. In 1995, he moved to the Monterey Bay Jaguars. The San Jose Clash of Major League Soccer (MLS) drafted Bravo with the eighth overall pick of the MLS Inaugural Player Draft. Bravo spent just a season with San Jose, and, despite the presence of Eric Wynalda, led the team with thirteen goals. He was an MLS All-Star this year. On December 15, 1996, the Clash traded Bravo and Rafael Amaya to the Colorado Rapids for Dominic Kinnear and a second-round pick in the 1998 MLS Supplemental Draft. Bravo spent the next five years with Colorado and retired with a club-record 39 league goals (he added five in the playoffs). In November 2001 the Rapids waived Bravo, but as no team offered him a contract, he retired from playing professionally. In his six-year MLS career, Bravo scored 52 goals and added 27 assists. He repeated as an All-Star in 1998 and 1999.

Semi-professional

After his retirement, Bravo continued to play for the amateur Hollywood…

After retiring as a player, Bravo went into coaching. He began as an assistant with the Colorado Rapids in 2002. In 2004, UCLA hired Bravo as an assistant to its men's soccer team. On June 15, 2006, he became an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS. On August 24, 2007, he became the Galaxy's Director of Soccer. On January 10, 2009, he was named the Technical Director for the Colorado Rapids. He signed a three-year contract extension with Colorado on February 1, 2012. In May 2019, Bravo was announced as the first head coach of Oakland Roots SC of the new National Independent Soccer Association. On October 31, 2019, the club announced that it and Bravo had mutually agreed to part ways.

Bravo was a student-athlete at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, California. He then played two years of college soccer at Foothill Community College and winning State Championships and while at Santa Clara University and helped his team to the NCAA co-championship in 1989. While he left college early, he continued to work on his education and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Santa Clara in 1993.

Individual

MLS All-Star: 1996, 1998, 1999