FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja is set to leave FC Dallas for Liga MX side Club Tijuana, according to Goal.com.
Tijuana currently sits in 15th place in the Mexican league’s Apertura season. Xolos fired its head coach, Diego Cocca, Oct. 31. Colombian Frankie Oviedo is the interim manager.
Pareja has spent the last five seasons with Dallas, leading the team to four playoff appearances, a Supporter’s Shield and a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup trophy during his tenure. Dallas finished the 2018 regular season fourth in the Western Conference with a 16-9-9 record. The team lost to Portland Timbers in the Knockout Round of the playoffs.
Pareja spent seven years with FC Dallas as a player from 1998-2005 before becoming part of the coaching staff. The 50-year-old coach returned to Dallas after a stint with the Colorado Rapids from 2012-2014.
The team has achieved 60 points in 2015 and 2016, becoming a threat in the Western Conference, even without a big payroll. Dallas is one of the two teams in MLS that does not have a millionaire on its roster. The team relied on South American talent and their academy system to produce players on the pitch. Most of this is due to Pareja, who was FCD’s academy director from 2008 to 2012. Pareja’s side was the first team to start five homegrowns in a match when it defeated the Columbus Crew 3-0 in 2015.