Omar Gonzalez is happy to be home in Dallas
Omar Gonzalez is happy to be home in Dallas
The Oak Cliff native says he finally made it.
Growing up in South Dallas, Omar Gonzalez had always dreamed of playing for his hometown club. After going from his long successful stints in Southern California with the LA Galaxy and his time in Mexico with Pachuca, the Oak Cliff native is hoping a return home to Dallas will help write a nice final chapter to his playing career.
FC Dallas signed the veteran center back to a team-friendly deal ahead of their preseason camp that began last weekend in Frisco. Gonzalez and his new teammates got to take the field for the first time this week, though due to frigid winter weather, at the Dallas Cowboys’ facility down the road in Frisco.
“The first few days part of the team were great just meeting all the new faces and my new teammates coming to a new team but very familiar for me just from back in the day,” said Gonzalez following a training session on Wednesday. “It's been a good first few days, the physicals, you know, the testing, the beep test. It's good to just get that out of the way and now we can focus on the fun part.”
While Gonzalez is familiar with Dallas and the surrounding suburbs, he did joke that a lot is still new to him as he gets settled with his new team. Thankfully, having his family around will help him ease back into life as a Texan quicker than he would have in any other place.
“It's new to me because I live south of Dallas. I lived in Oak Cliff, and so that was always a dream of mine to make up north,” said Gonzalez. “And here I am, here I am. It feels great to be close to family. I'm excited for all those times I'm gonna be able to hang out with them and, you know, do the job up here and just get a lot of missed family time that's happened over the past 15 years, so I'm just really excited.”
Gonzalez and FC Dallas will wrap up their first full week of training later this week as they prepare to take on Lionel Messi and Inter Miami at the Cotton Bowl next Monday for the club’s first preseason match.