Shooting star
Colombian forward Manotas settles in to life in the U.S. as he lives up to club’s expectations
Mauro Manotas is in the middle of a good stretch.
Since September, Manotas, 23, has led the Dynamo to a U.S. Open Cup championship, married the love of his life in Colombia and signed a three-year contract extension that keeps him in Houston until 2021.
Now the young standout forward and new face of the Dynamo franchise is living up to the hefty expectations the club has for him. With six goals in 11 MLS games and eight across all competitions, he continues to turn heads. The young player from Colombia is a staple on the city’s sports scene.
The Dynamo are 7-2-2 in Major League Soccer and tied for third in the Western Conference. And Manotas is a key reason they are surging toward a postseason appearance. And fans in Houston are noticing.
“We’re doing really well,” Manotas said through a translator. “We’re winning and our stats look good. The team, the president, the fans … everyone is happy.”
And thanks to the improvement of Manotas, they will stay that way for a while. With him, the Dynamo have a star around whom to build.
The team struggled in MLS play at times last season, but the Dynamo came together in U.S. Open Cup competition. Manotas scored six goals in four games to lead the team to the championship. Winning that title took Manotas to another level.
“Winning the U.S. Open Cup last year was incredible,” he said. “It was the happiest moment I’ve had with the Houston Dynamo. My confidence is at an all-time high right now.”
With that confidence came loftier goals. He hopes to work his way up to captain of the Dynamo and win an MLS title. He’d like to play for the Colombian national team. Someday, he’d like to make a European team.
His goals and the belief he can
accomplish them have grown exponentially since he arrived in Houston in 2015. Manotas was 19 when he signed with the Dynamo.
When he moved from Colombia, the Dynamo helped set him up with a host family — Ed and Ingrid Chavez welcomed Manotas into their home in Houston. Ed is a security guard for the team. The Chavez’s have two children — Chad, 24, and Haley, 20.
Manotas immediately felt at home in the Chavez family. He grew up with both parents and his two younger siblings — a sister and a brother. The warmth and comfort of a family made a huge difference as he assimilated to life in another country.
He loved living with them so much that he stayed for three years and branched out and got his
own place this year.
Domestic life
“They were incredible,” Manotas said. “I came here at 19 and when I turned 23, I decided that I was old enough to live and look out for myself. I felt confident and prepared to take that step. Everything has turned out great.”
He hopes that soon his wife, Paola, will join him in Houston. The two were married in December. She’s working on getting her visa so she can live and work in Houston.
The situation has been tough. Manotas said he and Paola, 23, spend a lot of time on FaceTime and WhatsApp.
“These five months of being apart have helped us in many different things,” he said. “We hope that she can come soon so we can enjoy (married life.)”
Manotas, who made $264,328.08 last season according to the MLS Players Association salary database, signed his contract extension in February to make him the club’s highest-paid player. The financial details were not revealed, but Manotas is thrilled that he’s secured for the next three seasons.
His immediate goal is to get his wife to Houston and provide a good life for her.
“There’s times that people get surprised I’m married at 23,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that have happened to me.
Being lonely here, my family not being able to visit consistently. Paola has always been there ever since I was little. We have had love for each other ever since we were 15 years old.
“I renewed my contract here and I want to be able to share that with her because she deserves it.”
Franchise milestone
For now, Manotas is focused on soccer. Last season, he scored 25 goals across all competitions — the most by a Dynamo player in a single season. He’s lived up to his contract and the big expectations this season.
He sees the stadium filling up and it inspires him to produce at a high level.
In Colombia, soccer is the top sport and doesn’t have competition. He’s quickly learned that in a city as big and as diverse as Houston, there are several sports competing for spotlight. He loves seeing how the sport he grew up with is evolving in the United States and wants to do his part to help soccer become a favorite in Houston.
“Soccer is slowly growing here in the city and we’re incentivizing people to come,” he said. “We are the ones who can do that. When we win, people come. That was clear to me when I came here in 2015, the stadium would get full. We had two or three bad seasons, and people stopped coming. People come when we win. That speaks well of the work the team is doing this season.”
People also come to root for their favorite players. And Manotas will become that for a lot of people. He’s young, he’s hungry and he’s talented. This city is no stranger to elite athletes. And with Manotas, the Dynamo have a bona fide star.