Garza

Photography by Dave Williamson.

“I left home at 12 years old to chase this dream.”

It’s a dream that’s taken him to Sao Paulo, Lisbon, Tijuana, Guadalajara, Cincinnati, and to his adoptive home: Atlanta. 

Back in April 2021, the legendary Atlanta United MLS Champion announced his retirement from pro soccer at the age of 30. After a lengthy 18-year journey collecting silverware and memories from all over the world, Garza seems to have no regrets from that fateful decision to leave home all those years ago. 

“I moved to Brazil when I was 12, and it forced me to immerse myself into a different culture, a different language, and a different lifestyle in general. It pushed me in ways I couldn’t have imagined,” reflects Garza. 

While his first real steps in the soccer world happened in Sao Paulo, moving to Brazil at such a young age probably wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Sao Paulo and NASL legend Teodoro Santana. Santana made over 300 appearances for Sao Paulo in the ‘70s before playing for the Dallas Tornado towards the end of his career. Eventually, he decided to stay in Dallas, and years down the road, he became a fundamental part of Garza’s life. 

“He saw a game of mine when I was about eight or nine years old, and from there, I started training with him individually. My dad was traveling Monday to Friday because of his job, so Teodoro [Santana] became like a father figure to me. He guided me and helped me understand all the rights and wrongs. I think he used his own past mistakes to show me what I had to do to stay on the right path. He saw I had talent, and he dedicated a lot of time and effort to shape me in the best way possible. He was the one that had the talk with my parents to send me down to Brazil.”

“We went over, I had my trial, and that was it. ‘Greg, gather your stuff, and come on down.’”

It’s a decision that Garza qualifies as “a bit impulsive,” but in the end, his family understood it was for the best if that’s the career he wanted to pursue.

“I have five kids of my own now, and if I had to choose to send them off to a different country at 12-years-old, I’m not sure if I would make the same decision. But I think my parents saw that as their sacrifice to help me reach my dream.”

Over in Brazil, Garza stayed with a host family while being home-schooled and training multiple times a day. Besides everything he learned in terms of soccer development, he also saw things that would mark him for the rest of his life.

“It was a huge, eye-opener, understanding that this was the only way out of poverty for many of the kids I played with. I was a regular American kid with food on the table and a GameBoy in hand. Getting to Brazil and watching these kids walking down from the favelas or taking the bus down from the hills to come to training was the biggest eye-opener for me at a young age. That really changed my mindset and made me grow up much faster than I would have otherwise. From there, I realized this wasn’t a joke. These kids were 12-13 years old with the objective to make it so they could provide for their families and make a name for themselves.”

“I saw Casemiro go through it -- he was an age group younger than me -- I saw Oscar go through it in my group.  You come to understand the reality of what it takes to become a pro, and for me, that was life-changing. At that moment, I understood that this is real.”

After two years in Sao Paulo, Garza was offered the chance to join the U.S. National Team IMG Academy residency program in Bradenton, Florida. At just 14 years of age, Garza was training day in and day out with the 40 best players in the country. 

“That was another huge opportunity for me. I was a year younger than almost everyone there, and we were all preparing for World Cup Qualifiers. I had already had that residency-type experience being in Sao Paulo for two years, and now I had the chance to continue to progress and understand the responsibilities that come along with being in that type of environment.”

While other kids that went through the residency program might not have enjoyed being away from their friends and family, Garza loved every moment. 

“It was heaven,” recalls Garza. “We’d go to school for about four or five hours, and then we had the rest of the day to play. We had eight soccer fields in our backyard, basically. There were some that would go back to their dorm to Skype their girlfriends, but there were a few of us -- that still actually play to this day -- who’d just go out to train or go to the gym together. It was a dream come true.”

On top of having top facilities to hone their skills and develop as athletes, the kids in residency also had the opportunity to travel extensively. 

“That first year, we only attended like 80 school days out of the 185 that we were supposed to have because we were doing so much traveling. We spent two weeks in South Korea, two weeks in Japan, and just so much time abroad playing different national teams,” remembers Garza. 

Getting to travel and showcase his skills during those two years in residency allowed Garza to receive offers from teams abroad. In 2008, at just 16-years-old, he’d end up signing for Sporting Lisbon. 

At a renowned European developmental powerhouse such as Sporting, Garza was able to push his limits even further in terms of soccer. But beyond the training ground, Lisbon is where he spent the most peaceful years of his career.

“I lived there for almost two years. The lifestyle there was the calmest and easiest way to get through life itself. I found the most peaceful moments of my life in Lisbon, especially in terms of coping with all that professional pressure.”

“Off the field, I was waking up very early before training, going down my elevator -- one of those where you have to use a chain to close it -- getting off on the first floor and walking right outside my old building in downtown Lisbon to a little coffee shop. Every single old building has a little coffee shop at the bottom of it. I’d pay one Euro for an espresso and then three Euros for three soccer newspapers that they had at the shop every day. So, every morning, I’d be sitting outside that shop, people-watching in downtown Lisbon with my legs crossed drinking an espresso and glancing at the soccer news.”

“There would be stories about Ronaldo earning a thousand dollars per second, and even stories about the youth at Sporting, so news about us and our development. After training, I would walk to castles or to different places around the city. That type of serenity allowed me to cope with the outside pressure of everything. Looking back at my career, that’s where I found my true peace as a person.”

Garza would end up spending a total of four years in Portugal -- three at Sporting and one at Estoril Praia in the Portuguese second division. While those were probably the most tranquil years in his early career, after one season with Estoril Praia, he decided he was ready for new challenges. Estoril Praia offered him the chance to renew his contract, but he declined. 

For the first time since he was 12, Garza was without a club. 

Enter, Tijuana. 

“I played in the U-20 Qualifiers during that period that I didn't have a club, so I was still on the national team. Then, I went to Germany to the Olimpic camp with the U-23 National Team, and I was able to get a trial with Eintracht Frankfurt. I trained with them for a day, and I got a call from my agent telling me that Tijuana wanted to sign me. It was a sure thing, so I flew out that same night.”

After living in Europe for four years, the transition to living in Tijuana was striking.

“Going to Tijuana and crossing the border, seeing the military with their black masks on and machine guns outside their car was like, ‘holy shit, okay, maybe I can’t go outside and drink my espresso anymore.’”

While the lifestyle change was a bit of a shock, the transition to the team was also rocky due to the team being amidst a fierce relegation battle. Figuratively and literally, he was almost thrown to the wolves.

“I arrived for Apertura 2012, and the team had only started in 2011, so everything was brand new. We were fighting for relegation, and I got to witness the amount of pressure that’s aligned with each one of those players. It’s life or death. Second division in Mexico is much, much different from first division. So I walked right into that environment.”

“And every week we’d have a team barbecue -- this is religion in Latin America. It was my first dinner with the team, and we had the physical therapist cooking up steaks, we were making quesadillas, burritos, you know the drill. All of a sudden, Hank [Rhon] -- the owner -- and all of the presidents pulled up in bulletproof Bentleys and Rolls Royces with armed security holding AK-47s, guarding them. 

“So Hank, wearing the sharpest suit ever, walks out of his car, almost in slow motion, with his super long hair flowing all the way down to his back. It was like a movie. So he walks out, and next to him are two pet wolves. Wolves.”

“I just remember looking over to one of my American teammates and saying, ‘dude, if we don’t keep ourselves in first division, we’re getting fed to the wolves.’”

Safe to say, Garza and his teammates were able to stave off relegation. Not only that, but the Clausura 2012 would be a magical part of the season for the club. 

“When I first arrived, people would tell me, five years ago, there were dead bodies in the streets, heads chopped off hanging off telephone poles with notes and letters, just complete mayhem and madness. But Hank and his family were able to turn it around by creating that soccer team that gave so much passion back to the city. It helped create a healthy environment for Tijuana. The championship we got in 2012 was like the crowning moment of all of that.”

En route to their sensational Clausura 2012 trophy, Garza bagged a goal in the playoff quarterfinals. Still, the most memorable moment from that campaign was the reaction of the city following the championship. 

“We won the championship in Toluca, and I just remember getting a flight back at midnight and landing at 2:30 in the morning. On the bus ride from the airport to the stadium, there were millions of people setting off fireworks, walking with us for miles. Then we got to the stadium, and it was completely full. There were probably hundreds of thousands of people celebrating with us at three in the morning. You could see the fog and the early morning mist with the roar of the chants in the background. I saw that city completely paralyze itself for two or three days after we won that championship. It’s something I’d never seen before. You could tell it was the greatest moment some of these fans had experienced.”

After returning to Tijuana like a hero, Garza got to experience many of the perks that come with being a successful player in a soccer-crazed city. 

“I got pulled over once for running a red light, and the cops apologized after I rolled down the window. They just let me go. When I’d go out to restaurants, there would be about ten or fifteen people who would come up to say hi. When I’d go out to the movies with my family, we’d have to sneak in wearing hats once the lights were dim. It was crazy to experience that.”

Beyond those changes following the championship, Garza also got to accomplish many professional dreams that he’d set for himself when he was 12.

“One of my goals was to play Copa Libertadores, and I thankfully got to do that with Tijuana. I even got to play against Ronaldinho. There was also a player named Danilo at Corinthians, and he’d played almost his whole career for Sao Paulo. He was my idol when I was 12, and I would watch every single one of his games.”

“In 2013, I got to play against him in Copa Libertadores when he was 40 years old. I went up to him at the end of the game and told him how much it meant to me to play against him. It was like my whole trajectory had been completed. All those sacrifices brought me to that field to play against him. Right then and there, I realized my dream had come true.”

Garza would remain in Tijuana until being loaned to Atlanta United in 2017, the team’s first year in MLS. There, he’d achieve another one of his dreams -- winning the league in his own country. Above all, the move came at a time when Garza was unsure if he’d continue to play at the professional level. After undergoing surgery on his hips, Garza was sidelined for over a year. Then, after Liga MX passed a rule limiting the number of allowed foreigners in a team, Garza was forced to make a tough decision: ride out his contract while making a good amount of money, or take a huge pay cut and try his luck at reviving his career in Atlanta. 

“It was a leap of faith. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea who Arthur Blank was, no idea who Carlos Bocanegra was. I had no idea who Miguel Almiron was, or Josef Martinez. I didn’t know who any of these guys were or the level of talent that we actually had.”

Garza arrived in Atlanta a few weeks before the start of the season, and the welcome he received in the city was not something he expected to see in the U.S.

“All the Hispanic guys and I, we had a team-bonding dinner at Lenox. We were wearing our gear with the crest and everything, and I was just sitting there thinking, “Okay, no one is going to recognize us, we just landed a few days ago, and this team hasn’t even played a game.’ But this family came up to us, and they just said, ‘We’ve waited so long for this. We hope that you bring the city success, but we will always be there to support you… just wait for that first game at Bobby Dodd.’”

While he wasn’t sure what to expect from the team’s first MLS game, the reception at Bobby Dodd did not disappoint. 

“That first game at Bobby Dodd was mindblowing. It had that European vibe of having the stadium completely on top of you. I honestly like it more than Mercedes-Benz. But that opening game, it was just 55 thousand people right above you. It also had that fog environment that made the whole game feel dramatic. It was the beginning of something so special,” remembers Garza. 

“We had never played together before, and we actually lost that game. The South Americans were punching mirrors and breaking stuff in the locker room, but all of us American guys were looking at each other like, ‘holy shit, we have a good team.’”

In their first year in the league, Atlanta United and Garza would make the MLS Cup playoffs, a huge step for the club. But after falling to Columbus Crew in the Knockout Round, all eyes were set on year two. The expectations were high, and 2018 would ultimately become an unforgettable season for fans, players, and the city itself. 

“Everything clicked. From preseason, we knew we had the right formula: a core of American mentality guys that are gonna fight for you, and a few talented South American players that are gonna be true game-changers. We understood the tools and key components we had on that team, and we ran with it.”

Despite having the right tools, a key architect of their success was Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino -- the ‘grandfather,’ as Garza puts it.

“We had great relationships on the field, but we also knew our own responsibilities and the exact things that we needed to do for Tata. We had so much respect for him. But there would be times where we’d all be like, Dude, there’s no fricking way Messi and Suarez are doing this stuff in training. No way. And then we would do it, and it’d work in the game. So we understood there was a method to the madness, and it took us all the way.”

Atlanta’s high press and their ability to play out of the back helped them take the league by storm, and by the end of 2018, they were ready to bring a trophy back to Atlanta. 

“The day of MLS Cup was great. I had a friend visiting from California, and I had my parents come over too. We went to Costco to try out free food during the day. I think that’s just how I dealt with the pressure, just doing regular things. I played some Brazilian music in the locker room to get myself happy and in the right mindset, and it all went to plan. The game was a blur, but what I remember the most was just spraying champagne in Arthur Blank’s face after lifting the trophy. He loved that,” says Garza with a laugh.

“But honestly, it was amazing to win that championship. It meant so much to the group, especially because of Parkhurst. And you could tell it meant so much to the city as well. To be able to do something like that for your captain and for your city is just truly, truly special.”

“You can go back to the people that saw us at Lenox and understand that that’s what it’s all for -- lifting that trophy for the people.”

In April of 2021, after spending his last couple of years at Cincinnati FC, Garza decided to hang up his boots. It was a lengthy 18-year career that’s taken him all over the world, but his journey in soccer is far from over.

In September, Garza and his former captain Michael Parkhurst launched Beyond Goals Mentoring, a resource for young players to get the right information on how to succeed in their soccer careers and in anything they set to pursue.

“Parky and I had this idea months ago, right after I retired. I think there are so many players that are so talented that lost their way throughout their upbringing, or they leave the game way too soon and never reach their full potential. I’ve seen that happen everywhere I played, and I was fortunate enough to have mentors like Teodoro Santana that helped me stay on the right track.”

Through Beyond Goal, Garza and Parkhurst create custom plans for young athletes that provide guidance on everything from nutrition, physical rehab, and mental tips, to specific advice on how to navigate the pro soccer landscape. 

More than anything, though, Garza’s latest venture feels like the right step for an athlete that’s been through it all.

“After everything I was able to experience, now it’s about helping that next generation,” says Garza.  “And for me, I was just blessed to live all of this for the last 18 years. I was blessed to have done something that was my true passion and play a sport that gave me unattainable happiness.”

“I think I can sit on my death bed one day, look back at my career and say, ‘That was completely worth it.’”

Photography by Dave Williamson.