Jonathan Gómez (aka Jogo) is an eighteen year old footballer who currently plays for Real Sociedad B (2nd division) in Spain.
He last played for Louisville City FC in the second division in the United States. Prior to that he split time between the U19 FC Dallas Academy team and the FC Dallas affiliate USL North Texas Soccer Club (NTSC). Jogo became interested in football watching his older brother Johan Gómez and his father Germán Gómez play the sport around the age of three. His introduction to playing football was in a local recreational league in Fort Worth, which is where the Gómez family lived at the time. Jogo played for a team called FW Burn under Coach Tito Vázquez. As the years went by, Jogo continued to play the game but it was mostly a hobby because he played multiple sports as well. Being left-handed helped him excel at baseball; however, he found his love for football around the age of six when he decided to no longer play recreational and joined a competitive youth academy team named Solar coached by Jason Bates. At the time, Jogo’s position was attacking midfielder and left wing. He played for that team for about a year and then transferred over to another team named Odyssey. It was there that Jogo learned to play as a left fullback under coach Patrick “Paddy” Gallagher; it was also at this point that Jogo no longer wanted football to just be a hobby; he was serious about it and wanted to go far in this sport.
While at Odyssey, he also joined another Solar (Red) team that was age appropriate coached by Greg Oglesby. For about a year he played on both teams simultaneously (playing different positions) before eventually leaving Odyssey due to the league’s rule which prevented him to play up in age. He played for Solar Red for two years and won two Super Copa championships (a very prestigious national youth tournament) and multiple other tournaments.
In 2014, he joined his third and final Solar (Chelsea) team coached by Ryan Farley where the team again reached the final of the Super Copa tournament. Jogo was instrumental scoring goals. While on the Solar team, FC Dallas invited him to guest play on the U12 Generation Adidas (GA) cup. Jogo was instrumental scoring goals for FC Dallas and eventually earning second place in that national tournament.
It was then that Jogo learned a lot about what he wanted to do with his future in soccer in a more professional environment. Around this time, Jogo was invited to his first US national team training camp as well as making the US futsal national team. After these accolades, he immediately knew he wanted to pursue the Developmental Academy soccer path in order to take a step closer to his dream of becoming a professional soccer player.
In the summer of 2016, FC Dallas held tryouts for the incoming U13 academy team. Jogo was selected to join the team in late July. Shortly after, the team headed to Guadalajara, Mexico where they won second place in the prestigious Copa Chivas and Jogo having a hand. However, the first year proved to be a very challenging one to get through due to injuries which was reflected on the amount of playing time earned. Even then, Jogo continued to be instrumental scoring goals on the team’s reaching the final of the prestigious Dallas Cup. Throughout the year, Jogo worked hard and by the end of the year Coach Merino changed Jogo’s position to left back because he thought he would fit the position well. That positional change had a huge impact on his soccer career. After that change, Jogo would go on to start the last 6 games of the season. Beginning 2017, the U15 year, there was a new coach and Jogo had to once again earn his starting spot. That year, he started all but one game under Coach Mikey Varas (his favorite coach). It was during this year that Jogo made a name for himself culminating the season with his first US national team call up.
Beginning the 2018-2019 season Jogo was selected as one of only three 2003 born players to play up a year with the 2002s (U17s) for the DA season. That team traveled to Mexico for an international tournament between 4 Liga MX teams and 4 MLS teams. The team made it to the final eventually falling to Pachuca, who they had beaten earlier in the tournament. After that tournament Jogo continued to perform for the U17s tallying 10 assists and 1 goal in the first semester alone. He continued to assist in the second semester and then came his opportunity. He began to train with North Texas Soccer Club (third division) and received the opportunity to travel and make his professional debut with them on his brother’s high school graduation weekend. He played against Toronto FC II and Richmond Kickers in the same trip. He then went on to make 9 total appearances and starts with them including the final vs Greenville Triumph having a hand in the winning goal!
During this season, Jogo also made his first team debut against the likes of Xolos (LigaMX) and Valencia (La Liga) in international friendlies. Jogo is a Mexican-American player who has represented both countries at the international level. He has received five US callups including one U17 and four U16 camps. He has traveled to Czech Republic in the UEFA Development Tournament to face the host country, Venezuela, and Hungary winning that tournament. He also received his first Mexican callup in the summer of 2019 traveling to Mexico City for a domestic camp first and eventually making the final roster to travel to Denmark. The team faced Iceland, Denmark and Norway in the Nordic Cup receiving 3rd place. Recently, Jogo traveled to Florida with the US U16s to face Netherlands and Turkey for a domestic tournament which the team won. At the tournament, he scored this beauty of a goal against the Netherlands.
Jogo’s story continues to be written everyday at Loucity. On June 19th, 2021, he scored his first professional goal helping his team to a victory over FC Tulsa 3-2. All the family witnessed the celebration live.
Other Interests
Besides football, Jogo has other interests, among them are playing piano, shopping, cooking, volunteering, fixing “stuff”, making money refereeing football and most importantly spending time with family (especially his siblings).
#TheGomezway 