2007:

Led Chivas USA with 12 regular-season goals and 5 assists. Earned team’s Budweiser Golden Boot award and finished fifth overall in the MLS for most goals scored in the season. Galindo finished as Chivas USA’s goal scorer leader with 12. Regular season: Played 28 regular-season games for Chivas USA (starting 24), logging 2021 minutes, registering 12 goals and 5 assists. Playoffs: Played 1 postseason game for Chivas USA (starting 1), logging 90 minutes.

Chivas USA signed Cuban international Maykel Galindo, on February 8, 2007 as a Senior International player, pending the approval of his U.S. green card. The forward gained political asylum in the United States while playing for the Cuban National Team at the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup in Seattle.

Born January 28, 1981 in Villa Clara, Cuba, Galindo joined Chivas USA from the Seattle Sounders, where in one and-a-half seasons (2005-2006) he played 1,023 minutes for the USL First Division side, scoring 5 goals, none more important than his game-tying goal in the 2005 USL First Division Championship game, which Seattle would eventually win on penalty kicks.

Galindo received international in 2005 when, as a member of Cuba’s squad at the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup, he left the team hotel and sought political asylum in the U.S., one day after scoring Cuba’s only goal in a 3-1 loss to Costa Rica at Seattle’s Qwest Field.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Beginnings: I started playing when I was eight years old. A soccer coach went to our school and asked us who wanted to play and I raised my hand.
Family: My family in Cuba, my mom Cristina, my dad Rolando and the most important of all, my grandma Isabel.
Chivas USA: It’s a club that opened me the doors to MLS. A club that showed me the world of professional soccer.
Food: Cuban food, rice, beans, and fried bananas.