Emanuel "Manny" Perez (born February 19, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a right-back for Louisville City in the USL Championship.
College career Perez played two years of college soccer at North Carolina State University between 2017 and 2018, making a total of 29 appearances for NCSU, scoring 6 goals and tallying 9 assists.
Professional career Celtic On January 31, 2019, Perez joined Scottish Premiership side Celtic. Perez was immediately loaned out to USL Championship side North Carolina FC. He was again loaned to North Carolina FC ahead of the 2020 USL Championship season. Perez left the club after two seasons without playing a game.
Loan to North Carolina FC After joining the club on loan, Perez made his first team debut for North Carolina in a 4–1 win against defending champions Louisville City. He went on to make 23 appearances for the club that he represented during his youth. Of those games he started 12 times. He returned to NCFC for a second season on loan during the 2020 season. This was a season that was marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and shortened from the standard number of games; however, Perez went on to make a further 14 appearances for his boyhood club before returning to Celtic.
Austin FC On April 26, 2021, it was announced that Perez had signed a contract with the Portland Timbers and was immediately loaned to Austin FC. Austin has the option to trade for Perez for $100,000 GAM at the end of the season. Following the 2021 season, Perez's contract option was declined by Austin and he returned to Portland.
Following the 2021 season, Perez returned to Portland, but they opted to decline their contract option on him and he left club.
Louisville City On February 15, 2022, Perez signed with USL Championship side Louisville City.
AC Horsens On January 4, 2024, Perez joined Danish side Horsens for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of DKr375.000 plus add-ons, signing a contract until June 2027 with the club. In the process, he became Louisville City's third player to complete a move to a European club, following Jonathan Gómez and Joshua Wynder.
On August 8, 2024, Perez had his contract terminated as there was no prospect of playing time for him at the Danish club.AC Horsens ophæver med Manny Perez, achorsens.dk, 8 August 2024
Personal life Born in the United States, Perez is of Mexican descent.
Career statistics
+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competitionClubSeasonLeaguePlayoffsNational cupContinentalTotalDivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsCeltic2018–19Scottish Premiership————00North Carolina FC (loan)2019USL Championship210—20—2302020USL Championship141———141Total351—20—371Portland Timbers2021Major League Soccer00———00Austin FC (loan)2021Major League Soccer100———100Career total451002000471
Honors United States U20 CONCACAF U-20 Championship: 2018
References