Wave Wire Services
CARSON — The LA Galaxy unveiled a statue at Dignity Health Sports Park April 26 honoring former midfielder Cobi Jones.
The statue is the team’s third in Legends Plaza, alongside David Beckham and Landon Donovan. The 9-foot bronze sculpture was created by artists Oscar Leon and Omri Amrany of the Rotblatt Amrany Studio in Chicago.
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber was on hand at the unveiling, which took place before the Galaxy hosted Real Salt Lake.
“I always believed that you can’t celebrate your future — and our future is bright — without properly honoring our past, and what better player and what better man to honor today other than Cobi Jones?” Garber said.
“Before I even shared a locker room with Cobi Jones, before I could even call him a teammate or a friend I was just a 13-year-old kid watching the FIFA World Cup trying to figure out what is soccer, what is soccer going to be for a young American kid in this country,” said Kyle Martino, former Galaxy player and now a broadcaster. “And then there was Cobi, flying down the wing, dreads bouncing, playing like he didn’t just belong on the field, but like he owned it, like he was announcing to the world that American soccer had arrived whether anyone was ready for it or not.”
The 55-year old Jones was born in Detroit but grew up in the Southland, playing for Westlake High School and UCLA. He played for the Galaxy from 1996-2007, scoring 70 goals.
He served as an assistant coach with the Galaxy for two seasons after retiring.
Jones was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2011, his first year of eligibility.
“We showed the world that Los Angeles and the LA Galaxy, this is a soccer hotbed,” Jones said. “This is the place where soccer can grow and thrive within the United States, and in my humble opinion, the LA Galaxy is the pinnacle of MLS.”
To accompany the statue unveiling, the Galaxy also launched limited-edition merchandise in collaboration with Jones himself. The collection is on sale at the LA Galaxy Team Store.
Earlier this year, the organizing committee for the 2026 World Cup named Jones as the official community ambassador for the mega event.
Jones played in three World Cups for the U.S. men’s national team — in 1994, 1998 and 2002. In the past three decades, he has helped elevate the sport’s profile in the United States through his work as a broadcaster, coach and co-founder of Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League.
