Engineering Dreams to MLS Reality: The Journey of Chris Rindov
From walk-on at Maryland to signing with LA Galaxy, Rindov’s rise is built on hard work, family inspiration, and persistence
Chris Rindov’s journey from college walk-on to LA Galaxy player is nothing short of a storybook.
The 23-year-old center back inked a first-team contract through the 2026 season with club options for 2027 and 2028. Rindov was previously on a short-term agreement from MLS NEXT Pro affiliate Ventura County FC and appeared in two matches for the LA Galaxy prior to the announcement of this contract.
This moment has been six years in the making. The son of Bulgarian immigrants wasn’t planning to be a professional soccer player; his plan was to graduate with a degree in engineering at the University of Maryland.
“I went there, committed for just academics. I was going to go anyway, just for engineering, and just play on the club team,” said Rindov to reporters following Thursday’s training session.
The Maryland Terrapins are among the better college soccer programs in the country. In fact, alumni such as A.J. De La Garza and Omar Gonzalez went to school there prior to their LA Galaxy careers.
The Terrapins won the 2018 NCAA national, and a spot on the 2019 team would’ve been an uphill task to accomplish. But with multiple players signing homegrown contracts elsewhere, a spot opened up, and Rindov took that opportunity to make a push for that last spot.
He spent a couple of days at camp to fight for a spot on the Terrapins soccer team. Rindov impressed, and instead of focusing on just engineering homework, he was now part of one of the best college soccer programs in the country.
It was a great situation for Rindov. He was from Silver Spring, Md., and had his friends and family close as he attended his dream school.
The freshman walk-on began the grind to make a name for himself and carve out a role. He wasn’t content with just being on the team; he wanted to make the most of this opportunity.
“Just seeing how hard (my parents) work day-to-day to be able to provide for us, and obviously, in the U.S., being able to play soccer is really not a cheap sport,” said Rindov.
“It's a commitment year-round. It's you got to go to games, travel, flights, the just the normal pay so they were always, kind of my inspiration, and really where I learned that hard work.”
That work ethic helped Rindov become a pillar of the Terrapins in his last two years of school. The freshman walk-on would become the team captain during his senior year. He ended up playing every minute in all 20 matches for the Terrapins in 2022, pushing Maryland to the Big Ten regular season title.
Sporting Kansas City picked him with the 37th pick of the 2023 MLS SuperDraft and began his journey into the world of professional soccer. Rindov would make two appearances for SKC (one in MLS and the other in the U.S. Open Cup) and spent most of his time with SKC II, where he made 48 appearances for the MLS Next Pro side. But after two seasons, his option was declined, and the search for a new club began.
“Gordon (Kljestan) reached out to my agent, said, Hey, we are interested in him to come and potentially come here second team deal and see where he can go from there,” said Rindov.
“When I heard that, I felt it is a perfect opportunity.”
Maya Yoshida has run UEFA coaching license drills with Ventura County FC a handful of times this season. In those moments, Rindov caught the eye of Yoshida in a positive way.
The three-time World Cup participant praised Rindov following the LA Galaxy’s 2-1 win over Orlando City SC in the third-place match of Leagues Cup. Yoshida said he got a “positive feeling” about him during the sessions with VCFC and noted that there was potential in Rindov.
“It means the world. Honestly, a guy of his caliber, his playing status, playing with the national team and then his time in Europe. I mean, it just means a lot to me,” said Rindov about Yoshida’s comments.
“It's something I'm going to keep and remember.”
Head Coach Greg Vanney was a defender in his playing days and knows the importance of having a steady figure in the backline. One of the reasons Rindov earned this opportunity was due to his approach to the game.
“The center back position, a lot of it is just about consistency and reliability. And he's been that for the second team all season,” Vanney told reporters.
“He's been a stabilizing force for a really young back line, but he's always been consistent. He's a vocal communicator out on the field. His information is good, he just shows a level of maturity regardless of which environment he's in. Even when he's with (the first team), he's still communicating. It's just who he is,” added Vanney.
Rindov’s addition to the group adds an extra body to the center back corps to end the season. Vanney told reporters that Emiro Garces is dealing with a bone bruise and will now have time to recover.
It means Rindov may be the first center back called off the bench or he may make some starts. Vanney went into detail about what he sees from Rindov and what he can add to the group.
“For us, it's getting him into our group where the game is faster and the players are obviously better and more sophisticated. Sometimes the tactical things happen faster. It's to put a challenge in front of him that he's got to continue to grow and learn and type of new environments,” said Vanney.
“Can we help him to be a little more aggressive in the way he closes players and the counter presses and things like that, where we're not as aligned conceding so much territory in space sometimes, I think we get, we get too soft in that. And can Chris, with his younger legs, maybe squeeze up spaces a little bit more and help us to keep our line a little tighter,” he added.
With a first-team contract, the expectation is for Rindov to take that leap in his game and see if he continues to improve against MLS opposition.
Rindov takes the field prior to kickoff to begin his pregame, where he simulates defending and attacking corner kicks in the penalty box by himself.
“The beginning of it is kind of visualizing on corners, the places I'm going to be, where I'm going to need to be clearing the ball, where our positions are going to be in, just kind of communicating and feeling the space and visualizing that, he explained.
“On the other side is the attacking, getting into the position of where I'm going to start on corner kicks, free kicks, and attacking on those ones, and honestly, visualizing me scoring it,” said Rindov.
This is his way of locking in and preparing for what’s to come in dead-ball situations. He heads back into the locker room, hits play on motivational music, and then gets started on solving Rubik’s cubes four times in a row – a habit that’s been with him since his days at Maryland.
“The reason I do it is that it's almost like, it's like the warmup, first half, half-time break, and then the second half,” he explained. He uses Rubik’s cubes to regain that feeling of smooth control. Rindov doesn’t focus on solving them as quickly as possible, but rather, he does it to improve his concentration and get into the zone mentally.
“It’s all about repetition,” Rindov told One Maryland magazine in 2022. “At this point, it’s more muscle memory than me thinking about it because I’ve done it thousands of times. The way I look at it, if you want to be good, you have to be precise. It’s not just about doing it as fast as you can because then you start messing up algorithms.”
This routine has gotten him through his journey as a soccer player and will continue with him as this LA Galaxy chapter begins.