Ronaldo Peña


Ronaldo Luis Peña Vargas is a Venezuelan footballer who plays for Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo as a forward.

Club career

Peña made his debut as a senior with Caracas FC's B-team, and first appeared with the main squad on 23 February 2014 by starting and scoring the second in a 4–1 home routing of Deportivo La Guaira for the Primera División championship. He appeared in a further three matches for the first team before being loaned to Portuguesa FC on 25 August.
On 22 July 2015, Peña was loaned to UD Las Palmas for two years. After spending nearly nine months without playing a single match for the club due to bureaucratic problems, he made his debut with the C-team on 10 April 2016 by scoring a hat-trick in a 4–0 home routing of CD Becerril.
Promoted to the reserves ahead of the 2016–17 season, Peña scored another hat-trick in his first game for the side, a 5–0 thrashing of CD Buzanada.
On 5 July 2018, Peña was sold to MLS club Houston Dynamo. He made his debut on 4 August when he came on in a 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City. He would get his first goal with the Dynamo on 23 August, when he came on as a sub and scored a late equalizer in the 1-1 draw against the Dynamo's biggest rival, FC Dallas. Peña was rewarded with his first start in the team's next match. However he failed to find the net as the team lost 1-0 to the New York Red Bulls.
Peña made his first appearance of the 2019 season on 26 February in a 2-1 win over C.D. Guastatoya in a CONCACAF Champions League match. He would miss extended time due to a knee injury at the start of the season. He scored his first goal and picked up his first assist of the season on 11 June in a 3-2 win over Austin Bold in a US Open Cup match. Peña would score again on 18 June in a 3-2 defeat to Minnesota United in the US Open Cup. He struggled to find much playing time during the season and spent time on loan with Houston's USL Championship affiliate Rio Grande Valley FC.

International career

On 2 October 2018, Peña was called up for the Venezuelan National team for friendlies against the United Arab Emirates and Basque Country but did not feature in either game.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

;Houston Dynamo
;Venezuela U-20
;Venezuela U-17
His father played for professionally for Venezuelan club Portuguesa. Peña is named after legendary Brazilian footballer Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima.