FRISCO — Maarten Paes’ professional career is tied to two big personal and emotional decisions.
The first was to give up being a striker to become a goalkeeper.
The second big decision for the FC Dallas goalkeeper was to become a citizen of Indonesia so he could play in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with the country’s national team, where his grandmother was born.
Paes was once an unmotivated soccer player who didn’t like running, so the decision to abandon his striker position was easy.
Paes was born in the Netherlands and started playing soccer very young. The only problem was…
