Early years (1996–2000) , who played for the club from their inaugural season until his retirement in 2007 LA Galaxy is one of the 10 founding clubs in Major League Soccer. The name "Galaxy" was derived from Los Angeles being home to the "stars" of
Hollywood. The team began competing in the
first season of the then-new league, which took place in 1996. In the inaugural season, the Galaxy finished first in the Western Conference and contested the
first MLS Cup final, finishing as runners-up to
D.C. United. In 1997, they started 1–7, but went 15–9 for the rest of the season to qualify for the playoffs. The Galaxy ended up second in their conference, losing to the
Dallas Burn. In 1998, the Galaxy left off on a streak, eventually finishing 24–8. The Galaxy defeated the Dallas Burn, 9–3 on aggregate. They lost in the semi-final to the
Chicago Fire 5–1 on aggregate. The Galaxy again finished first in the Western Conference in 1999, with a final record of 20–12, with a win in the
CONCACAF Champions' Cup, but lost to D.C. United again 2–0. The 2000 season had the Galaxy in second in the Western Division, at 14–10–8. Despite this, they lost to the
Kansas City Wizards after a tied aggregate and a sudden-death game. The Galaxy won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup that same year, one of three American clubs to have won the tournament. 2001 was another successful year for Los Angeles, winning the Open Cup and scoring 1,000 all-time points, and with
Cobi Jones scoring the 300th goal, but again they fell short by being defeated by
Landon Donovan and the
San Jose Earthquakes. Again the club clinched first in the Western Conference with a 16–9–3 record, their fifth time being first. The Galaxy were set to take part in
FIFA Club World Championship as CONCACAF champions from the previous year, but the tournament was canceled.
First MLS Cup (2002) In 2002, the Galaxy won their first MLS Cup in the club's fourth appearance by defeating the
New England Revolution 1–0. In 2003, the Galaxy finished fourth playing more away games due to stadium construction, with the possible existing obstacles, the team finished 9–12–9. The Galaxy bounced back by gaining second with an 11–9–10 record. They lost to the Wizards in the final, 0–2. In 2005, the Galaxy acquired Landon Donovan from San Jose. The franchise won the Open Cup again ending with a record of 13–13–6. Having qualified for the playoffs for the 2005 season, the Galaxy has been the only team to appear in the playoffs in all of the league's first ten seasons. They won the
2005 MLS Cup, defeating the New England Revolution in extra time, 1–0. The 2006 season began on March 16 with the sudden death of
Doug Hamilton, the team's 43-year-old general manager, who suffered a
heart attack on board a plane carrying the team back from
Costa Rica where they had played
Saprissa in the
CONCACAF Champions' Cup. The team finished fifth in the Western Conference, eliminating them from playoff contention for the first time since the league's inception. Midway through the season,
Steve Sampson was sacked as head coach, replaced by
Frank Yallop. Four months later, the club signed
David Beckham from
Real Madrid. His debut was made at
Home Depot Center before a record crowd of nearly 35,000, including many celebrities, In that season's
SuperLiga, LA reached the final but lost to Mexican side
Pachuca on
penalties after
extra time. LA nearly made the end-of-season play-offs, but were eliminated following a 1–0 loss to the Chicago Fire. In the off-season, Cobi Jones retired and, amidst rumors that he was going to be sacked, Yallop resigned as head coach following a friendly match at Home Depot Center. The San Jose Earthquakes bought out his contract and offered a third round draft pick to the Galaxy as compensation to hire Yallop as their new head coach. Yallop was replaced at LA by
Ruud Gullit, who signed a three-year contract with the club, making him the highest paid coach in MLS history. Cobi Jones returned as assistant coach. LA went on a promotional tour of Australia and New Zealand, setting attendance records in both countries. 80,295 people showed up at
Stadium Australia for the match between
Sydney FC and LA Galaxy, which the home side won 5–3. They also played a tour of Asia, and competed in the inaugural
Pan-Pacific Championship in
Honolulu, finishing third after beating Sydney 2–1 in the third-place match. In the
2008 MLS season, LA went on a seven-game winless streak that saw them drop from first place in the Western Conference to outside playoff contention, prompting the resignation of manager Ruud Gullit and firing of general manager
Alexi Lalas. Gullit was replaced by
Bruce Arena, who was unable to lead LA into a play-off spot, for the third-straight season. In the following off-season, both club captain David Beckham and vice-captain Landon Donovan were involved in loan deals with European clubs until the beginning of the new MLS season; Beckham to
Milan in Italy and Donovan to German club
Bayern Munich. Donovan was seeking a permanent transfer to Munich, while Beckham was expected to return to LA in March, prior to the 2009 season. Beckham went on to seek a permanent transfer to Milan in a bid to sustain his
England career through the
2010 World Cup, and Milan made a bid for the player that was rejected by LA. One day before his loan deal was to expire, Milan and LA reached an agreement to allow Beckham to stay in Italy until the conclusion of the ''Rossoneri's
season in June, before returning to LA in July. In the book The Beckham Experiment'' by
Grant Wahl, Donovan openly criticized Beckham for his handling of the loan deals. Beckham and Donovan would later reconcile upon Beckham's return to LA in July. playing for the Galaxy in 2010LA finished the 2009 season top of the Western Conference and runners-up in the
MLS Supporters' Shield, qualifying for the
2009 MLS Cup. They reached the final by beating
Chivas USA 3–2 on aggregate in the quarter-final, and
Houston Dynamo 2–0, after extra time, in the semi-final. In the final they drew 1–1 with
Real Salt Lake at
Qwest Field in
Seattle, but lost 5–4 on penalties. By reaching the final, they qualified for the
2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Round. After the 2009 success, both Donovan and Beckham again went out on second loan spells. Donovan went to
Everton while Beckham returned to Milan, where he ruptured his Achilles tendon and therefore missed his chance at playing in the World Cup for England and subsequently missing most of the Galaxy's 2010 season. In 2010, the Galaxy stayed at the top of the table and won the Supporters' Shield, the first time MLS played a balanced schedule. They then lost to FC Dallas in the Western Conference Final, one game away from making another appearance at MLS Cup. In 2011, a year in which they added the
Republic of Ireland's all-time leading goalscorer
Robbie Keane, they won their fourth Supporters' Shield with two games remaining, becoming the third-straight team to win consecutive Shields while amassing the second-best points total in MLS history. They followed this up with their third MLS Cup, defeating the Houston Dynamo 1–0 in the
final. The 2011 MLS Cup was the Galaxy's first MLS Cup Victory in regulation. The 2002 and the 2005 MLS Cup wins were won in overtime. In January 2012, after much speculation, Beckham signed a new two-year deal with LA to secure his short-term future at the club. Despite the new contract, Beckham confirmed in November 2012 that he would be leaving the Galaxy at the end of the 2012 MLS season. On December 1, 2012, the Galaxy won their second-straight MLS Cup victory over the Houston Dynamo, 3–1. Galaxy defender
Omar Gonzalez won the MLS MVP trophy, heading in the 1–1 equalizer in the 60th minute. That goal was quickly followed by a Donovan penalty kick, and Keane sealed the game with another penalty kick in stoppage time. In post-match interviews both Donovan and Beckham remained coy about their future MLS plans.
First to five league championships (2013–2016) was the
2014 MLS Cup MVP. On May 26, 2013,
Robbie Rogers played his first match as a substitute for the Galaxy in a 4–0 win over the
Seattle Sounders FC, becoming the first openly gay man to play in a top North American professional sports league. The Galaxy finished the 2013 season third in the Western Conference. They reached the conference semi-finals, where they lost 2–1 to Real Salt Lake. They also reached the semi-finals of the
2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League, but lost 3–1 on aggregate to Mexican team
Monterrey. Following the defeat to
Seattle Sounders FC in the final game of the season with the Supporters' Shield on the line, the team entered the 2014 MLS playoffs defeating Real Salt Lake, advancing to face Seattle once again in the Western Conference Finals, advancing to the MLS Cup by away goals. They played the New England Revolution in the 2014 MLS Cup and won 2–1 in overtime, thereby becoming five-time champions, a league record. At the end of the season, longtime LA Galaxy and
United States national team player Landon Donovan retired. On January 7, 2015, the LA Galaxy announced the signing of long time Liverpool player
Steven Gerrard to an 18-month
Designated Player contract, reportedly worth $9 million. He joined the team in July 2015 following the end of the
2014–15 Premier League season, and made his debut in an
International Champions Cup against
Club América on July 11. The club again made headlines by acquiring Mexican star and
Barcelona academy product
Giovani dos Santos in July as a designated player. Not since the days of
Jorge Campos,
Carlos Hermosillo and
Luis Hernández in the late 1990s and early 2000s had the Galaxy had a notable Mexican player, let alone one in the prime of his career. Dos Santos made an impactful impression on the Galaxy early on, scoring on his club debut against
Central FC in the
CONCACAF Champions League and then in his league debut against the Sounders. In his first five club matches, he had a goal, an assist or both to total with four goals and five assists in that span.
Wooden Spoon and rebuilding (2016–2023) Before the start of the
2016 season, it was announced that long-time servicing center-back
Omar Gonzalez would leave the Galaxy after nine years to
C.F. Pachuca. On November 22, 2016, long-time general manager and head coach Bruce Arena left the club to begin his second stint as head coach of the
United States national team, bringing most of the Galaxy's coaching staff with him, including associate head coach Dave Sarachan. Arena was replaced as general manager by former Galaxy player
Peter Vagenas, and as head coach by his
LA Galaxy II counterpart,
Curt Onalfo. The front office constructed the team to rely on players from the academy and Galaxy II system. Multiple injuries exposed the naive roster construction, which included erratic performances by Jermaine Jones, and sparse production from Giovanni Dos Santos. With a 6–10–4 record, the Galaxy fired Curt Onalfo and replaced him with former head coach Sigi Schmid on July 27, 2017. Under Schmid, the club went 2–8–4 and finished the season in last place overall with a mark of 8–18–8. It was only the fourth time that the club failed to make the postseason, and the club's first
wooden spoon. In March 2018, the team signed
Zlatan Ibrahimović on a two-year, $3 million contract with targeted allocation money. The Swede made his debut in the inaugural
El Tráfico match against LAFC, scoring two goals to end the game with the Galaxy coming from 0–3 down to win 4–3. One of the goals Ibrahimović scored in that game later received the
MLS Goal of the Year award. Los Angeles throughout the season dealt with defensive struggles, and in their last match of the regular season, against
Houston Dynamo, the Galaxy were defeated and once again missed the postseason. After the 2018 season, the Galaxy ended Ibrahimović's original deal and signed him to a new and higher salaried
designated player contract. On March 1, 2019, the team announced they had exercised its one offseason Buyout of a Guaranteed Contract on Giovani dos Santos, thus releasing him from the team. In the
2019 season, the Galaxy welcomed
Guillermo Barros Schelotto to the club as head coach. The Galaxy also added a number of players, notably Uruguayan
Diego Polenta, Argentine World Cup veteran
Cristian Pavón, fellow Argentine
Favio Álvarez and Mexican
Uriel Antuna. With this, and the emergence of academy product
Efraín Álvarez, the Galaxy placed fifth in the West and made the playoffs. The season was best remembered for Ibrahimović's performances against LAFC, including a hat-trick at home in July and a brace in
Banc of California Stadium that August. Ibrahimović finished the season with 30 goals, the second-highest mark in the season and third-highest total in league history (with the record being broken by LAFC's
Carlos Vela that year). In the
playoffs, the Galaxy defeated
Minnesota United FC 2–1 before falling to LAFC, 5–3. Ibrahimović left the club in November, and of the 2019 signings—most of them on loan—only Pavón returned for 2020. Three years later, in December 2022, MLS sanctioned the Galaxy for the 2019 Pavón signing, stripping the club of $1 million in
allocation money and suspending club president
Chris Klein. Moreover, the club was not allowed to sign international players in the 2023 summer transfer window. The club arranged for a transfer from
La Liga club
Sevilla, signing a three-year contract with
Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez on January 21, 2020, and making him the highest-paid player in the league. At the end of the season, after failing to making the postseason, head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto was fired, and replaced with
Dominic Kinnear as interim manager. On January 5, the Galaxy announced
Greg Vanney as the new manager. Under Vanney, the Galaxy narrowly missed the MLS playoffs in 2021, finishing eighth in the Western Conference (15th overall). In 2022, the club showed marked improvement, punctuated by the continued improvement of Hernández (who scored 18 goals) and the signings of former
Barcelona youth product
Riqui Puig and European veteran
Gastón Brugman. The Galaxy finished fourth in the West (eighth overall), their highest mark since 2016, and beat
Nashville SC at home in the first round of the
MLS Cup playoffs before falling again to their crosstown rivals LAFC in the conference semifinals, 3−2, at the last minute. Hernández was named the team's player of the year that season.
MLS Cup championship return (2023–present) in 2024 In the offseason leading up to 2023, team president Chris Klein was suspended through the primary transfer window due to evidence of undisclosed payments involving the team's 2019 signing of Cristian Pavon, which MLS reported should have been classified as a designated player. The league's sanctions on the Galaxy meant that the team could not make any international signings during the 2023 summer transfer window. Despite these punishments, Klein signed a multi-year extension with the team. In response, Galaxy supporter group leaders announced a unified boycott, refusing to attend any home games until he was removed from his position. The Galaxy began 2023 with their worst start to a season in club history, winless in their first seven games while twice ending up at the bottom of the league's overall standings. After a loss to
Charlotte FC in May, Galaxy supporters were seen involved in a shouting match with manager Greg Vanney, who had assumed control of the team's soccer operations in the wake of Klein's suspension. In the aftermath, ESPN ranked the Galaxy 29 of 29 in their MLS power rankings, saying they were "not a serious club". On May 30, 2023, the Galaxy officially announced they had parted ways with Klein. In
2024, the Galaxy introduced top signings in attackers
Joseph Paintsil and
Gabriel Pec, while letting
Douglas Costa and Chicharito leave the club. This marked a shift in philosophy from a club focused on signing world-famous players and toward one with lesser-known yet well-regarded players who could thrive in MLS. The Galaxy narrowly missed first place, finishing level on points total (64) with their local foes LAFC, but losing on tiebreakers. During the regular season, the four-man attack of Riqui Puig, Serbian striker
Dejan Joveljić, Paintsil and Pec provided 54 of the team's 69 MLS goals, equaling their highest output since 1998 (matched in the MLS Cup-winning
2014 campaign). The Galaxy defeated
Colorado Rapids in a two-game first round series (scoring nine goals in the round), then beat
Minnesota United by a 6−2 margin and the
Seattle Sounders in a tightly contested 1–0 Western Conference final to advance to their first MLS Cup since 2014. Puig assisted Joveljić on the winning goal in the 85th minute; the next day, it was revealed that Puig had
torn his ACL earlier in the game, thus ending his season. On December 7, the Galaxy defeated the
New York Red Bulls 2–1 to win their sixth MLS Cup in club history, their first in exactly ten years. The Galaxy also recorded the most goals in playoffs history with 18 across the campaign. Puig's ACL tear caused him to miss all of the 2025 season. The Galaxy struggled significantly without him, as their 2025 campaign set the record for longest winless streak to start a season in MLS history. They finished fourteenth of fifteen teams in the Western Conference, narrowly avoiding another wooden spoon, and did not win a game on the road. Despite their struggles, the Galaxy finished third in the
2025 Leagues Cup, qualifying them for a spot in the
2026 CONCACAF Champions Cup! Riqui Puig was expected to return in time for the 2026 season, but in the offseason, it was revealed that he suffered a setback in his recovery and would require further surgery that would cause him to miss another season. == Colors and badge ==