As a child his team the Westlake Wolves, with Eric's father Dave as the head coach, won the state championship in AYSO soccer.

Wynalda attended San Diego State University from 1987 to 1989 where he played for the Aztecs men's soccer team, scoring 34 goals and assisting on 25 others during his three seasons.

His freshman year, SDSU went to the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship game where it lost to the Bruce Murray-led Clemson Tigers.

After the World Cup, Wynalda signed as an on loan player from USSF with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League.

[10] On July 7, 2000, the Fusion turned around and traded Wynalda to the New England Revolution along with future draft considerations for defender Ivan McKinley.

On September 19, 2000, in the MLS Cup Playoff Quarterfinals, Wynalda scored his first goal for the Revolution, the opener in their 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire.

It was the club's first-ever playoff win (the Revolution were subsequently eliminated from the series, losing 2 games to 1 in the best-of-three tie).

[11] In February 2001, the Revolution re-signed Wynalda, but would deal him to the Chicago Fire on May 3, 2001 for John Wolyniec and a third-round pick in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft.

[1] Despite the season being underway when he arrived, Wynalda would end up as the Fire's leading scorer for 2001, recording 10 goals and 5 assists in MLS Play.

On March 14, 1990, he signed a contract with the United States Soccer Federation which made him a full-time national team player.

Wynalda started every game of the tournament for the United States and scored the third goal for the US in their second group stage match against Guatemala, which the US won 3–0.

In 1998, Wynalda participated in his third World Cup, one of only three United States players (the others being Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa) to have earned that honor at that time.

[17] In 2005, Bakersfield Brigade of the USL Premier Development League hired Wynalda as its technical director,[18] and in 2007 he agreed to a short-term playing contract with the team during the last few matches of their season.

[24][25][26][27][28][29] On July 2, 2012, it was announced that Wynalda would become the interim head coach and team adviser of the new North American Soccer League's Atlanta Silverbacks.

[30] On January 7, 2014, the Silverbacks announced they would get rid of the head coach position and have Wynalda act as the manager and technical director of the team.

[31] On October 17, 2018, Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL announced that Wynalda would be their new Head Coach and Technical Director.

[32] On July 30, 2020, New Amsterdam FC of the National Independent Soccer Association announced Wynalda has the team's first head coach.

[33] On August 17, following two preseason tournament matches and five days prior to the start of the fall season, Wynalda announced his departure for personal reasons.

In August 2009, Fox Soccer Channel announced that Eric Wynalda would replace Steven Cohen as the co-host of the weekly discussion show, Fox Football Fone-in and partner up with Nick Webster who coached alongside Eric with Cal FC during their historic run in the U.S. Open Cup.

In addition, Wynalda began working as a commentator for some of the channel's MLS broadcasts, and as an in-studio analyst during pre-game, half-time, and post-game segments for the UEFA Champions League.