During his fourteen-year career, he played professionally in the United States, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and his native El Salvador.

Although born in El Salvador, he gained his U.S. citizenship as a youth and earned 73 caps, scoring sixteen goals, with the U.S. national team between 1984 and 1994.

Ajax manager Johan Cruyff expressed an interest in signing him, but the Sockers refused to release Pérez.

Pérez was a member of the American squad that competed at the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship and 1984 Summer Olympics.

[3] He also helped the U.S. qualify for the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1990 FIFA World Cup, which he missed when he tore ligaments in his leg playing for Red Star Paris, a French Second Division club.

After retiring from playing, Pérez moved to the San Francisco area where he has served as the principal for the Living Hope Christian School.

[6][7] In August 2002, he joined the University of San Francisco as an assistant coach to its men's soccer team.

[8] On December 7, 2007, the California Victory, a USL First Division expansion franchise, announced that Pérez had joined its staff as an assistant coach.

[14] Under this tutelage, El Salvador began recruiting players born in the United States to Salvadoran parents, who later made up a quarter of their World Cup qualifying roster in 2021.

[15] His nephew Joshua Pérez is a professional soccer player who plays for American side Tampa Bay Rowdies.