Former U.S. striker Herculez Gomez has ripped the Earthquakes for their handling of star Chris Wondolowski.

“Honestly, San Jose is wasting a generational talent,” said Gomez, who became an ESPN soccer analyst last month after a 17-year career. “You have a player who in three, four years has scored almost 100 goals. A player like that comes once in a generation and you’re letting him go to waste. It can’t happen anymore.”

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Earthquakes introduce new GM, eye Club America forward New San Jose general manager Jesse Fioranelli shot back Monday.

“There’s no truth to that,” he said flatly. Wondolowski “is as close to a volcano as it gets inside in terms of his energy and his commitment to the team and making sure all the young players are fitting in. I can’t see how he is being underused. Could he score more goals? Even Chris would say yes. But that has nothing to how he is being utilized.”

Wondolowski is 12 goals shy of tying Jaime Moreno for No. 3 on Major League Soccer’s all-time scoring list heading into the season opener March 4 against the Montreal Impact. The Danville native has led the Quakes with double-digit scoring for seven years in a row. He had 12 goals last year, second-lowest in his current streak.

Fioranelli is more interested in balanced scoring than continuing to rely solely on the player fans call “Wondo.”

“If there is a player that has every year scored more than 10 goals, sometimes 15-20, at a certain time you might want to have the weight be spread across the entire team,” Fioranelli said. Wondolowski “certainly had more than one backpack on his shoulders trying to score goals for San Jose.”

Three newcomers are expected to help the Earthquakes become more potent. Forwards Danny Hoesen (Netherlands) and Marco Urena (Costa Rica) and winger Jahmir Hyka (Albania) bring optimism that the Quakes can regroup after a league-low 32 goals in 34 games last year.