Deportivo Saprissa

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Deportivo Saprissa
Full name Club Deportivo Saprissa
Nickname(s) El Monstruo Morado
Founded July 16, 1935
Ground Estadio Ricardo Saprissa,
San José
Capacity 23,112
Chairman Jorge Vergara
Manager Jeaustin Campos
League Primera División, Costa Rica
2005-06
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
　
Away colours

Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican football club, currently playing in the Primera División. It holds the record of most international titles by a Costa Rican soccer squad, and is tied with LD Alajuelense in national championships with a total of 24. The team is most notable for its policy of only fielding Costa Rican players since Jorge Vergara acquired the team in 2003, and its on-field success which lead to the Costa Rican press nicknaming them "El Monstruo Morado," the purple monster. In December 2005 they played the FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup, representing the CONCACAF region as their current champions. They finished in third place.

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[edit] History

Deportivo Saprissa was founded July 16, 1935 by Roberto “Beto” Fernández in his shoe store in el barrio Los Angeles in San Jose. After a meeting with the football club's members Beto Fernandez decided to name his team after the man who sponsored their uniform, Don Ricardo Saprissa and with this announcement they entered the Costa Rican Third Division as Saprissa F.C.

In 1947 with Ricardo Saprissa's financial support and excellent coaching by Francisco "Pachico" García, los morados were able to win the Costa Rican Third Division Championship. In 1948 they ascended to Costa Rica's Second Division and won the championship, thus propelling them to Costa Rica's premier soccer division. Deportivo Saprissa first played in the Costa Rica First Division on August 21, 1949 where it has remained for over 50 years.

In the March of 1959, Deportivo Saprissa achieved recognition as being the first Latin American soccer team to travel around the world. They played 25 games in 22 nations in which they won 14 games, tied one, and lost 7. In Costa Rica they were named the team of the century as they had participated in 50 Costa Rican Championships, they also have the immense prestige of winning 6 consecutive Costa Rican National Championships between the years 1972-1977, a record that stands not only in Costa Rica, but across the entire American continent as well since this record hasn't been repeated anywhere else in the Americas.

In 1937 Deportivo Saprissa adopted purple as the official colors of the team. It is said that the team adopted purple because their previous uniforms which were red shirts and blue shorts were mistakenly washed together. When the uniforms were ready to be picked up it was realized that the two colors blended on the uniform to become a solid purple uniform.

During the end of the 1980's and beginning of the 1990's, Saprissa was not the backbone of the Costa Rican national team, whose international pinnacle came at the 1990 FIFA World Cup held in Italy, when against all the odds, Costa Rica reached the second round, eliminating countries such as Scotland and Sweden.

In 2002 the team was purchased by Mexican entrepreneur Jorge Vergara, also the owner of Mexican club Chivas de Guadalajara and the operator of Major League Soccer club C.D. Chivas USA. In 2005 Deportivo Saprissa beat Pumas de UNAM (Mexico) to become CONCACAF Club Champions thus earning a berth at the FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup, where Saprissa finished third behind São Paulo Futebol Clube and Liverpool F.C..

Having defeated Sydney F.C. thanks to a goal by Cristian Bolaños, they were beaten by Liverpool F.C. 3-0 in the semifinals. Then they played against Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia in the game that decided the third and fourth places of the cup. Saprissa won the game with a final score of 3-2. The electrifying match was held at Yokohama Stadium, where Alvaro Saborío scored two goals, and Ronald Gomez scored the final goal just minutes before the game ended. Gomez's goal was considered among the best of the tournament, Saborío ended up tied as the top scorer of the cup, and Cristian Bolaños was awarded by FIFA as the third best player of the championship.

[edit] El Monstruo Morado

The history of the nickname "El Monstruo Morado" (The Purple Monster) can be traced back to 1987 when the Costa Rican newspaper El Diario Extra named the team this during the Costa Rican derby between Deportivo Saprissa and La Liga Deportiva Alajuelense. A reporter said due to the fans wearing purple and the grandstands at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in Tibas shaking he felt he was in the presence of a purple monster. Deportivo Saprissa immediately adopted the moniker of El Monstruo Morado. Official site: [1]

[edit] La Ultra Morada

La Ultra Morada (The Purple Ultra) is Deportivo Saprissa's official firm. The group was the first of its kind in Costa Rica, formed in 1995 when the then Deportivo Saprissa President Enrique Artiñano brought to Costa Rica, fans from the Chilean league team Universidad Católica, known as "Los Cruzados" to help build a likeminded firm for Saprissa. In the mid to late 1990s the Ultra began to develop the image of being a hooligan-type fan club when violence began to break out with other fans during games. Due to the negative atmosphere and press Deportivo Saprissa stepped in to restore order to a phenomenon they helped create. Recently the Ultra Morada has been taken under the wing of Deportivo Saprissa in order to fix its image, making it a more stable but devoted fan base.

[edit] Estadio Ricardo Saprissa

In 1955 Ricardo Saprissa embarked on a long search for a training site. Not only did he want this to be a training site but he wanted it to be a possible location for a permanent stadium that Deportivo Saprissa could call their own. Ricardo Saprissa had criteria for the location of the stadium, he wanted easy transportation access to the location and he also wanted it to be near the capital city of San Jose, but also at the same time he wanted to be close enough for the other provincial cities such as Alajuela, Cartago, and Heredia. On August 3rd, 1965 after 10 years of searching Ricardo Saprissa came to a final solution and agreed to buy land in San Juan de Tibas but construction would not begin until October 12, 1966. The location would be first built into a soccer field with bleachers and technically it would not be considered a stadium. But on October 27, 1972 after 6 years of construction and upgrades Estadio Ricardo Saprissa was inaugurated with a match between Deportivo Saprissa and Comunicaciones of Guatemala, the match ended in a 1 - 1 draw. In 2003 due to the long tropical rainy seasons Deportivo Saprissa applied and was granted by FIFA the right to change the field from natural grass to synthetic turf, becoming the only stadium in Latin America to display this type of turf. Estadio Ricardo Saprissa has also gained the national distinction of being the home field of Costa Rica's national matches. Estadio Ricardo Saprissa is the biggest soccer stadium in Costa Rica with a seating capacity of 23,112 and has an excellent view of the local mountains and downtown San Jose.

[edit] Recent News

As of October 28, 2006, the Costa Rican Football Federation, or Federación Costarricense de Fútbol, has announced that the new coaching staff for the Costa Rica national football team is Saprissa's head coach, Hernan Medford, his assistant Oscar Ramírez, and his head athletic trainer Marcelo Tulbovitz.

[edit] List of famous players

Note: The Players marked '(c)' have also coached the team

[edit] 1950s

[edit] 1960s

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 1980s

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 2000s to date

[edit] Notable Coaches

[edit] 1950s - 1960s

  • Francisco García (Pachico)
  • Eduardo Viso Abella
  • Otto Pedro Bumbell
  • Carlos Peucelle
  • Alfredo Piedra (Chato)
  • José Ramos
  • Mario Cordero (Catato)

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 1980s

  • Giovanny Rodríguez
  • Raúl Betancourt
  • Jozef Bouska
  • Odir Jaques

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 2000s to date

[edit] Current Administrative Staff

General Manager

  • Jorge Alarcón

Football Operations Manager

  • Victor Badilla

Commercial Manager

  • Mario Jiménez

[edit] Current Coaching Staff

Head Coach

Assistant Coaches

Head Athletic Trainer

  • Pierluigi Morera

Goalkeeper's Coach

  • Roger Mora

Team Physician

  • Willy Gálvez

[edit] Current squad 2006/07

The players and numbers are established according to the official website: www.saprissa.co.cr

[edit] Current squad 2006/07

As of 15 August 2006.

No. Position Player
35 Flag of Costa Rica GK José Francisco Porras
13 Flag of Costa Rica GK Fausto González
1 Flag of Costa Rica GK Keylor Navas
18 Flag of Costa Rica DF Jervis Drummond
21 Flag of Costa Rica DF Reynaldo Parks
3 Flag of Costa Rica DF Víctor Cordero
22 Flag of Costa Rica DF José Pablo Fonseca
6 Flag of Costa Rica DF Daniel Arce
5 Flag of Costa Rica DF Jody Stewart
16 Flag of Costa Rica DF Gabriel Badilla
23 Flag of Costa Rica DF Try Bennett
14 Flag of Costa Rica DF Andrés Nuñez
30 Flag of Costa Rica DF Randall Porras
17 Flag of Costa Rica MF José Luis López Ramírez
No. Position Player
8 Flag of Costa Rica MF Walter Centeno
20 Flag of Costa Rica MF Celso Borges
29 Flag of Costa Rica MF Jader Valladares
10 Flag of Costa Rica MF Alonso Solís
2 Flag of Costa Rica MF Christian Bolaños
15 Flag of Costa Rica MF Saúl Phillips
9 Flag of Costa Rica MF Pablo Brenes
19 Flag of Costa Rica FW Jairo Arrieta
11 Flag of Costa Rica FW Allan Alemán
7 Flag of Costa Rica FW Alejandro Alpizar
12 Flag of Costa Rica FW Ever Alfaro
26 Flag of Costa Rica FW Edgar Greaves
27 Flag of Costa Rica FW Joshimar Reid

[edit] Squad changes during 2006/07 season

In:

Out:

[edit] Costa Rican National Championships

Deportivo Saprissa has won 24 Total Costa Rican National Championships:

  • 1952-53
  • 1953-54
  • 1957-58
  • 1962-63
  • 1964-65
  • 1965-66
  • 1967-68
  • 1968-69
  • 1969-70
  • 1972-73
  • 1973-74
  • 1974-75
  • 1975-76
  • 1976-77
  • 1977-78
  • 1982-83
  • 1988-89
  • 1989-90
  • 1993-94
  • 1994-95
  • 1997-98
  • 1998-99
  • 2003-04
  • 2005-06

[edit] Costa Rican Short Championships

Deportivo Saprissa has won 7 short championships: (These are not total national championships)

  • 1997-98 Clausura
  • 1998-99 Apertura
  • 1998-99 Clausura
  • 2003-04 Apertura
  • 2005-06 Apertura
  • 2005-06 Clausura
  • 2006-07 Apertura

[edit] International Tournament Championships

Deportivo Saprissa has won 10 international championships: (Plus a third place in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship)

  • 1970 CONCACAF Central American Champions
  • 1972 Fraternidad Centroamericana Champions
  • 1973 Fraternidad Centroamericana Champions
  • 1978 Fraternidad Centroamericana Champions
  • 1985 U.S. Camel Cup Champions
  • 1993 CONCACAF Tournament Champions
  • 1995 CONCACAF Tournament Champions
  • 1998 Copa del Torneo Grandes de Centroamérica Champions
  • 2003 UNCAF Cup Champions
  • 2005 CONCACAF Club Champions (Representing North America in the FIFA Club World Championship - Third place)

[edit] External links


Deportivo Saprissa - Current Squad

1 Navas | 2 Bolaños | 3 Cordero | 5 Stewart | 6 Arce | 7 Alpizar | 8 Centeno | 9 Brenes | 10 Solís | 11 Alemán | 12 Alfaro | 13 González | 14 Nuñez | 15 Phillips | 16 Badilla | 17 López | 18 Drummond | 19 Arrieta | 20 Borges | 21 Parks | 22 Fonseca | 23 Bennett | 26 Greaves | 27 Reid | 29 Valladares | 30 R. Porras | 35 J.F. Porras | Manager: Campos



Primera División de Costa Rica 2006/07 teams:
LD Alajuelense | Brujas FC | AD Carmelita | CS Cartaginés | CS Herediano | Liberia
Pérez Zeledón | Puntarenas FC | AD San Carlos | AD Santacruceña | Santos | Saprissa
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