Francisco Maturana

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Francisco Maturana, also known as Pacho (born February 2, 1949 in Quibdó) is a Colombian ex-football player and later a successful football manager.

A dentist by profession, he was an active player from 1970 to 1982. He was a defender in clubs like Atlético Nacional, Atlético Bucaramanga and Deportes Tolima, winning the Colombian football championship in 1973 and 1976. He played several times for Colombia national football team, including the qualifying matches for the 1982 World Cup.

He started in 1986 as a trainer for the colombian team Once Caldas. A year later, he was selected to coach Colombia National Football Team, with which he reached the 3rd position in the 1987 Copa America.

As coach of Atlético Nacional he won the Copa Libertadores in 1989. That same year he qualified Colombia for the 1990 World Cup, after 28 years of absence. The following year in Italy, he got Colombia into the second round of Italia 90, Colombia's best performance in a World Cup ever.

After the World Cup, he was hired as coach of Spain's Real Valladolid. In 1993 he was voted as the South American coach of the year by El Pais and he was ranked third in Spanish Newspaper Marca's list of the worlds greatest managers.

He returned to Colombia in 1992. and got his team América de Cali champion of Colombia. In 1993 he got Colombia qualified for a second time in a row to a World Cup, with a historic triumph over Argentina in Buenos Aires by 5-0. That score made Colombia a surprising favorite for the 1994 World Cup, but the performance there was disappointing, as the team was eliminated in the first round, being defeated by such teams as the United States and Romania.

He had later a brief stint as coach of Atlético Madrid and in 1995 he was hired as the trainer of Ecuador National Football Team. After failing to get Ecuador qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he returned to Colombia to coach Millonarios.

In 1999 he briefly coached Costa Rica, and in 2000 he also coached for a few months Peru. He would later return to coach Colombia for the 2001 Copa América, winning it for the first time. His latest jobs as a coach would include Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal, where he won the domestic league and the Asian Champions League and a new stint for Colombia and Argentina's Colón de Santa Fe.

Francisco Maturana is considered to be one of the greatest South American coaches of all time and and a legend of the Colombian game.

He's currently working for FIFA as a technical adviser where he has hold various coaching seminars around the world with the likes of Fabio Capello and Cesar Menotti

[edit] Teams as coach

[edit] Clubs

[edit] National teams

Preceded by
Telê Santana		 South American Coach of the Year
1993		 Succeeded by
Carlos Bianchi


Flag of Colombia Colombia squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup Flag of Colombia

1 Higuita | 2 Escobar | 3 Gildardo Gómez | 4 Herrera | 5 Villa | 6 Pérez | 7 Estrada | 8 Gabriel Gómez | 9 Guerrero | 10 Valderrama | 11 Redín | 12 Niño | 13 Hoyos | 14 Álvarez | 15 Perea | 16 Iguarán | 17 Cassiani | 18 Cabrera | 19 Rincón | 20 Fajardo | 21 Mendoza | 22 Hernández | Coach: Maturana
Flag of Colombia Colombia squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup Flag of Colombia

1 Córdoba | 2 Escobar | 3 Mendoza | 4 Herrera | 5 Gaviria | 6 Gómez | 7 de Ávila | 8 Lozano | 9 Valenciano | 10 Valderrama | 11 Valencia | 12 Mondragón | 13 Ortiz | 14 Álvarez | 15 Perea | 16 Aristizábal | 17 Serna | 18 Cortés | 19 Rincón | 20 Pérez | 21 Asprilla | 22 Pazo | Coach: Maturana
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