Ricardo Saprissa

Ricardo Saprissa

Saprissa playing for Español
Personal information
Full name	Ricardo Juan Antonio Saprissa Aymá
Date of birth	(1901-06-24)June 24, 1901
Place of birth	San Salvador, El Salvador
Date of death	August 16, 1990(1990-08-16) (aged 89)
Place of death	Alajuela, Costa Rica
Position(s)	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1922–1932	Espanyol	45	(0)
1932	Orión
National team
1925–1931	Catalonia
Teams managed
1935–1938	Costa Rica
1938	Orión
1951	Costa Rica
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Ricardo Juan Antonio Saprissa Aymá (June 24, 1901 – August 16, 1990) was a lifelong athlete, coach, and promoter of sports.

He spent many years in Costa Rica, playing and coaching football. In 1935 he was co-founder of Deportivo Saprissa, a highly successful football team based in .

Early life[]

Born in El Salvador to Spanish parents,^[1] Saprissa moved to Barcelona (his mother's home town) as a small child but returned to El Salvador aged 10 after the death of his father. After completing his studies in engineering, he returned to Spain in 1922.

Sporting career as a player[]

He played several sports, excelling at football as well as in baseball, tennis, field hockey and polo. He joined the football club RCD Espanyol, and won the national cup competition (Copa del Rey) with the club in 1929 (along with the Catalan football championship in the same season), having also won Spain's field hockey national championship in 1924 and the national tennis doubles championship in 1923 and 1924.

He participated with Spain in men's and mixed doubles tennis at the Paris Olympic Games in 1924^[2] and was on the Spanish team in the equivalent of the Davis Cup in 1930. He moved to San José, Costa Rica, in 1932.

Costa Rica and Deportivo Saprissa[]

Saprissa became the coach and president of the local football team, Orión, guiding them to a championship in 1938. He coached Costa Rica's national football team, winning the silver medal at the 1935 and 1938 Central American and Caribbean Games, and in the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires.

Later that decade, Roberto Fernández started a boys football team, with children from all over San José. He asked Saprissa if he could supply the player's uniforms. He did, and the team became known as Deportivo Saprissa.^[3] The team successfully competed in local tournaments. As the young players started to grow, the team began to compete in higher categories. They reached Costa Rica's First Division in 1949, and have since won more national and international tournaments than any other Costa Rican team. They represented CONCACAF at the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship in Japan in December 2005, winning third place in the tournament.

Saprissa was the president of Deportivo Saprissa from 1948 to 1981. In 1972, one of his dreams was realised when the team became the first in Costa Rica to have its own stadium, which was named after him.

Death and legacy[]

Don Ricardo Saprissa died in Alajuela in August 1990.^[1] Among his distinctions, Saprissa was included in Costa Rica's Sports Gallery in 1969 and was named honorary president of Barcelona's Espanyol, Costa Rica's Orion, Gimnástica Española in Spain, and rival soccer team Alajuelense in Costa Rica.

References[]

External links[]

• Ricardo Saprissa at BDFutbol
• Don Ricardo Saprissa - Deportivo Saprissa
• RICARDO SAPRISSA AYMÁ - Hall of Fame: Jugadores del RCD Espanyol