Ricardo Juan Antonio Saprissa Aymá (24 June 1901 – 16 August 1990) was a lifelong athlete, coach, and promoter of sports. After being raised in El Salvador, he spent many years in Costa Rica, playing and coaching football. In 1935 he was co-founder of

Deportivo Saprissa Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is based in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple ...

, a highly successful football team based in San Juan de Tibás. He also represented Spain at the 1924 Summer Olympics.

Early life

Born in El Salvador to Spanish parents,RCD Espanyol rinde homenaje a la presidencia honorífica de Ricardo Saprissa
- Nación Saprissa moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

(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 Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, he returned to Spain in 1922 to play soccer.

Sporting career as a player

He played several sports, excelling at football as well as in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

and polo. He joined the football club

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league s ...

, and won the national cup competition (

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

) with the club in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

(along with the

Catalan football championship The Catalan football championship ''(Campionat de Catalunya)'' was a football competition in Catalonia and the first football league in Spain before La Liga was established in 1929. In December 1900, Alfons Macaya, the president of Hispania AC, ...

in the same season). That made him the first Salvadorean soccer player to play professionally in Spain, and the only Salvadorean player to win a Copa del Rey. He also won Spain's field hockey national championship in 1924 and the national tennis doubles championship in 1923 and 1924. Since El Salvador did not participate in the Paris Summer Olympic Games in 1924, he represented Spain in men's and mixed doubles tennis and was on the Spanish team in the equivalent of the Davis Cup in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

. 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 The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC or CACGs) are a multi-sport regional championship event, held quadrennial (once every four years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The games are for countries in Cent ...

, and in the 1951 Pan American Games in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. 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

. 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 The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

at the

2005 FIFA Club World Championship The 2005 FIFA Club World Championship (officially known as the FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup Japan 2005 for sponsorship reasons) was the second FIFA Club World Championship, a football competition organised by FIFA for the champion club ...

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 Alajuela () is a district in the Alajuela canton of the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Alajuela canton, it is awarded the status of city. By virtue of being the city of the first canton of the province, it i ...

in August 1990. Among his distinctions, Saprissa was included in Costa Rica's Sports Gallery in 1969 and was named honorary president of Barcelona's

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

, Costa Rica's Orion, Gimnástica Española in Spain, and rival soccer team

Alajuelense Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA, ), commonly known as Alajuelense and nicknamed La Liga (), is a Costa Rican multisport club based in the borough of El Llano, Alajuela, Alajuela province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Ala ...

in Costa Rica.

References

External links

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Don Ricardo Saprissa
- Deportivo Saprissa
RICARDO SAPRISSA AYMÁ
- Hall of Fame: Jugadores del RCD Espanyol {{DEFAULTSORT:Saprissa, Ricardo 1901 births 1990 deaths Sportspeople from San Salvador Association football defenders Salvadoran footballers Costa Rican footballers Spanish footballers RCD Espanyol footballers La Liga players Spanish male tennis players Olympic tennis players of Spain Tennis players at the 1924 Summer Olympics Costa Rican football managers Costa Rica national football team managers Spanish emigrants to Costa Rica Spanish people of Salvadoran descent Salvadoran people of Spanish descent Salvadoran emigrants to Costa Rica Costa Rican people of Salvadoran descent Footballers from Catalonia Spanish football managers Spanish male field hockey players Field hockey players from Catalonia Sportspeople from Barcelona Salvadoran football managers Catalonia international footballers Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in tennis Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Costa Rica Costa Rican male tennis players