Wílber Mauricio Wright Reynolds (born 20 December 1970 in

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of the province of the same name. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Central Valley, within San José Canton. San ...

) is a Costa Rican former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender. He was a key member of the Costa Rica national team for over ten years.

Club career

Wright started his career at the academies of

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 ...

, where in 1992 he was promoted to the first team.Breve historial de Mauricio Wright (Profile)
– Nación He moved abroad to play for

Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, are a football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. The most popular and successful footba ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, where he played alongside compatriots

Rolando Fonseca Rolando Fonseca Jiménez (born 6 June 1974) is a former Costa Rican professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed ''El Principito'' (The little prince)''La Nación'"Nuevo Estadio Nacional: Joya del Deporte Costarricense" p. 30. ...

Floyd Guthrie Floyd Anthony Guthrie Bell (born 14 March 1966) is a Guatemalan-Costa Rican retired footballer who has played as a defender, midfielder and forward. Club career A versatile player, Limón-born Guthrie started his career at Uruguay de Coronado ...

and Jéwisson Bennett. He then played three seasons (1999–2001) in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, split between the San Jose Clash (later Earthquakes) and the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

, alongside

William Sunsing William Sunsing Hidalgo (born 12 May 1977) is a Costa Rican bodybuilder and former football player. Association football career Club career The dreadlocked Sunsing made his professional debut for played for Herediano on 5 April 1995 against S ...

. He scored six goals and added three assists in MLS league play. Wright has also had a brief spell at

Herediano Club Sport Herediano (), commonly known as Herediano and nicknamed El Team, is a Costa Rican multisport club based in Heredia, Heredia province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Herediano is mostly known for its association ...

. His performances in the World Cup in the summer of 2002 attracted the people of

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

who signed him immediately after alongside his compatriot,

Walter Centeno Wálter Centeno Corea (born 6 October 1974) is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and current manager of Guadalupe. He was a regular member of the Costa Rica national team and holds the record ...

. He performed very well, while also playing in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

scoring the winner against

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

on the qualifiers on 28 August 2002. His contract with the club had a duration of 3 years, however he files an appeal and was released after some issues with the administration about his salary. He also had a short stint in China with

Shenyang Ginde Guangzhou City Football Club (广州城) is a Chinese professional football club that competes in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong, and their home venu ...

. With Saprissa, he has won three national championships and two

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Americ ...

, and returned to the team to play his last season as a professional, accomplishing his dream of retiring as a 'morado'.

International career

Wright made his debut for Costa Rica national football team at the December

1995 UNCAF Nations Cup Six national football teams from Central America competed in the 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup (''Copa Centroamericana''). The winning team was Honduras, defeating Guatemala in the final. Squads Preliminary round Stadium First round Group A ' ...

match against

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

and earned a total of 67 caps, scoring 6 goals. After not playing in qualifying rounds, he started in the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, scoring a goal. He also played (and scored) in the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2004 Copa América The 2004 Copa América was the 41st edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held in P ...

s. His final international was a July

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was contested in the United States in July 2005. The United States emerged victorious ...

match against

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Managerial career

Wright was named manager of Brujas in May 2007 and he won the 2009 winter championship with the club. He has coached teams in Costa Rica and Guatemala and took the reins at Cartaginés in May 2014. He was announced the new manager at

in December 2014, replacing Jafet Soto.Mauricio Wright asume el Club Sport Herediano
– Nación In May 2021, he won the Clausura season with Saprissa, thus giving the team its record 36th title.

Honours

;Sarprissa *

Primera División de Costa Rica The Primera División of Costa Rica, commonly known as Fútbol de Primera División (FPD), and Liga Promerica for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional association football division in Costa Rica. It is administered by the Unión de Clubes ...

: 1993–94, 1994–95, 1997–98, 2006–07 *

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

* Central American Club Championship:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

Best XI:

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Mauricio 1970 births Living people Footballers from San José, Costa Rica Costa Rican footballers Association football defenders Deportivo Saprissa players Comunicaciones F.C. players San Jose Earthquakes players New England Revolution players C.S. Herediano footballers AEK Athens F.C. players Changsha Ginde players Liga FPD players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Super League Greece players Costa Rica international footballers 1997 Copa América players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2004 Copa América players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Copa Centroamericana-winning players Costa Rican expatriate footballers Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in the United States Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Greece Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in China Costa Rican football managers C.S. Herediano managers Puntarenas F.C. managers C.S.D. Municipal managers Costa Rican expatriate football managers Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Guatemala Expatriate football managers in Guatemala Costa Rican people of Jamaican descent