José Antonio Letelier Henríquez (born 23 May 1966) is a Chilean

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He was the head coach of the

Chile women's national football team The Chile women's national football team represents Chile in international Women's association football, women's football. It is administered by the Football Federation of Chile, Federación de Fútbol de Chile and is a member of CONMEBOL. Chi ...

from 2015 to 2023. He is currently in charge of Peruvian side Alianza Lima (women).

Playing career

Letelier started playing in the youth categories of

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

, before switching to rivals

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

where he was taken on as a professional in 1987. In 1988 Colo-Colo sent Letelier and three other young players – Francisco Huerta, Parcko Quiroz and René Pinto – on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

Alianza Lima Club Alianza Lima, more commonly known as simply Alianza Lima, is a Peru, Peruvian professional sports club based in La Victoria District, Lima, La Victoria District of Lima, Peru. The club was founded under the name of Sport Alianza on February ...

, whose team had perished in the 1987 Alianza Lima plane crash. After a further loan at

Deportes Valdivia Deportes Valdivia is a Chilean football club in the town of Valdivia, Chile. It currently plays in Segunda División, the third level of Chilean football. The club was founded on June 5, 1983, and re-founded on December 19, 2003. Honours *Chile ...

, he returned to Colo-Colo and understudied

Daniel Morón Jose Daniel Morón (born September 30, 1959, in Tunuyán, Mendoza Province, Argentina), is an Argentine-born Chilean football goalkeeper. He won the Copa Libertadores trophy in 1991 as goalkeeper for Chilean team Colo-Colo. Morón started his car ...

and Marcelo Ramírez in the club's

1991 Copa Libertadores The 1991 Copa Libertadores was won by Colo-Colo of Chile after defeating Olimpia of Paraguay with a 3–0 aggregate score in the finals. The championship would mark a first for a Chilean club team in an international tournament. Twenty-one clubs ...

-winning squad. He was signed by Mexican club

Atlético Morelia Club Atlético Morelia is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Morelia, Michoacán de Ocampo, Michoacán, that competes in Liga de Expansión MX, the second level division of Mexican football. The club plays their ...

, where he played in 1991 and 1992, coinciding with his compatriot Juan Gutiérrez. He then completed his career back in Chile, with stints at

Huachipato Huachipato FC is a Chilean football club based in Talcahuano that currently plays in the Chilean Primera División. Huachipato was founded on 7 June 1947 by workers of the homonymous steel mill in Talcahuano, and it currently plays its home g ...

and Deportes Linares.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Letelier trained as a

PE teacher Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing primary, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United States it is informally called gym class or ...

and obtained his coaching licences from the Instituto Nacional del Fútbol (INAF). He began coaching goalkeepers in Colo-Colo's boys' teams, then took charge of the club's

women's section The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...

in 2010. He won the

Chilean women's football championship Chilean may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Chile, a country in South America * Chilean people * Chilean Spanish * Chilean culture * Chilean cuisine * Chilean Americans See also *List of Chileans This is a list of Chileans who ar ...

ten times in succession, the last nine under the

Apertura and Clausura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split Season (sports), season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American soccer, football sports league, leagues in which the traditional association ...

format. When Colo-Colo won the

2012 Copa Libertadores Femenina The 2012 Copa Libertadores Femenina was the fourth edition of the Copa Libertadores Femenina, CONMEBOL's premier annual international women's football club tournament. São José Esporte Clube (women), São José were the defending champions. On ...

, Letelier became the first individual to be part of winning squads in both the male and female Libertadores tournaments. In June 2015 he was appointed technical director of the

, with his first task to prepare an under 20 team for the

2015 South American U-20 Women's Championship The 2015 South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship was the seventh edition of the South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship The South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 ...

. The next year, he also led the under-17's in the 2016 South American Championship. When the senior women's national team played their first fixture in three years in May 2017, they thrashed hapless

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

12–0. At the

2018 Copa América Femenina The 2018 Copa América Femenina was the eighth edition of the CONMEBOL Copa América Femenina (also referred to as the ''Copa América Femenina''), the quadrennial international football competition for women's national teams in South America af ...

, Letelier steered hosts Chile to a runners-up finish, securing qualification to their first ever

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. In October 2023, he assumed as the coach of the .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Letelier, Jose 1966 births Living people Footballers from Santiago, Chile Chilean men's footballers Colo-Colo footballers Copa Libertadores–winning players Club Alianza Lima footballers Deportes Valdivia footballers Atlético Morelia players Huachipato FC footballers Deportes Linares footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Chilean Primera División players Peruvian Primera División players Liga MX players Primera B de Chile players Tercera División de Chile players Chilean expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Peru Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Peru Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Chilean football coaches Chilean football managers 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup managers Chile women's national football team managers Chilean expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Peru 20th-century Chilean sportsmen