Club Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is located in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and plays their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa The club's success has led to the Costa Rican newspaper Diario Extra nicknaming the team El Monstruo Morado ("The Purple Monster"), after Saprissa won a Championship in the early 1980s and an article in the newspaper said "the crowd yells and screams like a thousand-headed monster". Saprissa is one of the most successful clubs in CONCACAF having won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup three times - in 1993, 1995, and 2005. Saprissa is also the most successful club in Central America having won five Central American crowns in 1972, 1973, 1978, 1998, and 2003 as well as 28 Primera División de Costa Rica championships, the most of any team in Costa Rica. For the year from 1 September, 2007 to 31 August, 2008 the club is listed as being the 106th best team in the world by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics. [1] One of their most notable moments came in 2005 when they became the first, and so far only, non-Mexican club in CONCACAF to take part in the FIFA Club World Cup, finishing in third place. Along with Club Necaxa, this is the highest finish out of any CONCACAF team in the FIFA Club World Cup. Liga de Quito of CONMEBOL finished second in the 2008 FIFA club world cup, however, they are from Ecuador. Saprissa has the most appearances in the CONCACAF Champions Cup finals with three first place finishes and four runners-up finishes. Their six consecutive national Costa Rican titles from 1972 to 1977 is a national record. The club has won a record 28 national titles and 8 short championships as well as three official international tournaments and ten international championships.

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History

Deportivo Saprissa was founded on 16 July, 1935 and they entered the Costa Rican Third Division as Saprissa F.C. They were promoted to the Primera División de Costa Rica, making their debut in the top flight on 21 August, 1949. The club has remained in the Costa Rican top flight ever since. They were Primera División champions six consecutive seasons between 1972 and 1977.

Recent events

In 2003, the club was bought by Mexican entrepreneur Jorge Vergara, the owner of Mexican football club Club Deportivo Guadalajara and soon after the operator of Major League Soccer club Club Deportivo Chivas USA in the United States.

Saprissa won the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup, beating Mexican club Universidad Nacional in the final over two legs, in May 2005. As CONCACAF club champions they qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship, held in Japan in December 2005. They beat Australian club Sydney FC in the quarter-finals thanks to a goal by Christian Bolaños. In the semi-finals they were beaten 3-0 by English club Liverpool. In the third place match they beat Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia 3-2. Álvaro Saborío scored two goals, and Rónald Gómez scored the final goal in the 89th minute to seal the win. They finished the competition in third place behind São Paulo of Brazil and Liverpool. Saborío was joint top scorer, and Bolaños was awarded the Bronze Ball by FIFA as third best player of the championship.

Team colours and nickname

In 1937, Saprissa adopted purple as the official kit colour. It is said that the team adopted purple because their previous kit, which consisted of a red and blue striped shirt, was washed together by mistake. Then when the kits were ready to be picked up, it was realized that the two colours had blended, forming a solid purple colour.

The history of the nickname El Monstruo Morado (The Purple Monster ) can be traced back to 1987, when the Costa Rican newspaper Diario Extra gave the team the nickname during the local derby with LD Alajuelense. A reporter is said to have commented that the sea of fans in the stands at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá in Tibás wearing purple and the tremendous noise they were generating made him feel like he was "in the presence of a thousand headed monster". Saprissa immediately adopted the nickname El Monstruo Morado .

Stadium

Saprissa plays home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, named after Ricardo Saprissa. They originally played at the Costa Rica National Stadium, which they rented and shared.

A new site for a stadium was bought in 1965 and on 27 August, 1972 after six years of construction and upgrades, Estadio Ricardo Saprissa was officially opened. The first match was between Deportivo Saprissa and Comunicaciones of Guatemala. The match ended in a 1-1 draw with Peter Sandoval of Comunicaciones scoring the first goal at the new stadium.

The stadium is called La Cueva del Monstruo (The Monster's Cave), after the nickname of the club, El Monstruo Morado ("The Purple Monster"). It has a seating capacity of 23,112 and is overlooked by local mountains and downtown San Jose.

Supporters

La Ultra Morada (The Purple Ultra) is the club's official supporters group. The group was the first Ultras group in Costa Rica, formed in 1995 when the then Saprissa president Enrique Artiñano brought fans from the Chilean football club Universidad Católica, to help build a similar ultras group to their Los Cruzados, for Saprissa. In the mid-to-late 1990s the Ultras began to develop the image of being football hooligans when violence began to break out with opposition fans during games. Due to the negative atmosphere and press coverage, Saprissa stepped in to restore order to a group that they had helped create. Ultra Morada has now been taken under the wing of Saprissa, making it a more stable but devoted supporters group. This project is still on-going. The groups rivalry with La 12 (The Twelve) who support LD Alajuelense has been the cause of a number violent clashes in and out of stadiums.

Players

Current squad

As of 2009 ^[2]

No. Position Player 1 {{flagicon Keylor Navas 2 {{flagicon Yader Balladares 3 {{flagicon Victor Cordero'' Image:Captain sports.svg 4 {{flagicon Bryan Jiménez 5 {{flagicon Alexander Robinson 6 {{flagicon Kendall Watson 8 {{flagicon Walter Centeno 9 {{flagicon Ariel Santana 10 {{flagicon Alonso Solís 11 {{flagicon José Luis Cordero 12 {{flagicon Fernando Paniagua 13 {{flagicon Fausto González 14 {{flagicon Andrés Nuñez 15 {{flagicon Olman Vargas 16 {{flagicon Oscar Duarte

No. Position Player 17 {{flagicon José_Luis_López_Ramírez 18 {{flagicon Jervis Drummond 19 {{flagicon Jairo Arrieta 20 {{flagicon David Guzman 21 {{flagicon Armando Alonso 22 {{flagicon Esteban Alvarado 23 {{flagicon Brian Oviedo 24 {{flagicon Ricardo Blanco 25 {{flagicon Esteban Luna 26 {{flagicon Manfred Russell 27 {{flagicon César Elizondo 28 {{flagicon Josue Martinez 29 {{flagicon Javier Loaiza 30 {{flagicon Douglas Sequeira 31 {{flagicon Michael Barrantes

Former players

For a full list of former Deportive Saprissa players, please see here.

Non-playing staff

Name	Role
Victor Badilla	Vice President
Mario Jiménez	Commercial Manager
Jeaustin Campos	Head Coach
Randall Row	Assistant Coach
Ronald González	Assistant Coach
Pier Luigi Morera	Head Athletic Trainer
Roger Mora	Goalkeeping coach
Willy Gálvez	Team Physician

Former coaches

1950s - 1960s Francisco García Eduardo Viso Abella Otto Pedro Bumbell Carlos Peucelle Alfredo Piedra José Ramos Mario Cordero Gavelo Conejo 1970s Marvin Rodríguez Geovanny Rodríguez Guillermo Hernández Jozef Karel 1980s Giovanny Rodríguez Raúl Betancourt Josef Bouška Odir Jaques

1990s Alexandre Guimaraes Carlos Linaris Luis García Carlos Watson Julio César Cortés Jorge Mario Olguín Valdeir Vieira 2000s to date Manuel Keosseián Hernán Medford Jeaustin Campos

Honours

National

• Primera División de Costa Rica championships (28) :
• * 1952-53, 1953-54, 1957-58, 1962-63, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70, 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78, 1982-83, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1997-98, 1998-99, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 Apertura, 2007-08 Clausura, Invierno 2008
• Costa Rican Short Championships (8) :
• *1997-98 Clausura, 1998-99 Apertura, 1998-99 Clausura, 2003-04 Apertura, 2005-06 Apertura, 2005-06 Clausura, 2006-07 Apertura, 2006-07 Clausura

International

• FIFA Club World Cup
• *Third place (1) : 2005
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup
• *Winners (3) : 1993, 1995, 2005
• * Runners-up (4) : 1970, 1973, 2004, 2008
• Copa Interclubes UNCAF
• *Winners (5) : 1972, 1973, 1978, 1998, 2003
• *Runners-up (7) : 1971, 1974, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2007
• Interamerican Cup
• *Runners-up(1) : 1993, 1995
• CONCACAF Central American Champions
• *Winners(1) : 1970
• Copa Ricard
• *Runners-up (1) : 2008
• US Camel Cup
• *Winners (1) : 1995

See also

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup and Champions League records and statistics

References

1. Club World Ranking Top 350 (1st September 2007 - 31st August 2008)
2. Deportivo Saprissa - Sitio Oficial del Monstruo Morado