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| Full name | Deportivo Saprissa, SAD | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Los Morados (The Purple Ones) El Monstruo (The Monster) La S (The S) El Glorioso (The Glorious) El Sapri (The Sapri) Rey de Copas (King of Cups) | ||
| Founded | 16 July 1935; 88 years | ||
| Ground | Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá | ||
| Capacity | 23,112 | ||
| Owner | Horizonte Morado | ||
| Chairman | Juan Carlos Rojas Callán | ||
| Manager | Ángel Luis Catalina | ||
| Coach | José Giacone | ||
| League | Liga Promerica | ||
| Apertura 2023 | 1st (champions) | ||
| Website | http://www.deportivosaprissa.com/ | ||
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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. Their colours are burgundy and white. It is the main team representing the capital, but with the distinction of being massively followed throughout the whole country and overseas. The club was founded in 1935 and has competed in the Costa Rican first division since 1949. The name of the team comes from one of the club's main founders, Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. One of the most popular nicknames for the team 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 a derby, because of the club's enormous following. A reporter 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. It remains the most lauded football team in the whole region.
Saprissa has won 40 Primera División de Costa Rica championships, including six consecutive national titles in the 70s. It stands as one of the more successful teams in the CONCACAF region as well, having won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup three times – in 1993, 1995, and 2005. Saprissa has also won five Central American crowns in 1972, 1973, 1978, 1998, and 2003.
For the period 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008 the club was ranked the 106th best team in the world by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, an organization recognized by FIFA.[1]
Saprissa has regularly appeared in the CONCACAF Champions Cup finals in recent decades, with three first-place finishes and four runners-up finishes. One of the club's most notable moments came in 2005 when Saprissa became the second club in CONCACAF to finish third in the FIFA Club World Cup together with the Mexican club Necaxa who accomplished it in 2000 and were joined by two more Mexican clubs, in 2012 by C.F. Monterrey and in 2017 by C.F Pachuca.
The club was chosen by the IFFHS as the CONCACAF team of the 20th Century.[2] This event gave Saprissa worldwide recognition. Their main partner is a Costa Rican Investment Consortium named Horizonte Morado (Purple Horizon), composed mainly of Juan Carlos Rojas Callán, Edgar Zurcher, and Televisora de Costa Rica.
- ^ The last IFFHS World Club ranking of 16 January 2018 has the club in 250th place. "Club World Ranking Top 350 (1 September 2007 – 31 August 2008)". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
- ^ "Central and North America's club of the Century". IFFHS official website. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2009.