Paulo Wanchope

Derby County

Born in Heredia, Wanchope began his career with CS Herediano moving to England to play with Derby County along with fellow Costa Rican Mauricio Solís on 27 March 1997. He cost Derby £600,000.^[5]

Wanchope marked his debut for Derby on 5 April 1997 with a memorable goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford, beating four United players before slotting past Peter Schmeichel during a 3–2 win – the goal was later voted the greatest in the club's history by the Derby fans as part of the club's 125th Anniversary Celebrations.^[6]

He scored 13 league goals in 1997–98 as Derby finished ninth – their highest finish since 1989 – and helped them go one better in 1998–99 when his nine goals that season helped the Rams finish eighth.

After scoring 28 goals in 83 games within two seasons for Derby, Wanchope was sold to West Ham United for £3.5 million on 16 July 1999.

West Ham United

Wanchope made his debut for West Ham on 28 July 1999, at Upton Park, against Heerenveen in the Intertoto Cup.^[7] His first West Ham goal came on 4 August 1999 in the away leg of the same tie.^[8] He scored 15 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions; his final game coming on 14 May 2000, at home to Leeds United.^[9] During his one year at Upton Park Wanchope formed a deadly partnership with Paolo Di Canio, the two scored a combined 31 league goals in the 1999–2000 season, and West Ham finished 9th in the Premier League, putting them in the top nine for the third consecutive season.He was eventually sold to Manchester City at the start of the 2000–01 season, following the arrivals of Davor Šuker and Frédéric Kanouté, for a fee of £3.65million.

Manchester City

On 23 August 2000 he scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 win against Sunderland.^[10]Wanchope earned a starting position at Manchester City, but was unable to help them avoid immediate relegation back to Division One at the end of the 2000–01 season, despite scoring nine league goals.

The following season was a mixed one for Wanchope. Despite missing large chunks of it through injury, he still managed 12 goals in just 15 games and often showed his best form. After City's return to the top flight as Division One champions he played almost no part, with injury once again keeping him on the sidelines – he missed the entire 2002–03 season.

However, he returned to play a vital part at the end of 2003–04 and scored some vital goals to help avoid relegation, including the winning goal against Newcastle United, which effectively made City safe. He managed six goals from 22 league games that campaign.^[11]

Post-Premier League

In August 2004, Wanchope was sold to Málaga CF of the Spanish La Liga for £500,000. He played 25 games for the club, scoring six goals.^[12]

In 2005, ESPN declared Wanchope's goal against Numancia the best of the entire 2004–05 Spanish First Division. In 2006, following the World Cup in Germany and short but successful stints with Al-Gharafa in Qatar and Herediano in his native Costa Rica, he signed with Argentine club Rosario Central,^[13] scoring five goals in 14 games.

On 29 December 2006, J1 League club FC Tokyo announced the acquisition of Wanchope on a transfer from Rosario Central. Along with local prospect Sota Hirayama, Wanchope allowed FC Tokyo to utilise a pair of large (190 cm+) strikers. He was released by FC Tokyo and subsequently signed a one-year deal with MLS team Chicago Fire.^[14]

Retirement

On 16 November 2007, after a 13-year career in football, Wanchope decided to put an end to his career,^[15] primarily based on how his old knee injury was affecting his performance on the field, the same injury that made him lose large parts of his career with Manchester City, making him unable to reach his best physical shape, an argument that was commonly criticized by the press during recent years in every club he played for. At his retirement press conference he manifested his interest in becoming a professional coach, looking forward to accomplishing it in England.^[16]

He was a member of Costa Rica's youth national teams, playing in the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship finals in Qatar.^[17]

Wanchope would become hugely important to the senior Costa Rica national team, after making his debut in an October 1996 friendly match against Venezuela^[18] and playing for the team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup^[17] and several Gold Cups. On 8 October 2005, Wanchope became the all-time leading goal scorer for Los Ticos when he scored the first goal in a home win over the USA in the qualifying match that sent Los Ticos to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Wanchope has twenty plus World Cup qualifier goals to his name.

On 9 June 2006, he scored twice in the opening game of the 2006 World Cup, a 4–2 loss to Germany. These two goals made Wanchope the inaugural Costa Rican to score twice in one World Cup match, and put him alongside Rónald Gómez as the sole Costa Ricans ever to score more than one World Cup goal.^[19] After the defeat to Germany, Costa Rica were defeated by both Ecuador and Poland. Thus Costa Rica finished last in their group and failed to qualify for the second round. Wanchope played his last game for his country in January 2008 when Sweden had come to visit Costa Rica. He played 25 minutes and then he was substituted.

He managed Club Sport Herediano from 2008 to 2009. He resigned citing that the team's performance was low, and that he wanted to further his studies in England.^[20] Having left Herediano, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the administration of the club.^[21]

Wanchope became an assistant to the Costa Rica national team coach, Jorge Luis Pinto.^[22] Upon Pinto's departure after the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Wanchope took over as interim national team coach.

In September 2014, he won the Copa Centroamericana with the Costa Rica national football team.^[23] On 31 January 2015, he was officially named as national team coach.^[24]

On 12 August 2015, Wanchope resigned as manager of Costa Rica's national team following a post-match brawl with a steward.^[25]

Wanchope is a son of Costa Rican former international striker Vicente Wanchope and Patricia Watson and both his brothers, Javier and Carlos,^[26] also played for the national team. He is married to Brenda Carballo and they have a son and daughter.^[27] He is of Jamaican descent.^[28]

Club

International

Scores and results list Costa Rica's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Wanchope goal.^[29]

List of international goals scored by Paulo Wanchope

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	1 December 1996	San José, Costa Rica	United States		2–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	21 December 1996	Cartago, Costa Rica	Trinidad and Tobago		2–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
3
4	9 March 1997	San José, Costa Rica	Cameroon		5–0	Friendly
5
6
7	11 May 1997	San José, Costa Rica	Jamaica		3–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
8
9	9 November 1997	Mexico DF, Mexico	Mexico		3–3	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
10	4 February 1998	Oakland, United States	Cuba		7–2	1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup
11
12
13
14	17 March 1999	San José, Costa Rica	Belize		7–0	1999 UNCAF Nations Cup
15	28 March 1999	San José, Costa Rica	El Salvador		4–0	1999 UNCAF Nations Cup
16	17 February 2000	Los Angeles, United States	South Korea		2–2	2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup
17	20 February 2000	San Diego, United States	Trinidad and Tobago		1–2	2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup (goal contested with W Sunsing[30][31])
18	1 July 2000	Alajuela, Costa Rica	Panama		5–1	Friendly
19	9 July 2000	San José, Costa Rica	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines		7–1	Friendly
20
21	15 August 2000	Alajuela, Costa Rica	Guatemala		2–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
22
23	6 January 2001	Miami, United States	Guatemala		5–2	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
24	28 March 2001	Alajuela, Costa Rica	Trinidad and Tobago		3–0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
25
26	20 June 2001	Alajuela, Costa Rica	Jamaica		2–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
27	1 July 2001	Tegucigalpa, Honduras	Honduras		3–2	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
28	13 July 2001	Medellín, Colombia	Honduras		1–0	2001 Copa América
29	16 July 2001	Medellín, Colombia	Uruguay		1–1	2001 Copa América
30	19 July 2001	Medellín, Colombia	Bolivia		4–0	2001 Copa América
31
32	22 July 2001	Armenia, Colombia	Uruguay		1–2	2001 Copa América
33	30 January 2002	Pasadena, United States	South Korea		3–1	2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup
34
35	13 June 2002	Suwon, South Korea	Brazil		2–5	2002 FIFA World Cup
36	8 September 2004	San José, Costa Rica	Canada		1–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
37	9 October 2004	San José, Costa Rica	Guatemala		5–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
38
39
40	13 October 2004	Edmonton, Canada	Canada		3–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
41	9 February 2005	San José, Costa Rica	Mexico		1–2	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
42	8 June 2005	San José, Costa Rica	Guatemala		3–2	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
43	8 October 2005	San José, Costa Rica	United States		3–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
44	9 June 2006	Munich, Germany	Germany		2–4	2006 FIFA World Cup
45

Managerial

As of match played 11 January 2024

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Herediano		1 April 2008	10 March 2009	44	19	13	12	60	47	+13	043.18
Costa Rica		25 July 2014	12 August 2015	15	4	7	4	24	21	+3	026.67
C.S. Cartaginés		1 July 2018	14 September 2018	10	1	6	3	11	13	−2	010.00
Herediano		14 September 2018	21 October 2018	10	4	1	5	10	12	−2	040.00
Pérez Zeledón		2 February 2021	18 August 2021	23	5	12	6	22	30	−8	021.74
C.S. Cartaginés		26 October 2022	6 October 2023	43	22	8	13	74	60	+14	051.16
Total				145	55	47	43	201	183	+18	037.93

Player

West Ham United

• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999^[32]

Manchester City

• Football League First Division: 2001–02^[33]

Costa Rica

• UNCAF Nations Cup: 1999^[34]

Individual awards

• Premier League Player of the Month: October 1997^[35]

Manager

Costa Rica

• Copa Centroamericana: 2014^[36]

Cartaginés

• Costa Rican Cup: 2022^[37]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paulo Wanchope.

• Paulo Wanchope at National-Football-Teams.com
• Paulo Wanchope at Soccerbase
• Paulo Wanchope at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)