Paulo Wanchope

At 47 years old, Paulo Wanchope has this physical status:

Paulo César Wanchope Watson (Spanish pronunciation: [pawlo want [wope]; born 31 July 1976) is a Costa Rican former professional footballer and former head coach of Costa Rica's national football team.

Wanchope is the second most prolific goalscorer on the Costa Rica national football team, behind Rolando Fonseca with 45 goals in 73 international matches. Wanchope, who scored against Brazil in 2002 and a brace against Germany in 2006, is Costa Rica's top goalscorer, a record he shares with Rónald Gómez.

Personal life

Wanchope is the son of Costa Rican former international striker Vicente Wanchope and Patricia Watson, and Javier and Carlos Watson, as well as his siblings, competed for the national team. He and Brenda Carballo are married, and they have a son and daughter.

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Club career

Wanchope, a native of Heredia, started his career with CS Herediano and then went to England to play with Derby County with fellow Costa Rican Mauricio Sola on March 27, 1997. He cost Derby £600,000.

Wanchope scored at Old Trafford on April 5th, beating four United players before slotting past Peter Schmeichel in a 3–2 victory later that week as part of the club's 125th Anniversary Celebrations.

In 1997–98, he scored 13 league goals as Derby finished ninth, their highest finish since 1989, and aided the Rams in their 1998–99 campaign, where he finished eighth.

Wanchope was sold to West Ham United for £3.5 million on July 16, 1999, after scoring 28 goals in 83 games in a two-year tenure for Derby.

In the Intertoto Cup, Wanchope made his West Ham debut against Heerenveen on July 28, 1999. In the away leg of the same tie, he scored his first West Ham goal on August 4, 1999. He has scored 15 goals in 47 appearances in all sports; his last game came on May 14th, 2000 at home to Leeds United. During his one-year at Upton Park Wanchope, he made a deadly team with Paolo Di Canio in the 1999–2000 season, and West Ham finished ninth in the Premier League, placing them in the top ten for the third straight season. Following the arrivals of Davor uker and Frédéric Kanouté, he was eventually sold to Manchester City at the start of the 2000-01 season for £3.65 million.

In a 4–2 victory over Sunderland on August 23, 2000, he scored a hat-trick. Wanchope earned a starting position at Manchester City, but they were unable to help them avoid immediate relegation to Division One at the end of the 2000–01 season, despite scoring nine league goals.

Wanchope's following season was a mixed one. Despite missing significant amounts of it due to injuries, he still scored 12 goals in just 15 games and displayed his best form in those situations. He played virtually no part in the city's resurgent as Division One champions, but he missed the entire 2002–03 season due to injury once more.

However, he returned to play a vital role in 2003–04 and scored some key goals to help prevent relegation, including the winning goal against Newcastle United, which effectively made City safe. He had six goals in 22 league games during his career.

Wanchope was sold to Málaga CF of the Spanish La Liga in August 2004. He appeared in 25 games for the club, scoring six goals.

In 2005, ESPN named Wanchope's victory over Numancia the highest of the entire Spanish First Division. Following the World Cup in Germany and short but fruitful stints with Al-Gharafa in Qatar and Herediano in his native Costa Rica, he signed with Argentina's Rosario Central, scoring five goals in 14 games.

FC Tokyo, a J1 League club, announced the signing of Wanchope on a transfer from Rosario Central on December 29, 2006. FC Tokyo used two large (190 cm+) strikers, as well as local prospect Sota Hirayama. Wanchope. He was released by FC Tokyo and signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Fire, which was then a one-year contract.

Wanchope put an end to his career on the track, mainly because of a knee injury that had hampered him on the track, preventing him from reaching his best physical form during his time with Manchester City, which was often criticized by the media during recent years. At his retirement press conference, he expressed his enthusiasm for becoming a licensed coach and looking forward to doing it in England.

International career

He was a member of Costa Rica's youth national teams and competed in the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship finals in Qatar.

Since playing for the team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and several Gold Cups, Wanchope will become incredibly important to the senior Costa Rica national team. Wanchope made history by scoring his first goal in a home victory over the United States on October 8th, 2005. Wanchope has twenty plus World Cup qualifier goals to his name.

He scored twice in the first game of the 2006 World Cup, losing 4–2 to Germany on June 9, 2006. Wanchope was the first Costa Rican to score twice in a single World Cup match, and he joined Rónald Gómez as the sole Costa Ricans to score more than one World Cup goal. Costa Rica was defeated by both Ecuador and Poland after the loss to Germany. Costa Rica also finished last in their group and didn't qualify for the second round, despite that. In January 2008, Wanchope played his last game for his country when Sweden had arrived in Costa Rica. He played 25 minutes before being forced to be called out.

Managerial career

He coached Club Sport Herediano from 2008 to 2009. He resigned after arguing that the team's results were poor and that he wanted to continue his education in England. He left Herediano and voiced dissatisfaction with the club's leadership.

Jorge Luis Pinto, Costa Rica's national team coach, was assisting Wanchope. Wanchope took over as interim national team coach following Pinto's departure following the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

He won the Copa Centroamericana with the Costa Rica national football team in September 2014. He was officially appointed national team coach on January 31, 2015.

After a post-match brawl with a steward, Wanchope resigned as the head of Costa Rica's national team on August 12, 2015.

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