Francisco Maturana

Francisco Maturana

Personal information
Date of birth	February 15, 1949 (1949-02-15)
Place of birth	Quibdó, Colombia
Playing position	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1970–1980	Atlético Nacional
1981	Atlético Bucaramanga
1982	Deportes Tolima
National team
1981	Colombia	6	(0)
Teams managed
1986	Once Caldas
1987–1990	Atlético Nacional
1987–1990	Colombia
1990–1991	Real Valladolid
1992–1993	América de Cali
1993–1994	Colombia
1994	Atlético Madrid
1995–1997	Ecuador
1998	Millonarios
1999	Costa Rica
1999–2000	Peru
2001	Colombia
2002	Al-Hilal
2002–2003	Colombia
2004	Colón de Santa Fe
2007	Gimnasia La Plata
2011-	Al Nassr FC
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Francisco Maturana, also known as Pacho (born February 15, 1949 in Quibdó) is a Colombian ex-football player and later a successful football manager.

Career

Player

Born in Quibdó, Chocó, Francisco Maturana moved with his family at an early age to the city of Medellín. Here he played professional football while attending the University of Antioquia where he later obtained a degree in Dentistry. He began his professional career in 1970 at Atlético Nacional where he became a starting defender until 1980. During his time in Atlético Nacional he won two Colombian League Championships in 1973 and 1976. In 1981 he transferred to Atlético Bucaramanga and also played 6 matches with the Colombian National Team during the qualifying matches for the 1982 World Cup. In 1982 he played his last year with Deportes Tolima until he retired at the end of the season.

Manager

By motivation from Uruguyans Aníbal Ruíz and Luis Cubilla, he started managing Colombian team Once Caldas in 1986. The following year the Colombia Football Federation hired him to manage the national team's youth squad and then was quickly promoted to manage the Senior Squad to compete in the 1987 Copa América where they reached third place by beating the host Argentina. During this time, he was also hired to manage his former team Atlético Nacional. Then in 1989 he had his most successful year in his career. He led Atlético Nacional,composed of many Colombian legends, to win the Copa Libertadores for the first time for any Colombian club. Using Atlético Nacional players as a base for the National Team, he qualified the team to the 1990 World Cup after 28 years of absence. In December, he lost the Intercontinental Cup to AC Milan at the last minute of overtime. An upset to what would have been the perfect season. The following year he led Colombia to its best perfermance in World Cup competition by reaching the second round and losing to Cameroon.

After the World Cup, he was hired as coach of Spain's Real Valladolid. In 1993 he was voted as the South American coach of the year by El Pais and he was ranked third in Spanish Newspaper Marca's list of the worlds greatest managers.

He returned to Colombia in 1992. and got his team América de Cali champion of Colombia. In 1993 he got Colombia qualified for a second time in a row to a World Cup, with a historic triumph over Argentina in Buenos Aires by 5-0. That score made Colombia a surprising favorite for the 1994 World Cup, but the performance there was disappointing, as the team was eliminated in the first round, being defeated by such teams as the United States and Romania.

He had later a brief stint as coach of Atlético Madrid and in 1995 he was hired as the trainer of Ecuador National Football Team. After failing to get Ecuador qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he returned to Colombia to coach Millonarios.

In 1999 he briefly coached Costa Rica, and in 2000 he also coached for a few months Peru. He would later return to coach Colombia for the 2001 Copa América, winning it for the first time. His latest jobs as a coach would include Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal, where he won the domestic league and the Asian Champions League and a new stint for Colombia and Argentina's Colón de Santa Fe.

Francisco Maturana is considered to be one of the greatest South American coaches of all time and a legend of the Colombian game.

He worked for FIFA as a technical adviser where he has hold various coaching seminars around the world with the likes of Fabio Capello and Cesar Menotti.

In April 2007 Maturana accepted an offer from Argentine Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata. He directed his first game on April 22, 2007, the derby against Estudiantes de La Plata. In August 2007 Maturana ended his relationship with Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata

As of February 1 he took up the position of Head Coach of Trinidad and Tobago's National Team. His first game in charge was against Guadeloupe on February 6 at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad. However on April 8, 2009 Maturana was sacked as manager of Trinidad and Tobago.

Honours

Player

• Copa Mustang (2): 1973, 1976 with Atlético Nacional

Manager

• Copa Libertadores (1): 1989 with Atlético Nacional
• Copa Mustang (1): 1992 with América de Cali
• Copa América (1): 2001 with Colombia
• Saudi Premier League (1): 2002 with Al-Hilal
• World Cup Qualification (2): 1990, 1994 World Cup with Colombia

References

Awards
Preceded by Roberto Fleitas	Copa Libertadores winning managers 1989	Succeeded by Luis Cubilla
Preceded by Telê Santana	South American Coach of the Year 1993	Succeeded by Carlos Bianchi