Paulo Wanchope

Paulo César Wanchope Watson (born 31 July 1976), more commonly known as Paulo Wanchope, is a Costa Rican football coach and former professional footballer

As a player he was a striker who notably played in the Premier League for Derby County, West Ham United and Manchester City.

He also had spells in La Liga and Major League Soccer for Málaga and Chicago Fire as well as Herediano, Al-Gharafa, Rosario Central and FC Tokyo.

He was capped 73 times by Costa Rica, scoring 45 goals.

Wanchope is the second most prolific goalscorer in the history of the Costa Rica national football team, behind Rolando Fonseca, with 45 goals in 73 international matches.

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

Wanchope would become hugely important to the senior Costa Rica national team, after making his debut in an October 1996 friendly match against Venezuela and playing for the team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and several Gold Cups.

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.

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.

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.

Wanchope made his debut for West Ham on 28 July 1999, at Upton Park, against Heerenveen in the Intertoto Cup.

His first West Ham goal came on 4 August 1999 in the away leg of the same tie.

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 scored 15 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions; his final game coming on 14 May 2000, at home to Leeds United.

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.

On 23 August 2000 he scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 win against Sunderland.

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.

Having scored against Brazil in 2002 and a brace against Germany in 2006, Wanchope is the top goalscorer for Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup, a record he shares with Rónald Gómez.

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.

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.

In 2005, ESPN declared Wanchope's goal against Numancia the best of the entire 2004–05 Spanish First Division.

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.

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, 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.

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.

On 16 November 2007, after a 13-year career in football, Wanchope decided to put an end to his career, 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.

As he is the former head coach of the Costa Rica national football team with a spell in charge between 2014 and 2015.

He has also managed Herediano, Uruguay Coronado, CS Cartaginés and Pérez Zeledón.