Hugo Tassara

Hugo Tassara
	Tassara in 1957
Personal information
Full name	Hugo Tassara Olivares
Date of birth	14 February 1924
Place of birth	Iquique, Chile
Date of death	12 February 2016 (aged 91)
Place of death	Alajuela, Costa Rica
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Tocopilla (city team)
	María Elena (city team)
	Copiapó (city team)
Senior career*
Years	Team
	Universidad de Chile
Managerial career
1945–1946	Universidad de Chile (youth)
1955	Colo-Colo (youth)
1956	Colo-Colo (fitness coach)
1957–1958	Colo-Colo
1959–1960	Alajuelense
1960	Costa Rica
1961–1962	Palestino
1963	Colo-Colo
1964	Alajuelense
1965	Colo-Colo
1966	Defensor Arica
1967–1968	Alajuelense
1969	Herediano
1972–1973	Panama
1974	Alajuelense
1975	Saprissa (fitness coach)
1975	Universidad de Chile
1979	Cartaginés
1980	Everton
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hugo Tassara Olivares (14 February 1924 – 12 February 2016) was a Chilean football manager.

Career

Born in Iquique, Chile,^[1] Tassara had a short career as a football goalkeeper, playing for the teams of Tocopilla, María Elena and Copiapó. At professional level, he was a substitute of Mario Ibáñez for three years in Universidad de Chile. Next, he worked in the youth system of the club and also in the Colo-Colo youth system in 1955.^[2]

After managing Colo-Colo in his country of birth, winning two titles in 1958 and 1963,^[1] Tassara came to Costa Rica in 1959, joining Alajuelense and winning two consecutive titles in 1959 and 1960. He coached the same team in three other steps, in addition to Herediano in 1969 and Cartaginés in 1979.^[2]

He coached the Costa Rica national team and the Panama national team.^[3]^[4] He has been one of the five Chileans who have managed the Panama national team along with Óscar Rendoll Gómez (1946–47/1951–52), Óscar Suman (1949), Néstor Valdés (1969–1970) and Renato Panay (1976–1977).^[5]

He was the first Chilean manager to work in the Peruvian top division, before José Tadormina, Ramón Estay, among others.^[6]

In the 1990s and 2000s, he worked as Director of the Herediano youth system.^[2]

Other works

In addition to work as a football coach, he also was a fitness coach, instructor, author, normal teacher, PE teacher, sport journalist, football commentator and painter. As a fitness coach, he worked in Colo-Colo and Saprissa.^[2]

He graduated as a normal teacher in Copiapó, Chile, and next he studied physical education, beginning his teaching career in María Elena in 1952. As a football coach, he started football academies in Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Perú, Venezuela and Guatemala, adding TV instructive programs. In addition, he recorded brief technical lessons for the Costa Rican TV and radio media.^[2]

Always in Costa Rica, he worked as a columnist and TV football commentator for local games and FIFA World Cups since 1970, earning the award "Best Football Commentator" in 1993. Previously in Chile, he had worked as a radio sports journalist and became the first Chilean play-by-play commentator after conveying the match Chile versus Switzerland in the 1962 FIFA World Cup.^[2]

As an author, he published books focused in teaching for kids such as Una Manera de Pensar el Fútbol (A Way to Plan Football), Realidad y Fantasía del Fútbol Total (Reality and Fantasy of Total Football), Guía Práctica del Fútbol (Football Practical Guide), Fútbol Total (Total Football), Entrenamiento del Niño Futbolista (Football Kid Training) and Fútbol Simplemente (Just Football).^[2]

Personal life

Tassara liked to live in Costa Rica because of calm of the country and the behavior of the native people. His children were born in Chile, but they naturalized Costa Rican.^[2]

Honours

Colo-Colo

Copa Chile: 1958
Primera División de Chile: 1963

Alajuelense

Primera División de Costa Rica: 1959, 1960
Campeón de Campeones de Costa Rica: 1967^[es]

Individual

Best Football Commentator of Costa Rica: 1993^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b "Hugo Tassara Olivares". Tarapacá en el Mundo (in Spanish). 5 January 2020. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Calvo, Rodrigo (14 February 2016). "Murió Hugo Tassara, apóstol de la enseñanza en el fútbol". buzonderodrigo.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 August 2022.
^ "Memoria Nortina — Hugo Tassara Olivares" (in Spanish). Memoria Nortina. Archived from the original on 23 February 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
^ Grupo Copesa (13 February 2016). "Fallece Hugo Tassara, ex DT campeón con Colo Colo". latercera.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
^ Ampa, Rebeca; Schiappacasse, Aldo (13 June 2016). "EyN: Los chilenos que futbolizaron Panamá". www.economiaynegocios.cl (in Spanish). El Mercurio. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
^ Behr, Raúl (6 June 2013). "Cero ecuatorianos". De Chalaca (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 February 2023.

[tarapaca-1] "Hugo Tassara Olivares". Tarapacá en el Mundo (in Spanish). 5 January 2020. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2022.

[rodrigo-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Calvo, Rodrigo (14 February 2016). "Murió Hugo Tassara, apóstol de la enseñanza en el fútbol". buzonderodrigo.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 August 2022.

[3] "Memoria Nortina — Hugo Tassara Olivares" (in Spanish). Memoria Nortina. Archived from the original on 23 February 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.

[4] Grupo Copesa (13 February 2016). "Fallece Hugo Tassara, ex DT campeón con Colo Colo". latercera.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2016.

[5] Ampa, Rebeca; Schiappacasse, Aldo (13 June 2016). "EyN: Los chilenos que futbolizaron Panamá". www.economiaynegocios.cl (in Spanish). El Mercurio. Retrieved 15 September 2022.

[6] Behr, Raúl (6 June 2013). "Cero ecuatorianos". De Chalaca (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 February 2023.

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