The Costa Rican men’s soccer team chose Colombian coach Luis Fernando Suárez as the manager who would guide them to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Costa Rican Football Federation made official on Monday morning, through a press release, that Suárez will occupy the position until December 2022, with the mission of taking the Ticos to the World Cup in Qatar.
“Suárez is an experienced strategist, with 27 years of experience in the world of football and two World Cup participations in two different Confederations such as Conmebol (Ecuador in the 2006 World Cup) and Concacaf (with Honduras, in 2014). That was a fundamental element for our choice,” the statement said.
Suarez, 61, left Atlético Bucaramanga this weekend in his country, a club he joined in February this year.
The Colombian will replace Ronald González, who was dismissed two weeks ago after accumulating 11 games without victories, 10 of them in class A games. The losing streak was equaled by only nine other teams in the world.
The first challenge for the new helmsman will be the Concacaf Gold Cup, which will begin on July 10. In this tournament the Ticos will face Suriname, Jamaica and a rival yet to be defined in the first round.
Later, in September, the World Cup qualifying round will start with a FIFA date in which three games will be played.
Suárez would have been chosen ahead of the Tico Alexandre Guimaraes and the Venezuelan Rafael Dudamel, whom the press placed as the other members of the shortlist of candidates.
The last Colombian who led Costa Rica was Jorge Luis Pinto, who led the team to the quarterfinals of Brazil-2014, the best result of the Ticos in a World Cup.
