When I first came to Costa Rica, I knew next to nothing about our national sport of fútbol. I called it soccer, because that is what we called it up north. We were so clueless that I still recall playing fútbol in my 8th grade gym class as if it were American football—knocking each other to the ground and using our hands to tackle.
There was one guy in my class who was from a military family and had spent the first 12 years of his life in Germany. It was like Messi or Pelé playing against a bunch of midgets. Everybody wanted to be on his team, and he would typically dribble through everyone for three or four goals in a 40-minute class.
I grew up playing the typical U.S.-based sports and, once my playing days were over, became an avid spectator. For me, the sports aligned with the seasons. Spring and summer meant baseball, autumn was football, and winter was for basketball or hockey.
The seasons began to overlap as sport became a multi-billion-dollar business worldwide; we now see the American football Super Bowl played in February, the NBA and NHL finals extending into June, and the baseball World Series stretching into early November.
Fútbol has them all beat. There is no seasonal overlap because it is played year-round. Between club leagues, national teams, and exhibitions, there is barely an off-season. Most Tico sports fans I know are all-in, 24/7/365 when it comes to fútbol. While I am not so hardcore, I can now watch and follow the action on any fútbol pitch. I have only one favorite team, and it is La Sele—the Costa Rican Men’s National Team.
I got to Costa Rica only a few months after the first-ever appearance by La Sele in a World Cup in 1990. That team stunned both Scotland and Sweden and advanced to the knockout round before losing to the Czechs. The highlight reel of Hernán Medford’s breakaway goal in the closing minutes to beat Sweden and advance was played over and over, and Tico fútbol fans enjoyed breathing the rarified air of a top-16 team worldwide.
The first game I recall watching all the way through was early the next year, in the Central American Cup, when La Sele demolished El Salvador 7-1. I was not able to objectively watch a game yet, and did not realize that the quality of play was not on a par with most teams in Europe and South America. Until 2014, La Sele rarely competed successfully with teams from those areas.
Then came the magic of the World Cup run, with wins over Uruguay, Italy, and Greece, before losing to the Netherlands on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals. It is not much of a stretch to say that the country virtually shut down for two hours for each of those games. If you are a sports fan living in Costa Rica, there is nothing quite like a gathering to watch La Sele in the World Cup.
The 2026 World Cup is just around the corner, and La Sele has only to win a four-team grouping that includes Nicaragua, Haiti, and Honduras in order to qualify for the Cup for the sixth time in seven tries this century. Though they started slowly, managing only a draw against an underdog Nica squad, and the same against Haiti they remain the favorite. I will be watching and cheering on the only fútbol team that gets me pumped up for a game. Vamos Sele!
