Full name | Deportivo Saprissa, SAD |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | La S (The "S") El Glorioso Monstruo Morado |
Founded | 16 July 1935; 81 years ago |
Ground | Estadio Ricardo Saprissa |
Capacity | 23,112 |
Owner | Horizonte Morado |
Chairman | Juan Carlos Rojas Callán |
Manager | Carlos Watson |
League | Costa Rican Primera División |
Verano 2015 | 1st (Semifinals) |
Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is located in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple (burgundy) and white. The club was founded in 1935 and has competed in the Costa Rican first division since 1949. The name of the team comes from one of the club's main founders, Ricardo Saprissa. One of the most popular nicknames for the team El Monstruo Morado (The Purple Monster) can be traced back to 1987, when the Costa Rican newspaper Diario Extra gave the team the nickname during a derby, because of the club's enormous following. A reporter commented that the sea of fans in the stands at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá in Tibás wearing purple, and the tremendous noise they were generating, made him feel like he was "in the presence of a thousand headed monster". Saprissa immediately adopted the nickname El Monstruo Morado.
Saprissa won 33 Primera División de Costa Rica championships, including six consecutive national titles in the 70s. It stands as one of the more successful teams in the CONCACAF region as well, having won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup three times – in 1993, 1995, and 2005. Saprissa has also won five Central American crowns in 1972, 1973, 1978, 1998, and 2003.
For the period 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008 the club was ranked the 106th best team in the world by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, an organization recognized by FIFA.