Mauricio Montero

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Monteroand the second or maternal family name is Chinchilla.

Mauricio Montero

Personal information
Full name	Mauricio Antonio de la Trinidad Montero Chinchilla
Date of birth	(1963-10-19) 19 October 1963 (age 60)
Place of birth	Grecia, Costa Rica, Costa Rica
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	COFUTPA (Manager)
Youth career
	Ramonense
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1981–1987	Ramonense	148	(8)
1987–1998	Alajuelense	408	(21)
Total		556	(27)
International career
1985–1996	Costa Rica	56	(3)
Managerial career
2001	Belén (assistant)
2003–2004	Municipal Grecia
2004–2005	Alajuelense (assistant)
2005–2007	Municipal Grecia
2007–2008	Carmelita
2010–2013	Alajuelense (assistant)
2013–2018	Alajuelense (youth)
2017	Alajuelense (assistant)
2019	Once de Abril
2020–2021	Juventud Escazuceña
2021	Marineros
2022	Jicaral
2022	Guanacasteca (assistant)
2022–	COFUTPA
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mauricio Antonio Montero Chinchilla (born 19 October 1963 in Costa Rica ^[1] ) is a retired Costa Rican footballer and current manager of COFUTPA.

Nicknamed El Chunche (The Thing), ^a Montero is widely known for his humble origins, which molded his behavior and charisma. ^[2] His colloquial lexicon includes phrases such as chollarse las nalgas ("bust your buttocks"), which he uses as his motto to denote effort. ^[3]

Playing career

Club

Montero came through the youth ranks of Ramonense and debuted for the senior team in 1980. He moved to Alajuelense in 1987 and retired on 15 September 1998 after a game against Atlético Bucaramanga. ^[4] During that match, Alajuelense retired his #20 jersey that he had used throughout his tenure with the club. Montero, however, did not exclusively use #20 during his Alajuelense tenure as he used #12 on occasion between 1990 and 1991, and #3 (belonging to fellow defender Hernán Fernando Sossa) at least once during the 1990–91 season—Montero himself mentioned that he did this out of need due to the actual #20 shirts not being readily available. He totalled 556 league games, ^[5] 408 of them for Alajuelense. ^[6]

The nickname El Chunche ('The thing') comes from his answer to what he would buy with a prize he had won. He answered 'Voy a comprarme un chunche' ('I will buy a thing') meaning he would like to buy a vehicle (Costa Ricans use the word "chunche" to refer to pretty much anything). He is one of the most charismatic soccer players in Costa Rica. He is the creator of El tiro del zoncho (the vulture shot), a play in which Montero headed to goal line, dribbled goalkeeper and shot powerfully above large pole of goal line approximately by 6 feet length from scoring line, the term derives of exaggeration popular told happening that the ball smashed a vulture, bringing it to ground.

International

Nicknamed El Chunche, ('The Thing'), Montero made his debut for Costa Rica in 1985 and was part of the squad, that played in the 1990 FIFA World Cup held in Italy, and featured in all four games played. ^[7] The defender collected 56 caps, scoring 3 goals ^[8] He also represented his country at the 1991 and 1995 UNCAF Nations Cups as well as at the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup. ^[9]

He played his final international on June 5, 1996 against Canada.

International goals

Scores and results list Costa Rica's goal tally first. ^[10]

N.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	24 November 1991	Irving Stadium, Dallas, United States	United States	1–1	1–1	Friendly match
2.	27 May 1992	Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, San José, Costa Rica	Ecuador		2–1	Friendly match
3.	4 March 1992	Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, San José, Costa Rica	El Salvador	1–0	2–0	Friendly match

Managerial career

A few years after his retirement, Montero became assistant to manager Oscar Ramírez at Belén, ^[11] then coach with Municipal Grecia in the second division. ^{[12] [13]} After two seasons there, he became assistant head coach in his beloved team, Alajuelense and gained the CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 2004 and the national tournament in 2005. He was the coach of Carmelita from 2007 ^[14] to October 2008. ^[15] He returned to Alajuelense to become the first coach assistant, again under Oscar Ramírez' management. ^[4] He was dismissed in August 2013 ^[16] and put in charge of the club's U-15 team. ^[17] In August 2017, Montero was promoted back to the first team as assistant coach to newly hired manager Wílmer López. ^[18] Alongside this position, Montero still acted as coach for the club's U17 team. He was only in that role on the first team for just under two months before another shake-up at the end of October 2017, and Montero returned to coaching only the club's U17 team. ^{[19] [20]} In 2019, Montero became the coach of Alajuelense's travel team, Once de Abril. ^[21]

Ahead of the 2020-21 season, Montero became coach of Juventud Escazuceña. ^[22] At the end of December 2021, it was confirmed that Montero would be the coach of Jicaral from the new year. ^[23] After just three months, Montero was sacked in March 2022 after a poor run, with just 2 wins in 10 games. ^[24] Just over a month later, he was hired as an assistant coach for Guanacasteca. ^[25]

In June 2022, Montero was announced as the new coach for COFUTPA. ^[26]

Personal life

Montero is married to Luxinia Ávila and they have three children. ^[27]

He was a commentator for Canal 7 Teletica Deportes during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. ^[28]

Notes

^a In Central American Spanish, the word chunche (IPA: ['tʃuntʃe] ) refers to an "object whose name is unknown or not willing to be mentioned". ^[29]

References

1. "Figuras del ayer: Mauricio Montero". UNAFUT. 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
2. "Humilde y carismático". La Nación (in Spanish). 15 September 1998. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
3. Ramírez, Wender (29 April 2021). "´Chunche` en Marineros: "Si se van a chollar las nalgas, vamos a andar bien"". El Mundo CR (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 January 2022.
4. El cuerpo técnico de la Liga en datos Archived 2014-12-07 at the Wayback Machine - Nación (in Spanish)
5. Géiner Segura está en el umbral de un histórico club Archived 2015-01-04 at the Wayback Machine - Nación (in Spanish)
6. Los caudillos de la alineación rojinegra Archived 2016-08-26 at the Wayback Machine - UNAFUT (in Spanish)
7. Mauricio Montero – FIFA competition record (archived)
8. Appearances for Costa Rica National Team Archived 2009-07-06 at the Wayback Machine - RSSSF
9. CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 1991 - Full Details Archived 2013-10-16 at the Wayback Machine - RSSSF
10. Mauricio Antonio Montero - International Appearances
11. Binomio mundialista•Mauricio Montero y Óscar Ramírez dirigen a Belén - Nación (in Spanish)
12. Cartagena adelante - Nación (in Spanish)
13. Grecia abandona el sótano - Nación (in Spanish)
14. Carmelita confirma a Mauricio Montero como su técnico - Nación (in Spanish)
15. Mauricio Montero fuera de Carmelita - Nación (in Spanish)
16. Alajuelense apartó del banquillo a Mauricio "Chunche" Montero - Al Día (in Spanish)
17. Mauricio Montero entrenará al equipo Sub-15 de Alajuelense - Nación (in Spanish)
18. Wilmer López nuevo técnico del Alajuela de Costa Rica, tiempo.hn, 22 August 2017
19. Mauricio “Chunche” Montero queda fuera del cuerpo técnico de la Liga, larepublica.net, 31 October 2017
20. Mauricio Montero no seguirá como asistente técnico de Wílmer López, monumental.co.cr, 31 October 2017
21. Once abril llega a la cima de su grupo, luisenriquebolanos.com, 10 February 2019
22. ‘Chunche’ Montero explica objetivo de alianza La Liga- Escazuceña, teletica.com, 7 October 2020
23. Mauricio “El Chunche” Montero es el nuevo entrenador de Jicaral Sercoba, observador.cr, 21 December 2021
24. Mauricio Montero deja de ser técnico de Jicara, hoyeneldeportecr.com, 10 March 2022
25. 📄Comunicado Oficial:, facebook.com, 29 April 2022
26. Cofutpa tiene el agrado de comunicar que se ha llegado a un..., facebook.com, 22 June 2022
27. Vla y Chunche Muy clásicos•Desde 1991, Mauricio Montero y Vladimir Quesada iden fuerzas en finales del Futbol Nacional - Nación (in Spanish)
28. Mauricio ‘Chunche’ Montero va para Brasil y Wálter “Paté” Centeno para canal 7 - Nación (in Spanish)
29. "chunche | Diccionario de la lengua española". «Diccionario de la lengua española» - Edición del Tricentenario (in Spanish). Royal Spanish Academy . Retrieved 16 January 2022.

External links

• Mauricio Montero at National-Football-Teams.com