Paulo Wanchope

Derby County

Born in Heredia, Wanchope began his career with Herediano moving to England to play with Derby County along with fellow Costa Rican Mauricio Solís on 27 March 1997. He cost Derby £600,000. Wanchope marked his debut for Derby on 5 April 1997 with a memorable goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford, beating four United players before slotting past Peter Schmeichel during a 3–2 win – the goal was later voted the greatest in the club's history by the Derby fans as part of the club's 125th Anniversary Celebrations. He scored 13 league goals in 1997–98 as Derby finished ninth – their highest finish since 1989 – and helped them go one better in 1998–99 when his nine goals that season helped the Rams finish eighth. After scoring 28 goals in 83 games within two seasons for Derby, Wanchope was sold to West Ham United for £3.5 million on 16 July 1999.

West Ham United

Wanchope made his debut for West Ham on 28 July 1999, at Upton Park, against Heerenveen in the Intertoto Cup. His first West Ham goal came on 4 August 1999 in the away leg of the same tie. He scored 15 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions; his final game coming on 14 May 2000, at home to Leeds United. During his one year at Upton Park Wanchope formed a deadly partnership with Paolo Di Canio, the two scored a combined 31 league goals in the 1999–2000 season, and West Ham finished 9th in the Premier League, putting them in the top nine for the third consecutive season. He was…

He was a member of Costa Rica's youth national teams, playing in the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship finals in Qatar. Wanchope would become hugely important to the senior Costa Rica national team, after making his debut in an October 1996 friendly match against Venezuela and playing for the team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and several Gold Cups. On 8 October 2005, Wanchope became the all-time leading goal scorer for Los Ticos when he scored the first goal in a home win over the USA in the qualifying match that sent Los Ticos to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Wanchope has twenty plus World Cup qualifier goals to his name. On 9 June 2006, he scored twice in the opening game of the 2006 World Cup, a 4–2 loss to Germany. These two goals made Wanchope the inaugural Costa Rican to score twice in one World Cup match, and put him alongside Rónald Gómez as the sole Costa Ricans ever to score more than one World Cup goal. After the defeat to Germany, Costa Rica were defeated by both Ecuador and Poland. Thus Costa Rica finished last in their group and failed to qualify for the second round. Wanchope played his last game for his country in January 2008 against Sweden. He played 25 minutes before being substituted.

He managed Herediano from 2008 to 2009. He resigned citing that the team's performance was low, and that he wanted to further his studies in England. Having left Herediano, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the administration of the club. Wanchope became an assistant to the Costa Rica national team coach, Jorge Luis Pinto. Upon Pinto's departure after the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Wanchope took over as interim national team coach. In September 2014, he won the Copa Centroamericana with the Costa Rica national football team. On 31 January 2015, he was officially named as national team coach. On 12 August 2015, Wanchope resigned as manager of Costa Rica's national team following a post-match brawl with a steward.

Wanchope is a son of Costa Rican former international striker Vicente Wanchope and Patricia Watson and both his brothers, Javier and Carlos, also played for the national team. He is married to Brenda Carballo and they have a son and daughter. He is of Jamaican descent.