Ricardo Saprissa

He played several sports, excelling at football as well as in baseball, tennis, field hockey and polo. He joined the football club RCD Espanyol, and won the national cup competition (Copa del Rey) with the club in 1929 (along with the Catalan football championship in the same season). That made him the first Salvadorean soccer player to play professionally in Spain, and the only Salvadorean player to win a Copa del Rey. He also won Spain's field hockey national championship in 1924 and the national tennis doubles championship in 1923 and 1924. Since El Salvador did not participate in the Paris Summer Olympic Games in 1924, he represented Spain in men's and mixed doubles tennis and was on the Spanish team in the equivalent of the Davis Cup in 1930. He moved to San José, Costa Rica, in 1932.

Born in El Salvador to Spanish parents, Saprissa moved to Barcelona (his mother's home town) as a small child but returned to El Salvador aged 10 after the death of his father. After completing his studies in engineering, he returned to Spain in 1922 to play soccer.

Don Ricardo Saprissa died in Alajuela in August 1990. Among his distinctions, Saprissa was included in Costa Rica's Sports Gallery in 1969 and was named honorary president of Barcelona's Espanyol, Costa Rica's Orion, Gimnástica Española in Spain, and rival soccer team Alajuelense in Costa Rica. The Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá in San José is named for him.