Juan Carlos Osorio

Juan Carlos Osorio Arbeláez (born 8 June 1961) is a Colombian former footballer and manager of the Mexico national team. He is nicknamed El Recreacionista (The Recreationist in Spanish) due to his unorthodox training methods.^[1] Osorio began his playing career with Deportivo Pereira in 1982, and going on to play for Brazilian club Internacional in 1984 before returning to his native Colombia a year later to Once Caldas. He retired 1987 at the age of 26 due to injury.^[2]

Osorio held various assistant coaching jobs before beginning his managerial career in 2006 with Millonarios, moving abroad the following year to manage Major League Soccer teams Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls, leading the latter to their first conference title in 2008. He returned to Once Caldas in 2010 and lead them to a league title. He had an unsuccessful stint at Mexican club Puebla in 2011 before managing Atlético Nacional in 2012 and winning three league titles and three league cups with the club. Osorio moved to Brazilian club São Paulo in 2015. In October 2015 he was named as the new manager of the Mexico national team.

After playing for the University of New Haven from 1985 to 1986, he graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 1990 with a B.A. in Exercise Science. Osorio also holds a diploma in Science and Football from Liverpool John Moores University, a UEFA "A" coaching license from the English FA, and a coaching certificate from the Royal Netherlands Football Association.

Managerial career

Assistant

Juan Carlos Osorio began his coaching career during the 1998–1999 season joining the Staten Island Vipers as their assistant/conditioning coach. He would then join the MetroStars staff during the 2000 season under Octavio Zambrano. He would go on to join English club Manchester City as conditioning coach in June 2001.

Millonarios

In 2006, Osorio started his career as a manager when he was hired by Millonarios in his native Colombia. He led the Bogotá-based club to an 11-6-7 record during the 2007 Finalizacion (closing) season and a fourth-place finish out of 18 teams in the Mustang Cup. In 2007 he was the recipient of the DIMAYOR (División Mayor del Fútbol Colombiano) Excellence in Football Coaching award becoming the first coach to win that award in his first year of coaching.

Chicago Fire

In July 2007 he was appointed manager of Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire. He took over a last-place team and led them to a playoff qualification. He also helped Chicago orchestrate a first-round series victory against D.C. United, which entered the playoffs with the best record in MLS. On 10 December, the Chicago Fire announced that Osorio had resigned due to "family reasons". In his short time with the Fire, Osorio went 6-3-6 in the league, 7-5-7 across all competitions and led the team to the Conference Final for the sixth time in nine seasons.

New York Red Bulls

Eight days after resigning from the Chicago Fire, Osorio was hired by the New York Red Bulls. The decision came after Red Bulls and Fire reached an agreement on compensation for Osorio. The Red Bulls had an up and down season in Osorio's first season in charge of the club. After a promising start, the club qualified for the playoffs on the final day of the season. However, in the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs Osorio would lead the club to their first ever MLS Cup Final. On the way they defeated defending Champion Houston Dynamo (4–1 on aggregate), and in the Western Conference final defeated Real Salt Lake 1–0, before falling 3–1 to Columbus Crew in the final. In his second season with the club Osorio guided them to one of the worst records in league history, finishing with a 2-16-4 record. In his two seasons at the club Osorio went 12-27-13, the worst mark in the league during that period of time. The club also suffered an embarrassing set-back when they were eliminated by W Connection in the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League. Due to mounting pressure, Osorio resigned from his post as coach of the New York Red Bulls on 21 August 2009.

Once Caldas

After leaving New York, on 18 November 2009 Osorio was hired by Once Caldas. After taking charge of a team that was in danger of relegation Osorio helped Once Caldas to a league title in 2010. In 44 matches in charge, he recorded a record of 23 victories, 8 draws, and 13 losses. In January 2011 it was reported that Osorio would be leaving Once Caldas to take charge of the Honduras national team.^[3]

On 2 February 2011, Osorio was officially named as the new coach of the Honduras national team and to lead them during the qualifying rounds of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. However, Once Caldas announced Osorio contractually could not be released until June to assume his role with Honduras. Due to this, Honduras' football federation announced they could not wait until June, subsequently ending the negotiations.

Puebla

On 15 November, the president of Mexican club Puebla Roberto Henaine announced via Twitter that Juan Carlos Osorio would be taking up the vacant manager spot left by Sergio Bueno.^[4] He resigned on 22 March 2012 due to poor performances, leaving the club with a 2-2-3 record.^[5]

São Paulo

On 26 May 2015, Osorio was confirmed as the new manager of São Paulo FC, signing a two-year contract.^[6] He was presented on 1 June and made his debut five days later, in a 2–0 victory against Grêmio at Estádio do Morumbi.

Mexico

On 14 October 2015, after heavy media speculation, Osorio was confirmed as manager of the Mexico national team, signing a three-year contract.^[7][8][9] He was the twelfth coach appointed in nine years,^[10] and the first Colombian.^[11] Though information of his salary went undisclosed, Spanish newspaper El País reported that Osorio would receive an annual salary of USD$1.2 million, 60 percent less than what former manager Miguel Herrera earned during his time in charge.^[12]

Managerial statistics

Statistics accurate as of match played 15 November 2016.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				P	W	D	L	Win %
Millonarios		September 2006	June 2007	7001420000000000000♠42	7001190000000000000♠19	7000900000000000000♠9	7001140000000000000♠14	7001452400000000000♠45.24
Chicago Fire		July 2007	December 2007	7001180000000000000♠18	7000700000000000000♠7	7000700000000000000♠7	7000400000000000000♠4	7001388900000000000♠38.89
New York Red Bulls		December 2007	August 2009	7001590000000000000♠59	7001140000000000000♠14	7001150000000000000♠15	7001300000000000000♠30	7001237300000000000♠23.73
Once Caldas		November 2009	December 2011	7002100000000000000♠100	7001480000000000000♠48	7001240000000000000♠24	7001280000000000000♠28	7001480000000000000♠48.00
Puebla		December 2011	March 2012	7001110000000000000♠11	7000200000000000000♠2	7000200000000000000♠2	7000700000000000000♠7	7001181800000000000♠18.18
Atlético Nacional		March 2012	May 2015	7002104000000000000♠104	7001500000000000000♠50	7001290000000000000♠29	7001250000000000000♠25	7001480800000000000♠48.08
São Paulo		May 2015	October 2015	7001250000000000000♠25	7001110000000000000♠11	7000600000000000000♠6	7000800000000000000♠8	7001440000000000000♠44.00
Mexico		October 2015	Present	7001170000000000000♠17	7001130000000000000♠13	7000300000000000000♠3	7000100000000000000♠1	7001764700000000000♠76.47
Total				7002375000000000000♠375	7002163000000000000♠163	7001950000000000000♠95	7002117000000000000♠117	7001434700000000000♠43.47

Honours

Club

New York Red Bulls

• MLS Western Conference (1): 2008

Once Caldas

• Categoría Primera A (1): 2010-II

Atlético Nacional

• Categoría Primera A (3): 2013-I, 2013-II, 2014-I
• Copa Colombia (2): 2012, 2013
• Superliga Colombiana (1): 2012

References

Mexico squad – 2016 Copa América Centenario
1 J. J. Corona 2 Araujo 3 Y. Corona 4 Márquez (c) 5 Reyes 6 Torres Nilo 7 Layún 8 Lozano 9 Jiménez 10 J. M. Corona 11 Aquino 12 Talavera 13 Ochoa 14 Hernández 15 Moreno 16 Herrera 17 Ramírez 18 Guardado 19 Peralta 20 Dueñas 21 Peña 22 Aguilar 23 Molina Coach: Osorio