After seven months at the front of the Selección Nacional or La Sele, Costa Rica’s national team, Gustavo Matosas calls it quits, saying he became bored.
One of his most commented phrases when announcing his resignation was: “Sometimes it seems to me that I am on vacation,” but was did he really have a lot of leisure time?
According to Costa Rica’s immigration, Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME), the 52-year-old, whose contract began on January 1 of this year, came and went in and out of the country 23 times during since.
With the national team, there were only 4 trips abroad: two to the US fro the Gold Cup, one to Guatemala and one to Peru.
He didn’t think he would be so bored. “I realized that in the national side I feel unproductive even though I kill myself watching videos,” Matosas said, quoted by ESPN. “It’s not what I like to be doing.”
“It’s tough not having players in the day-to-day to train them. I only have the players for a week every two months and it’s killing me. I didn’t know it was so hard. I thought I would be able to somehow endure it.
“I didn’t know being a national team manager was so boring. I don’t regret it and I don’t leave frustrated because I gave my best. I won’t manage a national team again. I can’t only have the players every two months. It’s not for me,” he told the press.
Keylor Navas, Costa Rica’s superstar of the game and who this week was back in the country to focus on La Sele play, commented on Gustavo Matosas’ boredom, “I don’t understand the comment, why he did it”.
“I am sure that the Federation decides who it will be the next coach of the National Team we will support him to death as we have always done,” said the goalkeeper.
Today, Friday, Costa Rica, less Matosas, faces Uruguay in a friendly game to be played at the Estadio Nacional, in La Sabana.
