Aserri

Aserrí F.C. is a soccer team based in the canton of Aserrí, Costa Rica. The club was founded in 1940 by a group of individuals who were determined to create a team that would represent their canton in local and national tournaments.

The origins of Aserrí F.C. can be traced back to 1940 when a well-known national politician named Ernesto Maten Carranza formed a soccer team named after himself. The team sported the initials "E.M.C" on their kits. The team participated in local and neighborhood tournaments, including one that took place in front of the church in what is now the Desamparados park.

The team included several notable players such as Elías Jiménez, Jorge Gómez, Miguel Ramos, Francisco Chinchilla, Luis Fallas, Efraín Rojas, who was the general captain, Guillermo Abarca, Juan Rafael Solano (known as Yico), Chico Calvo, and Olman Vargas, among others. Yico, in particular, was renowned for his exquisite technique and played barefoot, according to popular accounts.

In 1943, Ernesto Maten Carranza lost interest in the team and decided to stop financing it, which led to its eventual disappearance. However, a few months later, soccer leaders at the national level invited the canton of Aserrí to participate in the first cantonal championship, which was to take place at the National Stadium. In response to this invitation, a group of enthusiastic people in the municipality of Aserrí formed a directive and created a new team to represent their canton. They named the team "Club Atlético Central Aserriceño" (C.A.C.A.) and gave it a green and white uniform with striped shirts. The base of this new team was the recently-disappeared EMC.

C.A.C.A. participated in the cantonal championship and received dividends totaling ¢150 colones as a reward. However, the directors were reportedly not satisfied and decided to discontinue the team, causing it to disappear. The players were not content with this outcome and began discussing possible solutions in the pulperías (local meeting centers). Efraín Rojas took the lead and suggested that they meet at the priest's house to discuss the matter further.

The meeting took place in 1945 and was attended by Elías Jiménez, Juan Rafael Solano (Yico), Francisco Chico Calvo, Marcelino Cascante (Mamino), Carlos Castro, and Rafael Porras Chinchilla. From that day forward, Aserrí F.C. was officially established. The first board of directors was composed of Captain General Efraín Rojas, Secretary Rafael Porras Chinchilla, and Treasurer Carlos Castro.

However, the team faced several challenges in its early days. There was no uniform, and they had no balls or money. But then they remembered the ¢150 colones that they had earned as a profit from the cantonal championship. They obtained the money from the directors of C.A.C.A. and used it to purchase a uniform from Paco Navarrete tailor shop. The uniform had red shirts with a diagonal white stripe. In total, they bought 12 field shirts and 1 goalkeeper shirt for a total cost of ¢120 colones. The remaining ¢30 colones were used to buy two soccer balls, each worth ¢15 colones, from the Sport Center, a well-known sports store.

Aserrí F.C. played its first game against the Manuel Hidalgo Mora School and won with a score of 4 to 2. Over