The man from uruguay
The Man from Uruguay is the official biography of Danny Bergara, the first foreign national to coach an England football team.
When leading his Stockport County side out in the Autoglass Final against Stoke City on May 16th, 1992, Uruguayan Danny Bergara became the first ever 'foreigner' to manage an English Football club in a Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. During his time at Edgeley Park Bergara led the Hatters to three further 'finals' at the National Stadium, unfortunately all of which ended in defeat, nevertheless Bergara had put himself and Stockport County firmly on the football map.
Bergara's footballing journey began in his home country when, as a 14-year-old, he signed for Racing Club Montevideo, making his first team debut at the age of 15. Bergara also represented Uruguay at under 17 level. Aged 20 he moved to Europe to sign for Real Mallorca where he thrived in his new surroundings, helping to win the Second Division championship in 1965 and finishing as the club's top scorer three times before a £25,000 transfer took him to Sevilla in January 1967. On the mainland, Bergara continued to flourish, picking up another Second Division title medal and top-scoring three times, but following an £8,000 move to Tenerife his playing days were ended by a calf injury.
He found his way into the English game by earning a coaching position at Luton Town alongside future manager David Pleat, before moving up north to Sheffield United with Harry Haslam. At Bramall Lane, the Uruguayan became assistant manager and chief coach, and his work attracted the notice of the Football Association, who enlisted him to coach the England under-18 and under-20 sides in 1980 and 1981.
Bergara went on to spend a year as National Manager of Brunei, he also coached/managed at Sheffield United (twice), Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, Rochdale, Darlington, Rotherham United and Doncaster Rovers but it was at Edgeley Park that he became renowned throughout football as he put serial underachievers Stockport County on the map.
Controversially, his Edgeley Park adventure ended with the sack following a bitter fall-out with his chairman, and although an industrial tribunal ruled in 1996 that he had been unfairly dismissed, his career never regained full impetus. (Full transcript of the industrial tribunal is in the book)
Book Review - (Good Reads) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21117689-the-man-from-uruguay
Book Review - (Amazon) https://www.amazon.com/Man-Uruguay-Bergara-Footballing-Journey-ebook/dp/B00I21RBWO#customerReviews
The Man from Uruguay (A footballing journey) is the official biography of an extraordinary man.
Although the original issue is now out of print we have produced a LIMITED EDITION in hardback which is available from https://tinyurl.com/FootieStuff
el uruguayo
In 2024 The Man from Uruguay was translated into Uruguayan/Spanish.
The original book came out in December 2013, and whilst it was updated with a special edition ‘hardback’ update some years later we have long thought that we should translate the story for his family members back in Uruguay.
During the pandemic I was approached by Pablo Nuño Amoedo, a Uruguayan working in Argentina. He had stumbled across Danny’s story whilst searching for memories of his homeland whilst furloughed. He had previously, like many younger Uruguayans, no knowledge of Danny and his story.
We discussed the possibility of him working on a translated version and I put him in touch with Danny’s niece Soledad, who had previously mentioned that she would like to be involved should the task be undertaken.
Along with Pablo and her husband Juan Pablo Correa, she carried out the translation in the following couple of years.
We had a couple of samples printed which Danny’s daughter Ellen proofed before the final copy was approved. A copy of the sample was given to The Uruguayan Ambassador who was at Edgeley Park to unveil a statue of ‘The Man from Uruguay’ in May 2023.
Along with Ellen and her husband Peter I met with Soledad, Juan Pablo and their daughter at Edgeley Park recently to give copies of El Uruguayo to take with them as they return to their homeland after several years of living in Switzerland, I know how proud they are of the final copy and how much they are looking forward to distributing copies amongst their family.