 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Danny Bergara" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Daniel Alberto Bergara de Medina | ||
| Date of birth | (1942-07-24)24 July 1942 | ||
| Place of birth | Montevideo, Uruguay | ||
| Date of death | 25 July 2007(2007-07-25) (aged 65) | ||
| Place of death | England | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1958–1962 | Racing Club | 50 | (?) |
| 1962–1967 | Real Mallorca | 110 | (33) |
| 1967–1971 | Sevilla | 96 | (35) |
| 1971–1972 | Tenerife | 49 | (7) |
| International career | |||
| 1958 | Uruguay U17 | 1 | (0) |
| 1984-? | Brunei[1] | ||
| Managerial career | |||
| 1973–1978 | Luton Town (youth team) | ||
| 1978–1983 | Sheffield United (youth team) | ||
| 1984 | Brunei | ||
| 1986 | Middlesbrough (assistant) | ||
| 1988–1989 | Rochdale | ||
| 1989–1995 | Stockport County | ||
| 1996–1997 | Rotherham United | ||
| 1997 | Doncaster Rovers | ||
| 1998 | Grantham Town | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Daniel Alberto Bergara de Medina (24 July 1942 – 25 July 2007)[2] was aUruguayanfootballer andmanager.
Born inMontevideo, Uruguay, Bergara began his playing career at the age of 16, playing forRacing Club in theUruguayan First Division, picking up a handful of under-21 caps forUruguay, before moving to Spain in 1962 where he was top scorer forReal Mallorca for four seasons andSevilla for two seasons. While playing in Spain Bergara married an English travel guide, Jan, and when he retired from playing football they moved to England.[3]
Bergara coached the reserve teams atLuton Town andSheffield United before getting his first managerial job atRochdale in August 1988. Bergara is often wrongly referred to as the first foreign manager in English football – he was in fact preceded by managers such as theSouth AfricanPeter Hauser, who managedChester City between 1963 and 1968. Bergara was the first manager born outside theBritish Isles to lead an English club out atWembley, when he tookStockport County to the 1992Autoglass Trophy final.
In March 1989, after just seven months at Rochdale, he took over as manager ofStockport County, also in the Fourth Division. He ensured theirFourth Division survivalthat season and prevented them from slipping into theGM Vauxhall Conference. They reached the playoffs in1989–90, only to suffer a heavy defeat byChesterfield in the semi-final. In1990–91 he guided County to promotion from the Fourth Division, missing out on the title by a single point. In1991–92, County took theThird Division by storm by beatingSwansea City 5–0 on the opening day, and quickly became contenders in the race for promotion. County reachedWembley twice in the space of ten days in the Play-Offs and Autoglass Trophy that season, losing 2–1 toPeterborough United in the play-offs and 1–0 toStoke City in theFootball League Trophy.
1992–93 brought a similar season for Bergara and Stockport County. The club lost in a semi-final play-off 2–1 toPort Vale. Stockport County lost to the same opponents in theAutoglass Trophy Final, 2–1.
1993–94 saw a third successive appearance in play-offs for Bergara's Stockport, but they lost 2–1 toBurnley in the final at Wembley. RefereeDavid Elleray controversially sent off two Stockport players, Mike Wallace and Chris Beaumont. This was the first time that the same side has ever had two players sent off at Wembley.
Just before the end of the1994–95, Bergara was sacked as Stockport manager after an incident with the assistant manager and was succeeded byDave Jones.
Bergara also managed theBrunei national team and the England Under-18 and Under-20 sides, with a World Youth Cup win also to his name.
Shortly after leaving Stockport, Bergara joinedSheffield Wednesday as assistant to new managerDavid Pleat, but after one season departed to become manager ofRotherham United. His tenure at Rotherham was not a success and he left after just one season.
A brief spell atDoncaster Rovers followed, during which time the club were featured in the 1998 Channel 5 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary "They Think It's All Rovers".
For the1998–99 season, he was named manager ofGrantham Town, who had just won promotion to the Southern League Premier Division. A string of poor results saw Bergara become the club's Director of Football and the club's Chief Scout,Tony Kenworthy, becoming manager. Later he scouted forSunderland.
Bergara died after a short illness on 25 July 2007, one day after his 65th birthday. Following the news of his death, many Stockport County fans left their tributes in Edgeley Park's Cheadle End. On 28 July, Stockport County arranged "Danny Day" when the team played Cardiff City in a pre-season friendly.
In an emotionally charged atmosphere, before kick off "My Way" byFrank Sinatra was played at Edgeley Park, as it was Bergara's favourite song. Managers of both teams,Jim Gannon (Stockport) andDave Jones (Cardiff City, coincidentally the man who had succeeded Bergara as Stockport manager 12 years earlier) paid their tributes by laying flowers which spelt "DANNY" in front of the Cheadle End.
Before the match there was a specially designated two minutes for the fans to sing a rendition of "Danny Bergara's Blue 'n White Army", which ended up continuing for over 30 minutes. Stockport won the friendly 6–4.
During the close season before the start of the 2012–13 season, it was announced that Stockport County had renamed the Hardcastle Road Stand (commonly known as the Main Stand) of Edgeley Park "The Danny Bergara Stand", in addition to this the club also fly theUruguayan flag during every home game, above the Railway End.[4]
In June 2021, the Stockport County Supporters Co-operative and Help the Hatters launched a fundraising campaign to commission a bronze statue of Danny Bergara. Award-winning, Sussex based sculptor,Hannah Stewart was chosen. On the 8th May 2023 the statue was unveiled by the Uruguayan ambassador to the UK, Mr Cesar Rodriguez Zavalla, the statue now proudly stands located outside the Cheadle End at Edgeley Park.[5]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
