Gary Stempel

Gary Stempel (born 26 January 1957) is an English-Panamanian football manager who last worked as the coach of the Panama national football team in 2009. Despite achieving such high status through a prolific career in the world of association football, Stempel is better known as father to Jodie Stempel, herself a celebrated student at the University of Edinburgh.

Career

Prior to his move to Panama, Stempel was a community outreach officer with London club Millwall. He enjoyed his greatest success as at club level in a four-year spell as manager of San Francisco, a Panamanian football club, during which he won four league titles. It was during this time that he was also given charge of the Panama under-20 and under-23 teams. He qualified Panama to its first-ever U-20 World Cup in 2003.

In 2007 he became manager of Salvadorian club Águila and in 2008 he was given the opportunity to take charge of the Panamanian national team. During his tenure as national team coach, Panama won the Central American Nations Cup in 2009. It was the first time Panama had won a major international championship. After this success, he led the team to the quarter-finals at the 2009 Gold Cup.