Fernando Riera Bauzá was born in Santiago on 27 June 1920 and died there on 23 September 2010. A forward, he represented Chile at three Copa América tournaments and at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, and after retiring he became the most important figure in the modernisation of Chilean coaching. As national team manager he led the hosts to third place at the 1962 World Cup, still Chile's best finish, and he was invited to take charge of the FIFA World XI against England at Wembley in 1963.

Benfica hired him in the summer of 1962 to succeed Béla Guttmann, and he had two separate spells. The first, in 1962/63, brought the national championship, a defeat by Santos in the Intercontinental Cup and a second successive European Cup final, lost 2-1 to Milan at Wembley in May 1963. He returned in the summer of 1966 and won the championship again in 1966/67, staying until the end of November 1967; his last match was a 1-0 defeat at Saint-Étienne in the European Cup on the 30th of that month, after which Otto Glória took over and completed the 1967/68 title. In 98 matches he won 74, a rate above 75 per cent, and he also won three Lisbon honour cups.

He was among the first coaches in Portugal to talk publicly about tactical systems, working on collective movement and on pressing the ball high rather than dropping off, and he was as much a teacher as a manager. He later coached Universidad Católica, Nacional, Espanyol, Boca Juniors, Porto, Deportivo La Coruña, Marseille, Sporting and Universidad de Chile, and is remembered in his own country as the father of modern Chilean football.