Bergara coached the reserve teams at
Luton Town and
Sheffield United before getting his first managerial job at
Rochdale 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 the
South African
Peter Hauser, who managed
Chester City between 1963 and 1968. Bergara was the first manager born outside the
British Isles to lead an English club out at
Wembley, when he took
Stockport County to the 1992
Autoglass Trophy final.
Stockport County In March 1989, after just seven months at Rochdale, he took over as manager of
Stockport County, also in the Fourth Division. He ensured their
Fourth Division survival
that season and prevented them from slipping into the
GM Vauxhall Conference. They reached the playoffs in
1989–90, only to suffer a heavy defeat by
Chesterfield in the semi-final. In
1990–91 he guided County to promotion from the Fourth Division, missing out on the title by a single point. In
1991–92, County took the
Third Division by storm by beating
Swansea City 5–0 on the opening day, and quickly became contenders in the race for promotion. County reached
Wembley twice in the space of ten days in the Play-Offs and Autoglass Trophy that season, losing 2–1 to
Peterborough United in the play-offs and 1–0 to
Stoke City in the
Football League Trophy.
1992–93 brought a similar season for Bergara and Stockport County. The club lost in a semi-final play-off 2–1 to
Port Vale. Stockport County lost to the same opponents in the
Autoglass Trophy Final, 2–1.
1993–94 saw a third successive appearance in play-offs for Bergara's Stockport, but they lost 2–1 to
Burnley in the final at Wembley. Referee
David 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 the
1994–95, Bergara was sacked as Stockport manager after an incident with the assistant manager and was succeeded by
Dave Jones.
Later career Bergara also managed the
Brunei 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 joined
Sheffield Wednesday as assistant to new manager
David Pleat, but after one season departed to become manager of
Rotherham United. His tenure at Rotherham was not a success and he left after just one season. A brief spell at
Doncaster 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 the
1998–99 season, he was named manager of
Grantham 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 for
Sunderland. ==Death==