Hernán Torres · Biography

On 11 April 2007 Hernán Torres Oliveros took charge of Deportes Tolima for the first time as interim coach, at the club where he had started out as a goalkeeper almost three decades earlier. Born in Ibagué on 31 May 1961, he had spent the previous six years as an assistant at several Colombian clubs. He has since coached in Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Ecuador, and won league titles with Millonarios, Melgar and Tolima.

A career in goal

Torres came through as a goalkeeper at Deportes Tolima and played for them from 1979 to 1987. He moved to Deportes Quindío in 1988, and in 1989 he had spells at Deportivo Pereira and Atlético Nacional. From 1990 to 1992 he kept goal for Independiente Medellín, and in 1993 he played for Millonarios, a club he would later return to as coach. After that came Lanceros Boyacá (1994), Bello (1995) and Once Caldas. He retired in 1998 with Cooperamos Tolima in his home city.

Learning as an assistant

After hanging up his gloves he started at the bottom of the coaching ladder. Between 2000 and 2007 he worked as an assistant at Deportes Tolima over several spells, at Deportivo Cali (2001-2003), Atlético Huila (2003), Deportivo Pasto (2004) and Millonarios (2005-2006). None of these were head coaching jobs, but they gave him a look inside dressing rooms across the country before he took over a first team.

First spell at Tolima and the 2010 final

His interim role in 2007 turned into a permanent post. He was sacked in March 2008 and brought back the following month. His best campaign was the 2010 Torneo Finalización: Tolima finished top of the regular phase with 36 points and reached the final against Once Caldas. They won the first leg 2-1 at the Manuel Murillo Toro but lost 3-1 in Manizales, and the title slipped away 4-3 on aggregate. He left the club in November 2011.

Champion with Millonarios in 2012

In the first half of 2012 he managed Itagüí, which soon afterwards became Águilas Doradas, and in the middle of the year Millonarios hired him. In December he took the Bogotá club to the Finalización final against Independiente Medellín. The first leg at the Atanasio Girardot ended 0-0, the return leg at El Campín on 16 December went to penalties, and Millonarios won the shootout 5-4. It was the club's 14th league title, its first in 24 years. In 2013 he lost the Superliga to Santa Fe and the Copa Colombia final to Nacional, and he left in December that year.

Medellín, Costa Rica, Cali and Peru

With Independiente Medellín he reached the 2014 Finalización final, which they lost 3-2 on aggregate to Santa Fe. In 2015 he moved to Costa Rica's Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, where he lost the 2015 Invierno final to Saprissa. Back in Colombia, he took over América de Cali in the second division and won promotion to the top flight on 27 November 2016 with a 2-1 win over Deportes Quindío. He resigned in September 2017. In 2018 he coached Águilas Doradas and then FBC Melgar of Arequipa, winning Peru's 2018 Torneo Clausura; Alianza Lima knocked them out in the championship semi-finals. In 2019 he returned to Alajuelense and later managed Atlético Bucaramanga.

Champion with his home-town club

His second spell at Deportes Tolima was his longest. In 2020 they lost the Copa Colombia final to Medellín on penalties. In June 2021 they met Millonarios in the Apertura final: a 1-1 draw in Ibagué was followed by a 2-1 win at El Campín, with both goals scored by Juan Fernando Caicedo. The 3-2 aggregate gave Tolima the third league title in their history. Later that year they lost the Finalización final to Deportivo Cali, but in 2022 they beat the same opponents 2-1 to win the Superliga. They were also runners-up in the 2022 Apertura, losing to Nacional. In April 2023 he left the club by mutual agreement.

Ecuador and a return to Millonarios

In June 2023 he took over Emelec in Guayaquil, where he stayed until June 2024. In September 2024 he had a very short spell at Deportivo Cali. On 22 August 2025 he returned to the Millonarios bench, and that second spell ended in January 2026 after a defeat to Deportivo Pasto. In March 2026 he was appointed by Orense of Ecuador's LigaPro, which announced his departure by mutual agreement on 20 July 2026.