Nelson Tapia

Nelson Antonio Tapia Ríos is a former Chilean football goalkeeper and current football manager. He is the current manager of Constitución Unido.

International career

He made his debut for the Chile national team in 1994 against France. After his last match thus far, a 0–5 loss against Brazil in 2005, the tally is at 73 caps. He played all four games for Chile at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and he also won an Olympic bronze medal with Chile at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

While he was studying at the INAF to become a football manager, he worked as a goalkeeping coach of C.D. Universidad Católica at under-10 level and as the coach of the Molina football team, in his birthplace. In addition to this, he worked as coach at school and university level and as the Technical Director of both Unión Temuco and Colchagua. In 2015, he worked as a goalkeeping coach of Chile U17 and next he became the manager of Independiente de Cauquenes in the third category of the Chilean football.
After a time as an assistant coach in Cobreloa, in 2019 he moved to Ecuador and joined Barcelona S.C. as a goalkeeping coach. Next he joined Guayaquil Sport as manager, winning the 2020 Segunda Categoría. In 2021 season, he won again the same title along with Libertad FC Tapia was sacked by Libertad on 22 September 2022.
In December 2022, he signed with in the Ecuadorian third division. In February 2023, he switched to Olmedo in the Serie B.
In 2024, Tapia returned to Chile and joined the technical staff of Audax Italiano, serving as assistant coach of Walter Erviti. After Erviti quit having led the team for four matches, Tapia assumed as interim coach.
In 2025, Tapia assumed as the goalkeeping coach for Rangers de Talca. On 22 July of the same year, he was appointed as the manager of Constitución Unido in the Chilean Tercera A.

He is nicknamed Simpson because during his career he wore a hair style similar to cartoon character Bart Simpson.
In 2012, Tapia took part in the Chilean reality show Mundos Opuestos.

Universidad Católica

Cobreloa

Santos

Chile

Guayaquil Sport

Libertad