M. Vieira

Stefano Mateo Viera Gallo has never left Macará. He came through the club's own youth system, spending two years with the under-19 side before stepping up to the first team, and every appearance of his senior career has come in the yellow shirt he joined as a boy. In 26 matches for the youth side he scored nine goals, numbers that carried him into first-team contention rather than a move elsewhere.

As a right winger, Viera has become a regular starter for Macará in the Ecuadorian Serie A, wearing the number 20 shirt, and has also featured in the Copa Sudamericana. His clearest mark on a first-team match so far came against Barcelona SC, when he scored twice. The club has not added a Serie A title or a Copa Ecuador to its history during his time there, and Viera himself has not picked up any individual awards such as a top-scorer honour, but he has held down a place in the side rather than drifting in and out of the squad.

A step towards the national team came in 2024, when Sebastián Beccacece called him into a training microcycle with the senior Ecuador squad. The call-up did not lead to a debut: a muscle tear forced him to leave the training camp before he could be involved, and he has not since earned a senior cap.

Still only associated with the one club that raised him, Viera's story so far is one of steady progression rather than upheaval — a academy graduate turned first-team fixture, with the senior international recognition still to come.