Marcelo Gallardo Named Ecuador Head Coach
Argentine Marcelo Gallardo takes his first national team job, replacing Sebastián Beccacece as Ecuador begins its 2030 World Cup qualifying cycle.
Ecuador have appointed Marcelo Gallardo as head coach, the national federation announced, handing the Argentine his first job in charge of a national team as the country begins its 2030 World Cup cycle.
Gallardo replaces fellow Argentine Sebastián Beccacece, who left the post after Ecuador's exit from the 2026 World Cup, beaten 2-0 by Mexico in the round of 32 having come through the group stage.
Gallardo is 50 and takes charge of only the fifth side of his coaching career. His second spell at River ended in February, and he has been out of work since.
He will take his first session as Ecuador coach in the next FIFA window and make his bench debut on 24 September against South Korea, part of a tour of Asia. His contract runs to the end of South American qualifying for 2030, with an option to extend if Ecuador reach the finals in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
Under Beccacece, Ecuador finished second in South American qualifying for 2026 with 29 points from 18 matches, behind only Argentina's 38.
If Gallardo can carry that qualifying form into a new cycle, Ecuador go into the next campaign as one of the continent's more settled sides — the question now is whether a coach built on club football, and on River Plate in particular, can reproduce that with a squad he sees only a handful of times a year.
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