Fernando Vicente Gaibor Orellana

Fernando Gaibor's career has run through the extremes of Ecuadorian football and beyond it. He came up at Emelec, where he broke through in 2010 and stayed for seven seasons, winning the Serie A title in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and picking up the league's Best Young Player award in 2011. That spell ended with the Suruga Bank Cup in 2018, shortly before his move away from the club.

A transfer to Independiente in Argentina followed in early 2018, but the stint turned sour: a contract dispute with the club led to a loan to Al-Wasl in the United Arab Emirates in mid-2019. The dispute over unpaid salaries eventually went to FIFA, which granted him provisional habilitation to play again, clearing the way for him to join Guayaquil City on a free transfer in 2020.

From there his path settled into more conventional territory. Independiente del Valle signed him in mid-2021, and he added another Ecuadorian league title with them that year. Barcelona SC took him on a free transfer at the start of 2023, and he moved on again in January 2025, joining Alianza Lima, also as a free agent.

At international level, Gaibor has earned 19 caps for Ecuador and scored twice. He also came up through the youth ranks with the national team, taking bronze at the 2011 South American Youth Championship with the under-20 side.