Guayaquil (Ecuador), Oct 26 (EFE).- Luis Zubeldía is one step away from consecration as a coach, and from becoming a living legend of the Quito League, the Ecuadorian King of Cups who has not lifted an international trophy for thirteen years.
In his second stage in the Quito League, where he returned in 2022 after directing between 2014 and 2015, the 42-year-old coach has launched an ambitious plan to return the club to the first line in the region.
To this slogan, ‘the Prince’ has also added the challenge of winning the League title at the end of the year.
D-Day on the international level will come this Saturday against the Brazilian Fortaleza, the revelation team of the current Copa Sudamericana.
It seems that everything has happened quickly, but the preparation to compete in a continental final as a coach began for the one from Santa Rosa (La Pampa) when he was just 27 years old.
His career as a footballer ended abruptly at the age of 23, in 2004, when he was playing for Independiente, due to ostiochondritis dissecans in one of his left knees.
He had played for Argentina’s under-17 and under-20 teams, and four years later he returned to the fray with a new challenge in his life, as coach of Lanús, replacing his mentor Ramón Cabrero.
Thus he became the youngest coach in the history of the First Division of Argentine soccer. With Zubeldía on the bench, Granate finished in fourth place in the 2008 Apertura Tournament and a place in the 2009 Copa Libertadores. That year, they finished in third place in the Clausura.
He arrived in Ecuador two years later to coach Barcelona.
Then he had experiences in Racing de Avellaneda, again in Ecuador to direct for the first time in Liga de Quito, then he went to Santos Laguna, Independiente Medellín, Deportivo Alavés, Cerro Porteño, again Lanús, until returning to Ecuador to resume the helm of the Quito formation.
The Argentine usually favors the work of young people and today, rookies Oscar Zambrano, Sebastián González and Daykol Romero have emerged from the League quarry to become figures.
By: EFE
2023-10-27 02:15:06
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