The Spanish Félix Sánchez was announced this Saturday by the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF), as the new selector of the absolute team, whose greatest challenge is the 2026 World Cup qualifiers that will be organized by the United States, Canada and Mexico. "We come to Ecuador with great enthusiasm," said the new coach of the national team with which he will have a link during the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
"We have searched for the technical director that La Tri deserves because we need excellence in the person, confidence in his career; a medium-term project and clear processes that have good results," the FEF press department specified in a video posted on their social networks where images of the new coach are projected.
"We need a coach committed to the comprehensive development of our soccer, who promotes the extraordinary talent of our players; a coach who is dedicated to consolidating a project and sowing the future of Ecuadorian soccer," the FEF added in the video.
In addition, "a coach who was part of Barcelona of Spain for more than ten years (in the minor divisions or La Masía), one of the best teams in the world. Who learned and trained for more than seven years in one of the most world's largest, the Aspire_Academy".
"We trust who created the conditions for Qatar, a country that did not have any football tradition and who was champion of Asia Under-19 and later, with the Qatar senior team. We chose him because 2026 is only the first stop. Welcome to La Tri," he added.
Sánchez will thus become the replacement for Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, who between 2020 and 2022 led the Ecuadorian team and took it to a soccer World Cup for the fourth time.
Before Alfaro, the Colombian Hernán Gómez also qualified for the World Cup in 2002, and his compatriots Luis Fernando Suárez in 2006 and Reinaldo Rueda in 2014.
Sánchez, 47, left Barcelona's training courses in 2006 to join Qatari football; between 2013 and 2015 he directed the Under-19 team, and between 2015 and 2017 the Under-20 of that country.
As a result of the work planned with good results, from 2017 to 2022 he led the Under-3 teams and the senior category of Qatar.
Among his greatest achievements are the AFC under-19 championship played in Myanmar in 2014 and the Asian Cup title in 2019 in the United Arab Emirates, but he left that team after the elimination in the group stage of the World Cup in 2022, as consequence of three consecutive defeats.
Sánchez has landed in Ecuador in the last hours and is already working to prepare his first call for the visitor friendlies that he will play on the so-called FIFA dates against Australia on March 24 and 28.
