Last team standing
With Ecuador, the last of the 32 participants has now announced his squad for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. The South Americans presented their 26-man squad late on Monday evening, coach Gustavo Alfaro is counting on two Bundesliga professionals: Piero Hincapié (20) from Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Carlos Gruezo (27) from FC Augsburg.
The latter was to be replaced in Saturday’s 0:1 (0:0) against VfL Bochum and had to worry about his appointment. However, FCA announced on Sunday that it was “just a minor hamstring injury” and that Gruezo could travel with them to Qatar.
However, Byron Castillo is not there. The football federations of Chile and Peru had legally challenged the use of the full-back in World Cup qualifiers before the CAS in the hope that Ecuador would be excluded from the World Cup (background). Castillo injured his ankle in the last friendly against Iraq – it’s unclear whether that was the reason for the contempt.
The biggest surprise and a real fairy tale of the World Cup even before the start of the tournament was provided by coach Gustavo Alfaro with the appointment of Kevin Rodríguez from the Ecuadorian second division club Imbabura SC. The 22-year-old centre-forward, who made his international debut against Iraq, has scored ten goals in 29 games for the newly promoted side this season and was still playing at amateur level as of 2021.
The most valuable player in the South American squad is Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moisés Caicedo (21), who was one of the biggest winners in the last Premier League update and is now valued at €38m. Behind them are Hincapié and Caicedo’s teammate Pervis Estupiñán (24) with 22 million and 20 million euros. Ecuador will play their first match against Qatar on Sunday and will also face the Netherlands and Senegal in Group A.
Here are the 26 players chosen by the DT #GustavoAlfaro to play the @fifaworldcup_eswe are ready to make history @PilsenerEcuador
One heartbeat representing 18 million Ecuadorians! #We will make history pic.twitter.com/xy1grHHBAc
— LaTri (@LaTri) November 14, 2022
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