The Ecuadorian daily newspaper ‘El Universo’ said on the 10th (hereinafter Korean time), “Bentu is being mentioned as the first candidate for the command tower 먹튀검증 of the national soccer team. (If negotiations fail), it seems that Francisco Arce (52, Paraguay) will be an alternative,” he said.
With 102 years of history, ‘El Universo’ is the largest newspaper in Ecuador. “The Football Association tried to recruit Ricardo Gareca (65, Argentina) as the national team coach, but was frustrated,” he added.
On the 9th, Gareca took the helm of Veles Sarsfield, the first division in Argentina, not the Ecuadorian national team. Bento led Korea to 16th place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and was ranked 8th in the vote for the National Team Manager of the Year Award by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).
Arce was selected in the South American professional football best 11 seven times in a row from 1996 to 2002 during his active career. As a coach, he experienced the 2013 and 2015 Paraguay 1st division championships.
Ecuador passed the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time in eight years and finished the Qatar tournament in 18th place. The 2024 South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) is looking for a leader to prepare for the Copa America finals.
In January of this year, Bento, ranked 22nd in the world, was reported by Polish public broadcasting as “the coach of the next national team that only has to sign and announce the contract,” but it was broken down at the final negotiation stage.
It is the first foreign coach since Guus Hiddink (77, Netherlands) in 2002 to bring the Korean national team to the World Cup round of 16. Twenty-one years ago, Korea and Japan co-hosted the tournament. This means that Bento is the first foreign coach to lead the team through the away World Cup group stage.
In the World Cup finals in Qatar, Korea drew 16th ranked Uruguay 0-0 and then defeated 9th ranked Portugal 2-1. In the final qualifier, they won 2-0 against Iran, which is ranked 24th in the world.