Ecuador has called up two Bundesliga pros in Hincapié and Gruezo

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Last World Cup squad stands

With Ecuador, the last of the 32 participants has now announced its squad for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. The South Americans presented the 26-man squad late on Monday evening, coach Gustavo Alfaro is counting on two Bundesliga pros in Piero Hincapié (20) from Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Carlos Gruezo (27) from FC Augsburg.

The latter had to be substituted on Saturday in the 0:1 (0:0) against VfL Bochum and had to worry about his nomination. On Sunday, however, FCA announced that it was “only a slight tendon injury in the thigh” and that Gruezo could travel to Qatar with them.

However, Byron Castillo is not there. The football associations of Chile and Peru had legally challenged the use of the full-back in the World Cup qualifier 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 is unclear whether this was the reason for the disregard.

On the other hand, coach Gustavo Alfaro caused the biggest surprise and a true World Cup fairy tale even before the start of the tournament with the nomination 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 10 goals in 29 games for the promoted side this season and was still playing amateur football in 2021.

Most valuable player in the South American squad is Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moisés Caicedo (21), who was among the biggest winners in the Premier League update in the most recent 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 play the opening game against Qatar on Sunday and also face the Netherlands and Senegal in Group A.

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