Gareca, unfiltered: "Anybody can coach anybody at any moment, even the big clubs"

Ricardo Gareca doesn't beat around the bush. He sat down with Sebastian Vignolo and his crew on ESPN F90 and dropped a line that sums up pretty well how he sees the coaching profession these days: "Anybody can coach anybody at any moment, even the big clubs."

The Tiger, 68 years old, explained why he sees it that way. In his view, the profession has opened up in a way that used to be unthinkable. "Nowadays the door is open to everyone. It's a very generous profession. Anybody can coach, and I don't say that to take anything away from coaches who never played, because plenty of them have done well," he said. He pointed to Argentina's biggest clubs as an example: "Before, to coach River or Boca you needed a serious track record. Nowadays, youth team coaches can aspire to the first division."

Far from sounding resigned, Gareca spoke with the calm of someone who's already seen everything the dugout has to offer. "I've had it go great and I've had it go badly. When you go through ups and downs, you get used to it. What's tough is when someone lives with constant success and then suddenly stumbles," he reflected. And he was blunt about what keeps him going: "I like coaching, for the adrenaline. I'm running the risk that it won't go well for me."

Eager to get back in the game

After his time in charge of the Chile national team, which ran through June 2025, the former Peru boss also went over what he has to offer a future club. "I'm doing well, there's not much mystery to coaches. I'm one of those who wants to keep working. I'm no different from anyone else," he said, adding something that sounded almost like a personal manifesto: "The most important thing is that I'm a coach with conviction."

There was also room for some rather particular advice to his fellow coaches, along with a confession: "I tell coaches: 'Find yourselves a good agent.' I don't have one myself, but it's important."

The Velez wound still stings

The most sensitive part of the conversation came up when his second stint at Velez Sarsfield came up, that brief spell between March and June 2023 that didn't go as he'd hoped. Gareca didn't hide it: it hurt, and quite a bit.

The Velez thing got to me because it came after five years of fighting. To arrive and have it not go well is tough. It hurt me. I saw a strange atmosphere because people were coming after the players, the board members, but not me. And the coach is always the first fuse to blow. That's why I decided to leave.Ricardo Gareca

Between his experience as a player for Boca, River and Independiente, and his career as a coach across various national teams, the Tiger made it clear on ESPN F90 that he's not afraid of a new challenge. The adrenaline, in his own words, is still the engine that pushes him to want to coach again.