Medina and Ferreira: Two Foreign Coaches Chasing History in the Libertadores Final

The Centenario in Montevideo is about to be much more than just the stadium that crowns South America's new champion. The 2026 Copa Libertadores final between Estudiantes de La Plata and Palmeiras (streaming live on Disney+'s Premium plan) carries an extra layer of intrigue that starts on the bench: two coaches standing one step away from making tournament history, each for very different reasons.

Alexander Medina, known as the Cacique, guided Pincha to this final and now dreams of something no foreign coach has ever pulled off: winning the Libertadores at the helm of an Argentine club. It sounds hard to believe, but it's true. All 25 championship runs Argentine soccer has racked up in the tournament's history came under local coaches, from Manuel Giúdice with Independiente in 1964 to Marcelo Gallardo with River in 2018. If Estudiantes lifts the trophy, Medina would break that unwritten 60-year rule.

There's another number riding on this too: Medina would become the first fellow Uruguayan to win the title since 1990, when Luis Cubilla did it with Olimpia. Thirty-six years later, Medina has the chance to bring that trophy back to Uruguayan soil, and he'd do it in his own country.

Abel Ferreira, One Step From Zubeldía

On the other side of the field will be Abel Ferreira, who already knows exactly what it feels like to lift this trophy. The Portuguese coach won back-to-back titles with Palmeiras in 2020 and 2021 and also fell short in the 2025 final against Flamengo. Now he's playing in his fourth final, and if Verdao comes out on top in Montevideo, he would claim his third star, a feat that would put him level with Osvaldo Zubeldía, Estudiantes' legendary coach, trailing only the all-time leader among coaches, Carlos Bianchi, who won four titles across Vélez and Boca.

Here's the curious part: history seems to be repeating itself. Back in 1968, in the first-ever Libertadores final between these same two clubs, Palmeiras was also led by a foreigner, Argentine coach Alfredo González, and also lost to Estudiantes. From the tournament's start in 1960 through 2019, only three foreign coaches ever took a Brazilian club to a final (all of them Argentine, as it happens), and none of them won.

A Final of "Foreigners" That Is a Historical Rarity

This final carries another unusual wrinkle: it's only the fourth time in Libertadores history that both finalist coaches are leading clubs from a country other than their own, and it's the first time that's ever happened in a matchup between an Argentine team and a Brazilian one.

It has only happened three times before. The first was precisely with Cubilla, when his Olimpia beat Ecuador's Barcelona SC, coached by Argentina's Miguel Ángel Brindisi, in 1990. A year later, Croatian coach Mirko Jozić pulled off the same feat with Colo Colo, again against Olimpia. Then it took 23 more years for it to happen again: in 2024, Portugal's Artur Jorge won the title with Botafogo against an Atlético Mineiro side managed by Argentina's Gabriel Milito, with a 3-1 win at Núñez's Monumental stadium.

Adding those three cases to other coaches who won titles outside their home countries (Nery Pumpido and Edgardo Bauza with Paraguayan and Ecuadorian clubs, plus Jorge Jesus with Flamengo), only seven coaches in the entire history of the tournament have won the title away from home. Medina and Ferreira already belong to that exclusive group simply by reaching this final; now one of them is about to add another chapter.

When the ball gets rolling at the very Centenario where Pincha's legend was born, the tournament's heavy history will weigh on every decision made from the bench. Medina will chase his unprecedented feat on Uruguayan soil; Ferreira will chase his third star, inching closer to the top of the all-time list.