Antonio Noboa: Anatomy of a Triumph

“The goal was to be champion, and thankfully things were good.”

Antonio Noboa

Those were the words of Antonio Noboa Icaza, president of Ecuador’s biggest team, Barcelona Sporting Club, who after becoming president of this club, in the middle of last year, who after becoming president of this club, in the middle of last year, returned the stability and hope to the fans of the yellow team.

Antonio Seventeen months ago, Noboa received an unstructured team, without winning a cup for 14 years. The mismanagement, wrong decisions and misguided hiring caused the country’s most iconic team fall into a depression because of the lack of championships.

The Contracts; the key:

Through the campaign “Barcelona Primero”, Antonio and his brother Luis Noboa, began searching for suitable players and coaching staff to turn Barcelona into the national champion.

First, the directive achieved an economic stability of the club. The wage arrears, trials layoffs and debts to other clubs were solved with the passage of time, and still continued repairing the damage caused by past mismanagement.

Coach Gustavo Costas

The team was built with professional players with a base of national soccer players, which allowed them not to depend only in foreign contracts. However, it was necessary to hire a minority number of foreign players.

A stable coaching staff:

Argentine Luis Zubeldia was the one who led Barcelona in the first part of this campaign. With him, Barcelona was reconstructed neat, defensive and quick in attack, but especially with disciplined players and united by a common goal.

After the departure of Zubeldia, Noboa’s siblings knew that change was going to be in form, rather than subject. On April 11, Gustavo Costas became coach of the club, who knew how to replace Zubeldia under the same philosophy of play and leadership. In addition, he solidified the defense with a line of three and two lanes for more security in the background beside known how to raise a best scheme in height: Costas lost only three games in the Highlands.

Barcelona Sporting Club, Champions 2012

The Evolution:

The objectives were gradually meet. In early Barcelona was improving despite its eventually poor performance However, the team knew how to get up and continue to get points on the road, achieving a run of five straight wins.

In the end, Barcelona finished first and qualified for the final of the local tournament, ensured its participation in the Copa Libertadores and Sudamericana Tournament.

In the second stage, Costas system was consolidated and allowed him to take up important points and win against rivals like Emelec and Liga de Quito.