Álex Dario Aguinaga Garzón (, born 9 July 1969) is an Ecuadorian former professional

football player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. A

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

during his playing career, he is one of the all-time cap leaders for

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

with 109 matches, scoring 23 goals. Aguinaga is known as one of the best Ecuadorian footballers of all time. On the club level, Aguinaga has played for

Deportivo Quito Sociedad Deportivo Quito is an Ecuadorian non-professional club football club based in Quito. For most of its existence, it competed in Serie A, the highest level of the Ecuadorian professional football league. And currently competes in the Seg ...

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Comp ...

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...

and

LDU Quito Liga Deportiva Universitaria (), often referred to as Liga de Quito, LDU, is an Ecuadorian professional football club based in Quito. They play in the Serie A, the highest level of the Ecuadorian professional football league. They play their ho ...

Club career

Necaxa

Aguinaga spent the majority of his club career at Necaxa, whom he joined in 1989, winning 3 championships with the club. In 1999 Aguinaga was crucial for Necaxa's first CONCACAF Champions Cup title. Necaxa would go on to participate in the first edition of the

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

where in the group stage Aguinaga scored against

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

, but missed a penalty against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. He scored in the penalty shootout against Real Madrid in the 3rd place match. Aguinaga played for his country in the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

at the age of 32. He also holds a Mexican passport. His grandfather is of Spanish descent.

LDU Quito

After winning a league title in Ecuador, Aguinaga decided to retire from football.

International career

Aguinaga earned his first cap for

on March 5, 1987. In the same match, he scored his first goal for the team. Over the year, he would form an integral part of the national team. He would captain the team for a number of years and assisted in the goal by

Iván Kaviedes Jaime Iván Kaviedes Llorenty (born 24 October 1977) is an Ecuadorian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Club career Kaviedes rose to fame after scoring 43 goals in one season for Emelec in the 1998 Ecuadorian league. Thi ...

that assured Ecuador's first qualification to the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

International goals

Managerial career

Aguinaga's managerial career began in late 2010 as an assistant to

Manuel Lapuente Manuel Lapuente Díaz (born 15 May 1944) is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager. Playing career He has played 13 matches for Mexico and scored 5 goals. Career as manager He coached Mexico at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and lead ...

at Mexican club América. He left the club in early 2011 when Lapuente was sacked. In March of the same year, he was named to his first full-time managerial post as the new manager of Guayaquil-based club

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

following the sacking of Rubén Darío Insúa. In late May of the same year, he resigned from his position to not interfere and influence the club's presidential elections the following month. He has not ruled out a return after the election. In September 2014, Aguinaga became the manager of

Correcaminos UAT Club de Fútbol Correcaminos de la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, simply known as Correcaminos UAT, is a Mexican professional football club based in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas. It currently plays in the Liga de Expansión MX. The team wa ...

, which plays in the

Ascenso MX Ascenso MX was the second tier of professional football in Mexico of the Mexican football league system. The champion of the competition was promoted to Liga MX (top-flight tier). The bottom team was relegated to Liga Premier (the third tier). ...

second professional level league of the

Mexican football league system The Mexican football league system is organized by the Mexican Football Federation, except for the Liga MX and the Ascenso MX that are organized independently; The tournaments consist of five levels, male and female professional levels. In additio ...

Personal life

Aguinaga's daughter Cristiane is an actress and has appeared in several Mexican series and telenovelas such as Carita de Ángel and

La rosa de Guadalupe ''La Rosa de Guadalupe'' ( English title: ''The Rose of Guadalupe'') is a Mexican anthology drama television series created by Carlos Mercado Orduña and produced by Miguel Ángel Herros. The series centers on Mexican Catholic religiosity, specif ...

Honors

Club

* Primera División: 1994-95, 1995–96, 1998 ''Invierno'' *

CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup The CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup was an international association football club competition held from 1991 to 1998. The cup was between the winners of their nation's domestic cup competitions, which posed a problem as some participating countries did ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

*Mexican Cup: 1995 *

Campeón de Campeones ''Campeón de Campeones'' ( es, Champion of Champions) is an annual Mexican football competition established in 1942. In its current form, the winner of the Apertura season faces the winner of the Clausura season, for both Liga MX and Liga MX Feme ...

: 1995 *

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Third Place:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

: 2005 Apertura

International

Canada Cup The Canada Cup (french: Coupe Canada) was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true world ...

Individual

*Ideal team of South America: 1989 *Number 7 retired by

Club Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Company ...

as a recognition to his contribution to the club.

References

External links

*
International statistics
at

rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...