Sixto Vizuete


Sixto Rafael Vizuete Toapanta is the Ecuadorian football manager.

Early career

He played for Deportivo Cotopaxi which at that time was promoted to the first division in Ecuador. After his footballing career, he attended University of Leipzig.

Coaching career

From 1992 to 1995 he was in charge of many small local sides in Ecuador, until he began to coach the youth ranks of Club Deportivo ESPOLI of Quito in 1996. He made a change however when the Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol designated him the coach of the Ecuador U-17 side. Failing to qualify for the 2007 U-17 World Cup, he made up for it by giving Ecuador their first title in their footballing history: they defeated Jamaica in the final of the 2007 Pan American Games to win the gold medal.

Ecuadorian national team

He was appointed interim coach of the Ecuadorian national team on November 18, 2007 following Luis Fernando Suarez's irrevocable decision to resign. At that time, Ecuador had lost all three of their 2010 World Cup qualifiers which prompted Suarez's resignation. Vizuete gave Ecuador their first qualifying win in his first match as manager, thumping rivals Peru 5-1. This caused the majority of Ecuadorians to trust him, and on 26 February 2008, he was appointed official coach of the national side. Ecuador played its first game with Vizuete as head coach on 26 March 2008 against Haiti, defeating them 3-1.On October 15, 2009, Chile defeated Ecuador in World Cup Qualifying for South Africa 2010 1-0 under Vizuete, Ecuador didn't qualify. But, on February 12, 2011, Vizuete qualified Ecuador's U-20 national team to the Fifa U-20 World cup in Colombia this summer.

El Nacional

In April 2012, Vizuete was named the manager of Ecuadorian-club El Nacional after the departure of Mario Saralegui the day before.