Ricardo Gareca: Peru’s destroyer-turned-saviour who reignited the symbolic fire

• Ricardo Gareca became Peru national team coach in 2015

• He led Peru to the 2018 FIFA World Cup and second place at the 2019 Copa America

• Gareca left Peru in 2022 to return to Velez Sarsfield

Akshat Mehrish A prolific forward back in his day was Ricardo Gareca. The Argentine attacker enjoyed domestic spells with Boca Juniors, Sarmiento, River Plate, America de Cali, Velez Sarsfield, and Independiente and collected 20 caps for the national team. In his handful of appearances, Gareca scored merely five goals, one of which would have lasting consequences beyond his wildest imagination. In 1985, with Argentina trailing Peru by a goal in the final match of the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Gareca netted the crucial equaliser with nine minutes left to play. The 2-2 draw was plenty for the Albiceleste; by taking a point off their opponents, Argentina qualified for the World Cup, sending Peru to the continental playoffs. Ricardo Gareca retired from international duty in 1986, instead focusing on his domestic career, which, at the time, was transpiring in Cali. It was the only spell the forward would embark on outside his native Argentina. Largely, though, Gareca never ventured too far from his homeland, a trend which continues in his managerial career, the latest chapter of which sees him return to Velez Sarsfield with the hopes of recreating the successful alchemy that delivered several titles from 2009 to 2013.

Gareca did, however, come close to leaving South America for the first time in his professional career - player or manager - in 2014. The tactician was in the running for the Ghana national men’s team coach, only to lose out to Avram Grant. The Tapiales native stayed home and was instead presented with the opportunity to lead the men’s team by the Peruvian Football Federation. Appointed as the head coach of the Peru men’s team in February 2015, Ricardo Gareca would lead La Blanquirroja until June 2022, four short of 100 games in charge. The Argentinian won more than he lost, but, in the end, his job came down to the FIFA World Cup 2022 playoff against Australia, in which his side lost on penalties. A win would’ve taken Peru to their fifth World Cup and a second consecutive finals, a feat they haven’t accomplished since 1982. That Gareca lasted seven years in the job is a minor miracle in itself, not due to the varying nature of the results or the principles of football he employed, but instead, a piece of cruel irony.

More than 40 years before he saved Peru, Ricardo Gareca was its destroyer. Peru were back-to-back FIFA World Cuppers in 1978 and 1982, and, on the shoulders of a talented unit of players, looked destined to reach a third successive finals in 1986. The story, as recited above, is cruel. Nine minutes away from securing a berth at the Mexico-held FIFA World Cup, Peru’s footballing dreams were jolted by a rude awakening when Gareca scored the equaliser in the 2-2 draw for Argentina. La Blanquirroja missed on direct qualification by a point, dropped to the playoffs, and lost to Chile. They remained absent from the competition until 2018. While Gareca wasn’t the sole desecrator of Peruvian football, his appointment as the national men’s team head coach in 2015 reopened wounds of the past, earning the ire of nearly every countryman and woman in Peru. The team’s struggles under his tutelage initially did little to ease those tensions, but the tide finally began to turn in the Argentinian’s favour following two significant competition results. Firstly, Ricardo Gareca helped Peru finish third in the 2015 Copa America at the expense of Paraguay. Then, the tactician, with the help of some luck, rescued La Blanquirroja’s FIFA World Cup 2018 qualification campaign from death and led them to the playoff spot in a stunning turnaround. Peru faced New Zealand from the Oceania Football Confederation in the two-legged clash for the last berth at the 2018 finals and, after returning with a stalemate from Wellington, secured it with a 2-0 triumph in front of a raucous home crowd in Lima.

In a sort of peculiar poetic justice, Gareca, Peruvian football’s destroyer, had become its saviour. Peru exited the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a win and two losses. A year later, Gareca led the team all the way to the 2019 Copa America final, matching, if not surpassing, his previous accomplishment. Peru lost the trophy clash 3-1 to Brazil, but it was the closest the team had come to the continental title in more than four decades. Gareca’s Peruvian adventure concluded in 2022 after his team lost to Australia in the inter-confederation playoffs on penalties. The Argentinian had revived the national team’s fortunes and rescued his own tarnished image in Peru by doing so. He expressed his desire to continue in his position, albeit with additional responsibilities, but the federation chose to explore the alternatives instead. In the aftermath, former Peru captain Juan Reynoso was roped in as his successor. Ricardo Gareca, meanwhile, is back at Velez at the time of writing after turning down Ecuador.