Argentine coach Gustavo Álvarez has been confirmed as the new head coach of San Lorenzo, ahead of the final dates of the 2026 Apertura Tournament. According to the Argentine News Agency, the 53-year-old coach will take over training this same Monday to lead the first team in the club's next match against Deportivo Riestra on Wednesday. With 10 years of coaching experience, the native of Lomas de Zamora comes from a successful stint in Chilean football, having been champion with Huachipato in 2023 and runner-up with Universidad de Chile the following year, in addition to reaching the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana last season. Gustavo Álvarez will be experiencing his fourth time in Argentine football, and it will also be the first time he coaches a club with Primera División championships, after being confirmed as the new coach of San Lorenzo. The 53-year-old coach's career began at Temperley in 2016, being part of the club's great history in Primera División with a total of 35 matches played for the “Gasolero,” a club he also represented during his brief spell as a player, where he played as a left-back. In the 2017/18 season, he arrived at Aldosivi, securing the “Tiburón's” championship in what was then called Primera B Nacional (now Primera Nacional), in addition to having a good campaign the following year, already in Primera, with a respectable 13th place in the 18/19 Superliga, which left the club one point away from its first-ever Copa Sudamericana and far from the fight for relegation. As his start to the following season was not good, Álvarez resigned and had two unsuccessful stints: he arrived at Patronato and was fired after only two wins in 17 matches, then went to Sport Boys in Peru and resigned before the end of the championship due to salary delays. He started 2022 in Peru, being presented as coach of Atlético Grau, and it was there that his coaching career began to take off. After an Apertura in which he finished mid-table, Gustavo Álvarez led Grau to third place in the Clausura, with 37 points in 18 matches. His good spell in Peru allowed him to move to Chilean football in 2023, a year in which he etched his name in Huachipato's history: he was champion of the 2023 tournament with a one-point lead over Cobresal, securing the third and last title won by the black-and-red team. Thus, Gustavo Álvarez made the leap that allowed him to be hired by Universidad de Chile. In his first season, the team finished as runner-up in the Primera tournament and qualified for the 2025 Copa Libertadores, although after finishing third in the group stage, they were relegated to the Sudamericana, where they advanced to the semifinals. Finally, after the truncated arrivals of coaches Pablo Guede and Martín Palermo, Álvarez beat Julio César Vaccari and will take the reins of the “Ciclón,” succeeding Damián Ayude and aiming to qualify for the final stage of the 2026 Apertura, as well as having a good performance in the upcoming Clausura and the Copa Sudamericana, whose group he will share with Santos of Brazil, Deportivo Cuenca of Ecuador, and the Paraguayan Recoleta.
