After negotiations with Libertad coach Gerardo Martino fell through, the Paraguayan Football Association made Raúl Amarilla their interim head coach until the end of the year. This would be in an effort to negotiate and wait for their two top candidates to become available as they are presently committed to two squads in the Argentine first division. Amarilla was Anibal Ruiz’s (pic) assistant during the World Cup held in Germany.

Paraguay needed a coach to take over for the friendly they have pending against Australia on October 7th in Brisbane, and two others pending before the end of the calendar year.

Even though he was one of the greatest players to come out of the South American nation, he never played for his country’s national team due to him playing for a Spanish youth side. Back then, this would exclude a player from national team duty. Since then that rule was changed.

Another candidate emerged instead of the perennial talk of Newell’s Neri Pumpido and Vélez’ Miguel Angel Russo that invaded Asuncion for the past few weeks. These two along with Cerro Porteño coach Gustavo Costas and former River Plate coach Ramón Díaz joined in the race to become Paraguayan national team coach. A decision should be made in the next few months.

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