Former Uruguay international Gustavo Matosas has been named to lead Costa Rica ahead of their FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ qualifying campaign.

It is Matosas’s first international appointment but the 53-year-old boasts extensive experience at club level. After starting out in Uruguay, Matosas won the local league title with Danubio in 2007.

The Argentine-born Matosas enjoyed notable success in Mexico, winning two championships with Leon (Apertura 2013 and Clausura 2014), and a year later he won the 2015 CONCACAF Champions League with America. He also coached in Peru, Saudi Arabia, Paraguay and Argentina.

"This is a great honour for me, to represent through the national team, a country like Costa Rica,” Matosas said. "It's a wonderful challenge that I'm very excited about. I've talked to all the people in my family because it's a wonderful opportunity, so I'm going to take it as if it were my own country."

Los Ticos exited after the group stage at Russia 2018 having achieved breakthrough qualification for the quarter-finals four years earlier in Brazil.