The Montreal Impact added to their coaching staff on Monday, announcing the hiring of Esteban Gesto as an assistant coach under Wilmer Cabrera.
Gesto arrives with more than four decades of high-level experience, much of it as a fitness coach throughout South America. The Uruguayan has worked with his native country’s senior and youth national teams in addition to working with clubs in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay.
He was part of the Uruguay national team coaching staff in the 1990 and 2002 FIFA World Cups and in two FIFA Under-20 World Cups, and was a part of Copa Libertadores- and Intercontinental Cup-winning teams with Club Nacional in 1980.
Nicknamed “El Profesor,” Gesto also taught at Uruguay’s Comision Nacional de Educacion Fisica, in sporting centers and schools, and practiced medicine.
“Esteban Gesto is one of the most well known fitness coaches in all of Latin America,” said Cabrera, who took the helm in Montreal last month, in a statement. “Regardless of all the experience he has, he’s always been on top of the fitness aspect of the game, evolving with the tendencies. He coached top players in top clubs and selections at the highest level in the world. His knowledge and experience will be helpful for the last push of the season, mostly as an advisor to put the players in the best conditions possible.”
The Impact also noted that their academy’s fitness coach, Jules Gueguen, will stay with the first team until the end of the season.
