QUITO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Argentine Reinaldo "Mostaza" Merlo became the new coach of the Ecuadorian soccer club Barcelona de Guayaquil in replacement of Ever Hugo Almeida fired last week due to bad results, club president Eduardo Maruri said Thursday.

    Merlo, former player and Argentine coach works as commentator in the International Chain Fox Sports Argentine, will arrive here Friday morning.

    Merlo, 58, was midfielder of the Argentine River Plate club for15 years and coached the same team in two stages: 1989-1991 and 2005.

    Merlo also coached Chacairta Juniors, Atletico Nacional de Medellin, and Argentine youth national teams (1990-1994), Maruri said.

    The President of the Soccer Commission of Barcelona Antonio Noboa said that the new coach will arrive to "straighten the course of the team," that has great players, but it has few possibilities to arrive to the final leg of the national season, from that leg will come out the two Ecuadorian representatives forthe Libertadores Cup in 2009.

    "The coach Merlo will not come to lose his time, his goal is to be champion in Ecuador with Barcelona," Noboa said.

    Merlo will meet with his compatriots Marcelo "Chelo" Delgado, Rolando Zarate, Marco Mondaini (recovering from a lesion) and Gaston "Gato" Sessa that will leave the team to play with the Argentine team Gimnasia and Esgrima of La Plata in July.

    Noboa left open the possibility of replacing foreign players for the low soccer efficiency of Zarate, Delgado, the lesion of Mondaini and the departure of Sessa, but he said he had not received a concrete offer from Gimnasiay Esgrima.