The Santiago club is still negotiating the terms of the current coach’s departure.
Without a club since leaving Fortaleza last September, Renato Paiva may be heading to Universidad de Chile.
The Portuguese coach is in negotiations with what is the second most titled team in Chilean football, behind Colo Colo.
Alongside negotiations with the former Benfica youth team coach, other talks are underway: between Universidad de Chile and the current coach, Gustavo Álvarez, an Argentinian coach who is leaving the team after two seasons at the helm, but the Santiago club wants to be compensated, since it was Álvarez who expressed his intention to move elsewhere.
On the last day, another name emerged in the Chilean press: Ariel Holan, who was dismissed this Thursday by Rosario Central (Ángel Di María’s team) and who in 2022 was replaced by Renato Paiva at the Mexican club Club León. Former FC Porto player Martín Anselmi was also mentioned as a possible candidate, but he is on his way to the Argentinian club Newell’s Old Boys, as reported by Maisfutebol , with the announcement expected after the club’s elections this weekend.
If negotiations between Paiva and Universidad de Chile are successful, the Portuguese coach will be working in his fourth country in the Americas. In 2021, after leaving Benfica after 15 years with the club, he led Independiente del Valle to their first=ever Ecuadorian national title. After that, he coached Club León (2022), Bahia (2023), Toluca (2024), Botafogo (2025), and finally Fortaleza, where he had a short stint between July and September.
Despite being considered one of the so-called “big three” of Chile, along with Colo Colo and Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile has not been champion since winning the Clausura in 2017. In 2018, the Apertura and Clausura were unified into a single championship. This season, which ended last weekend, they finished in 4th place, 20 points behind the champion Coquimbo Unido, who won the title for the first time.