Iván Jacinto Hurtado Angulo (born August 16, 1974 in Esmeraldas) is an Ecuadorian professional football central defender for Barcelona as well as captaining the Ecuadorian national team. He is currently one of the most capped male footballers of all time.

Club career[link]

He started his career with the small club of his hometown, Esmeraldas Petrolero, at the age of 16. A year later he moved on to one of Ecuador's biggest clubs in Guayaquil, Emelec, and had two stellar seasons, including two championships with the club, in one of them he scored the championship goal with a free kick he executed.

His excellent play warranted a switch to the Mexican leagues where he even further developed his defending techniques and his intelligent read of the game. Ivan made a big impact in his first club, Celaya, where he led them to the Mexican league finals. He then moved to Tigres. He then moved on to the La Liga in Spain playing for Real Murcia.^[1] After a mostly successful spell with Pachuca in Primera División de México, he moved on to Al Arabi in the Qatari League, impressing many over there.

After the FIFA World Cup in Germany, where Hurtado shone, it was reported that high profile clubs such as English Premier League's Wigan Athletic, and Spanish La Liga's Recreativo Huelva and Villarreal were highly interested in him. However none of these rumors were accurate, and after spending six more months with Al Arabi, Hurtado moved to Colombia where he played for Atlético Nacional, he led the defence of the team, becoming captain in the back-to-back titles in 2007. In mid-2009, he will return to Deportivo Quito for the remainder of their season.

Playing style[link]

Once a top class defender, he is known in Spanish by his fans as "Bam Bam" for ramming the football with his feet like the Hanna-Barbera character does with his club. Ivan's playing style differs from his national partner, Giovanny Espinoza. While Espinoza is a very large player who uses his size, power and speed to overwhelm his adversary, Hurtado is considered to be very classy and often needs no contact at all to dispossess his adversary. Ivan also makes very clean tackles, organizes his back line as well as the best of them, and can even display confidence with the ball at his feet, and he can occasionally make surprising dashes forward.

A notable long and short passer, Hurtado has also taken free kicks well. Although not able to the bend the ball as well as other notable free kick takers, he has been known to strike the ball with such force that goalkeepers find it hard to judge and time his shots.

International career[link]

Hurtado holds the record as the youngest Ecuadorian to play for his country at just 17 years and 285 days. He has appeared in more FIFA World Cup qualification matches than any other player in history, and has more overall international caps than any other South American player. Hurtado was one of the key players who played a major role in securing a first ever World Cup berth for Ecuador in 2002.^[2] He had such an impressive tournament, that he was appointed to succeed former Ecuadorian star Alex Aguinaga to be the captain of a new generation of an ever-improving Ecuador side.

His best performances came in Ecuador's dream tournament in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. His defence left stars such as Polish forward Jacek Krzynowek, Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope, and English players Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole, and Steven Gerrard desperate for goals.

However, his form declined in a space of just six months. Nevertheless, he played for Ecuador in Copa América 2007, where his performance was very low and criticized by many of his countrymen as the main reason for Ecuador's early elimination. Hurtado started the first two games against Chile and Mexico but was on the bench the whole game against Brazil.

Hurtado was called up for the first two 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Brazil, miserably losing both matches. As a consequence, he along with teammate Ulises de la Cruz, was excluded from the squad for the next round against Paraguay.^[3][4]

Hurtado announced that this would be his final qualifying campaign and possibly the World Cup should Ecuador qualify. He stated "There are a crop of talented and personable youngsters coming through now, and they deserve to have their chance like I had mine" referring to his replacements.^[5]

Career statistics[link]

International goals[link]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	24 May 1992	?, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Guatemala	1–1	Draw	Friendly
2.	24 May 1995	Athletic Recreation Park Stadium, Toyama City, Japan	Scotland	2–1	Lost	1995 Kirin Cup
3.	24 April 1996	Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo, Guayaquil, Ecuador	Peru	4–1	Win	1998 World Cup Q.
4.	2 June 1996	Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, Quito, Ecuador	Argentina	2–0	Win	1998 World Cup Q.
5.	7 June 1997	Estadio José Pachencho Romero, Maracaibo, Venezuela	Venezuela	1–1	Draw	1998 World Cup Q.
6.	12 January 2002	Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo, Guayaquil, Ecuador	Guatemala	1–0	Win	Friendly
7.	9 February 2003	Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo, Guayaquil, Ecuador	Estonia	1–0	Win	Friendly
Correct as of 22 March 2012

Honors[link]

Club[link]

Emelec

• Serie A: 1993, 1994

Atlético Nacional

• Primera A: 2007-I, 2007-II

Nation[link]

 Ecuador

• Canada Cup: 1999
• Korea Cup: 1995

References[link]

External links[link]

• International statistics at rsssf
• Career stats on national-football-teams.com

Iván Hurtado international tournaments v t e Ecuador squad – 1993 Copa América 1 Espinoza 2 Montanero 3 Quiñónez 4 B. Tenorio 5 Carabalí 6 Capurro 7 Muñoz 8 Carcelén 9 E. Hurtado 10 Aguinaga 11 Fernández 12 Mendoza 13 M. Tenório 14 Avilés 15 Gavica 16 Chalá 17 Zambrano 18 Coronel 19 Cherrez 20 I. Hurtado 21 Guerrero Coach: Drašković v t e Ecuador squad – 1995 Copa América 1 Cevallos 2 Guamán 3 Tenorio 4 Capurro 5 I. Hurtado 6 Carcelén 7 Aguinaga 8 Garay 9 E. Hurtado 10 Ron 11 P. Hurtado 12 Morales 13 Asencio 14 Noriega 15 Coronel 16 Quiñónez 17 Díaz 18 Herrera 19 León 20 Mora 21 Carabalí 22 Espinoza Coach: Maturana v t e Ecuador squad – 1999 Copa América 1 Cevallos 2 Coronel 3 Hurtado 4 Anangonó 5 Montaño 6 de la Cruz 7 Moreira 8 Blandón 9 Graziani 10 Aguinaga 11 Asencio 12 Ibarra 13 Delgado 14 Ayoví 15 Candelario 16 Carabalí 17 George 18 Gómez 19 Zamora 20 Sánchez 21 Quiñónez 22 Kaviedes Coach: Sevilla v t e Ecuador squad – 2001 Copa América 1 J. Cevallos 2 Porozo 3 Hurtado 4 de la Cruz 5 Burbano 6 Guerrón 7 J. Aguinaga 8 Ordóñez 9 Borja 10 A. Aguinaga 11 Delgado 12 Ibarra 13 Fernández 14 W. Ayoví 15 M. Ayoví 16 Chalá 17 Espinoza 18 Obregón 19 Méndez 20 Tenorio 21 Sánchez 22 Guagua Coach: Gómez v t e Ecuador squad – 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Cevallos 2 Porozo 3 Hurtado 4 5 Obregón 6 Guerrón 7 Lara 8 Gómez 9 C. Tenorio 10 Aguinaga 11 Asencio 13 Fernández 15 Ayoví 16 Chalá 17 Espinoza 18 Hidalgo 19 Méndez 20 E. Tenorio 21 Sánchez Coach: Gómez v t e Ecuador squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Cevallos 2 Porozo 3 Hurtado 4 De la Cruz 5 Obregón 6 Guerrón 7 Asencio 8 L. Gómez 9 Kaviedes 10 Aguinaga (c) 11 Delgado 12 Ibarra 13 Fernández 14 Burbano 15 M. Ayoví 16 Chalá 17 Espinoza 18 C. Tenorio 19 Méndez 20 E. Tenorio 21 Sánchez 22 Viteri 23 W. Ayoví Coach: H. Gómez v t e Ecuador squad – 2004 Copa América 1 J. Espinoza 2 Guagua 3 Hurtado 4 de la Cruz 5 Obregón 6 Ambrosi 7 Salas 8 Ordóñez 9 Figueroa 10 Aguinaga 11 Delgado 12 Ibarra 13 Saritama 14 Baldeón 15 Ayoví 16 Chalá 17 G. Espinoza 18 Reasco 19 Méndez 20 E. Tenorio 21 Soledispa 22 Lanza Coach: Gómez v t e Ecuador squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Villafuerte 2 Guagua 3 Hurtado (c) 4 De la Cruz 5 Perlaza 6 Urrutia 7 Lara 8 Méndez 9 Borja 10 Kaviedes 11 Delgado 12 Mora 13 Ambrosi 14 Castillo 15 Ayoví 16 Valencia 17 Espinoza 18 Reasco 19 Saritama 20 E. Tenorio 21 C. Tenorio 22 Lanza 23 Benítez Coach: Suárez v t e Ecuador squad – 2007 Copa América 1 Elizaga 2 Guagua 3 Hurtado 4 de la Cruz 5 Urrutia 6 Quiñónez 7 Quiroz 8 Méndez 9 Borja 10 Caicedo 11 Benítez 12 Mora 13 Calle 14 Castillo 15 Bagüí 16 Valencia 17 Espinoza 18 Reasco 19 Ayoví 20 E. Tenorio 21 C. Tenorio 22 Palacios Coach: Suárez