Willian Pacho is the anchor at the center of the Ecuadorian defense. The 24-year-old, left-footed, 6-foot-2 regular for Paris Saint-Germain is valued at $82.3m. Pacho has gone from Independiente del Valle to Antwerp to Frankfurt to PSG in a hurry, and every step up has made him look more convincing rather than less.
Pacho changes the way you think about the Ecuador defense. This is not just a scrappy underdog back line trying to survive. Pacho gives them a genuinely elite defensive piece — fast enough to defend space, strong enough to handle physical forwards, and calm enough on the ball to help Ecuador play out rather than just clear their lines. He was one of the central figures in Ecuador’s qualification run, where they impressed by finishing second in CONMEBOL qualifying.
There is also a club-level credibility with Pacho that Ecuador have not always had in defense. Pacho started for PSG in their 5-0 Champions League final win over Inter and became the first Ecuadorian to win the competition. He has been instrumental again this season, coming up big time and time again across PSG’s two Champions League semifinal matches with Bayern Munich, now poised to defend their title in the final.
This World Cup is likely to ask Ecuador to win ugly at times. Moisés Caicedo will get the midfield headlines, Piero Hincapié gives them another high-end defender, and Kendry Páez brings the wonderkid angle, but Pacho is the player who makes the whole thing feel sturdy. If Ecuador are going to be more than just a tough group-stage out, they probably need Pacho to look like the top-end PSG version of himself: clean, composed, and quietly dominant.