Inter Miami have lost their head coach less than six months after winning MLS Cup. Javier Mascherano resigned on Tuesday, and the reigning champions are now being led by a man who won one of his last 13 matches in charge of a Bolivian club.
That man is Ángel Guillermo Hoyos, who steps off his perch as the club's sporting director to take interim charge of the first team. It's an unusual move — pulling your sporting director onto the touchline is a sign that Inter Miami weren't exactly prepared for this moment.
What Hoyos is actually working with
His track record as a coach is the kind of thing that doesn't inspire confidence on paper. At Oriente Petrolero in 2023: one win, four draws, eight losses across 13 matches. Before that, 57 matches across Talleres de Córdoba, Aldosivi, and Atlas in Liga MX yielded 15 wins, 12 draws, and 28 losses. More than half his games ended in defeat.
He's essentially being asked to hold the ship steady while the front office — Jorge Mas and David Beckham — goes hunting for a permanent appointment. That search, the club confirmed, is already underway.
In the meantime, Hoyos gets to manage Lionel Messi, which is either the dream job or the most stressful gig in North American football depending on how you look at it.
The bigger picture at Fort Lauderdale
The reshuffle doesn't stop with Mascherano's exit. Alberto Marrero is moving from director of football to sporting director — the exact role Hoyos is vacating to go dugout-side. Inter Miami are reshuffling their entire football structure simultaneously.
Mascherano's tenure wasn't a failure by any measure. He delivered the MLS Cup and pushed to a Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal. But this season's Round of 16 elimination at the hands of Nashville was apparently enough to trigger the change.
How Miami's form holds up under an interim with a modest coaching CV will directly affect their odds heading into the MLS stretch run. A team built around Messi with structural uncertainty at the top isn't a comfortable position for anyone backing them at the moment.
The permanent appointment can't come soon enough.
