Keylor Navas is back with Costa Rica’s national team as interim coach Bryan Ruiz recalled the veteran goalkeeper on Monday night in his first squad list, bringing experience into a team that has lost both of its Concacaf Nations League matches and now risks relegation from the competition’s top tier.
Ruiz, who replaced the fired Fernando Batista yesterday, also called up Puebla defender Juan Pablo Vargas and Alajuelense midfielders Celso Borges and Roan Wilson. The Costa Rican Football Federation released the list late Monday, after Navas had arrived in the country to join the squad.
Three players named by Batista were left out. Saprissa’s Sebastián Padilla and MathÃas Elizondo and Cartaginés midfielder Gianmauro Morera do not appear on the new list, which replaces the squad Batista announced before his dismissal. The changes come with almost no time to prepare. Costa Rica visits Nicaragua on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m. at the National Stadium in Managua, then hosts Haiti on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 6 p.m. at Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibás.
La Sele opened the group stage with a 4-3 home loss to Curaçao after leading 3-0 at halftime, then fell 2-0 to Haiti in Kingston, Jamaica. Those results left Costa Rica without a point, level with Nicaragua, which lost 6-1 to Curaçao on Sunday. Curaçao, Haiti and the Dominican Republic each have six points after two rounds. The bottom two teams in each of League A’s two groups drop to League B, which turns Thursday’s match in Managua into a direct meeting between the two teams now sitting in the relegation places.
Navas, 39, is Costa Rica’s most decorated player, a three-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid who still plays at a high level in Mexico. He helped Pumas reach the Liga MX final in May, and his return gives Ruiz an experienced presence behind a defense that conceded six goals in the first two matches.
Borges and Wilson bring a different kind of familiarity. Both play for Alajuelense, where Ruiz has coached the under-20 team and briefly took charge of the senior side. WÃlmer López and Edson Soto will serve as his assistants. The full group, including the new additions, trains together for the first time on Tuesday. Ruiz held his first session with the team on Monday, a recovery workout following the loss in Jamaica.
Nicaragua will be without its leading attacker, Jaime Moreno, who is suspended after picking up a second yellow card of the competition against Curaçao. The Nicaraguan federation has also launched a ticket giveaway promotion to fill the stadium in Managua. The stakes extend beyond this window, because Concacaf ties direct qualification for the 2027 Gold Cup to Nations League results.
Costa Rica has not won in eight matches, and its last victory came against Nicaragua in World Cup qualifying on Oct. 13, 2025. Ruiz’s first test comes Thursday night against the last team La Sele beat.
