Juan Carlos Álvarez Cárdenas (born 14 February 1966) is a Colombian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the current manager of Boyacá Chicó.

Born in Medellín, Álvarez represented Atlético Nacional and Independiente Medellín as a youth, but made his senior debut with Cúcuta Deportivo in 1988. After his contract ended in 1989, he worked at the Banco Cafetero [es] before returning to football in 1991 with Deportivo Rionegro.^[1]

Álvarez subsequently played for Deportivo Antioquia [es], Deportes Quindío and Atlético Bucaramanga before retiring with Cúcuta in 1999.^[1]

After retiring, Álvarez studied in the Cooperative University of Colombia before joining Florida Soccer as a manager of the under-15 squad. In 2004, he became the assistant of Carlos Pachamé at Antioquia, before joining Óscar Aristizábal [es]'s staff at Rionegro under the same role in 2006.^[2]

Álvarez followed Aristizábal's staff to Envigado in 2009, also as an assistant.^[2] In the following year, he remained at the club despite the managerial change with Pedro Sarmiento, and subsequently followed him to Independiente Medellín.^[2]

In December 2015, after spending the previous year travelling in Spain, Álvarez became the manager of Categoría Primera B side Leones.^[3] He led the club to a first-ever promotion to the top tier in 2017,^[4]

Álvarez left Leones by mutual consent on 24 August 2018, with the club sitting bottom of the table.^[5] In the following year, he rejoined Sarmiento's staff at Unión Magdalena, returning to an assistant role.

In March 2022, Álvarez was appointed manager of the Antioquia regional team.^[6] He was also an assistant of Jhon Jaime Gómez at Boyacá Chicó in 2024, before becoming manager of the club on 27 October of that year.^[7]

• Juan Carlos Álvarez coach profile at Soccerway