The 2023/24 season has been a breakout campaign for many young stars across the world. Chelsea have many, although not all of them have seen much game time.
The same cannot be said for Kobbie Mainoo of Manchester United, Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, and soon-to-be Real Madrid forward Endrick who have all announced themselves into professional football in recent months.
Both Mainoo and Yamal are products of Carrington and La Masia, their respective clubs’ youth systems, and will hope to be the next academy success stories of two legendary clubs.
Endrick, however, was bought by Real Madrid from Palmeiras for a fee rumoured to be £52m. Los Blancos were not the only club vying for the 17-year-old’s signature, with Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City also interested in signing the forward.
Chelsea were actually rumoured to be the club most likely to sign Endrick before Madrid beat them to it. Aiming to sign youngsters from South America is a policy that the Blues have often employed under Todd Boehly. Endrick is rumoured to not be the only name on their list.
Chelsea’s youthful transfer policy
It is no secret that since Boehly took over the reins of Chelsea, their transfer policy has been chaotic, to say the least.
They have spent over £1bn and had a squad so inflated that "some players had to sit on the floor during team meetings while others changed for training in the corridor", according to The Athletic.
The aforementioned policy of signing, or trying to sign, South American wonderkids is certainly one that Chelsea have at least unofficially employed in Boehly’s time at the club.
Aside from missing out on Endrick, the other notable failure was young Gabriel Moscardo, a midfielder from Brazil. The 18-year-old had offers on the table from Chelsea and PSG but opted to go with the latter.
However, there was one South American youngster Chelsea managed to land. Ecuadorian attacking midfielder Kendry Paez will join the Blues from Independiente del Valle for a fee that could eventually rise to £17m, according to Fabrizio Romano. Aged just 16, he could well be Chelsea's answer to Endrick.
Chelsea's answer to Endrick
It will not be until the summer of 2025 that Paez can join Chelsea, as he must wait until he turns 18, although he has trained with the first team already.
Incredibly, at just 16 years of age, Paez is already a full international with Ecuador and has six caps to his name so far, scoring once and registering two assists.
Paez plays as an attacking midfielder and possesses all the flair that you would expect from a South American number 10. Paez is a creative genius, who has an eye for goal, and already has seven goal involvements in 16 starts in the Ecuadorian top flight so far.
The youngster has a brilliant low centre of gravity and an eye for a pass. He loves to pick the ball up in deeper areas and spray long passes into teammates ahead of him and is excellent in combination play around the penalty box.
His previous manager had spoken very highly of him in the past. In an interview with Ole, Martín Anselmi, the former manager of Independiente del Valle, said “In Kendry we find a daring one. A boy who asks for it, and he is 15 years old and he doesn't care who is in front of him, and he asks for it.”
Not only that, Paez is highly rated by former Ecuardioan national team players. Carlos Tenorio, who made 52 appearances for Ecuador, compared him to two legends of the game when Paez was just 15. “He has the potential to be better than Lionel Messi and Neymar, but much will depend on him and the people around him”.
It is certainly high praise for such a young talent. Chelsea’s transfer policy towards signing youngsters might have been hit-and-miss so far, but it seems they have certainly struck gold with the signing of Paez. Together with Endrick, they could be the next superstar talents to emerge from South America.
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