AT THE heart of Brighton’s destruction of Liverpool last Saturday was Ecuadorian midfielder Moises Caicedo.
The zone of the field where Jurgen Klopp’s team steamed their opponents belonged to the Brighton no. 25.
caicedo interrupted Liverpool’s movements with his tackle and positional skills, held the side together with his passing – he’s a master at finding clever and interesting angles to deliver the ball – and propelled the team forward with his lung power .
He looked at the complete package – a central midfielder shone brightly inside Brighton’s brilliant campaign which will make the club a fortune if they – inevitably – resell it to someone bigger.
Especially since the reported fee Brighton paid for Moises Caicedo was £5 million.
utilities Chelsea reportedly ready pay up to £65 million to bring Caicedo to Stamford Bridge.
It’s amazing to think that a player of this quality and potential could be snapped up for such a small amount of money – all the more remarkable considering he was already a vital member of the Ecuador flying team World Cup qualifying when Brighton picked him up.
They weren’t just betting on potential. He was already a fact.
Then why he ends up in Brighton?
Manchester United were interested.
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They were scared off, however, due to the complexity of the deal and the number of agents involved.
Brighton had an advantage here.
They already had relationships with Caicedo’s club, the extraordinary Independiente del Valle, a small club just outside the Ecuadorian capital of Quito.
Independiente del Valle was taken over a few years ago by businessmen who took the mission of developing and reselling players very seriously.
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Jefferson Montero, the winger who enjoyed good days at Swansea, was one of their early successes.
Brighton had bet on Billy Arce, an attacking midfielder who always looked too light for the Premier League.
The move was unsuccessful. But it put Brighton in pole position to sign Caicedo. For just 5 million pounds.
The fee was so low because the player was from Ecuador.
Had he come from Brazil, much more money would have changed hands.
For example, Chelsea paid more than double that amount to sign Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama, a central midfielder who has yet to play a game in Brazil’s first division.
Andrey Santos will play later this week at the South American Under-20 Championships, which start in Colombia on Thursday.
The 2021 version, usually held every two years, was canceled due to the pandemic.
The reigning champion, as of the 2019 version, is Ecuador, who placed third at that level in that year’s World Cup and produced a number of players for the senior World Cup team in Qatar.
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That 2019 Ecuador squad was packed with Independiente del Valle players – and so is this one four years later.
The club has a remarkable recent record of producing talent, and European scouts pay a lot of attention to it.
And with Caicedo proving to be such a success, transfer fees are likely to be higher.
The risk factor of coming directly from Ecuador has been lowered.
If a Moises Caicedo is on display, interested clubs will certainly have to go much higher than £5 million.