Moises Caicedo was on the radar of almost every top club in the Premier League. Chelsea got the nod in the summer – for a crazy sum. What makes the six-pointer so expensive?
“He’s made for one of the big clubs, for the biggest competitions,” enthused current Gijon coach Miguel Angel Ramirez about his former protégé Moises Caicedo. Apparently, the managers of those “big clubs” also share this opinion. Arsenal had already shown great interest last winter, and in the summer Chelsea and Liverpool engaged in a real bidding war for the 21-year-old.
In the end, the midfielder himself turned down the Reds in order to follow in the footsteps of his idol N’golo Kanté at the Blues – who reportedly transferred a base fee of 116 million euros to Brighton. “He covers the whole pitch, I like that,” Caicedo had said of the 2018 World Cup winner in an interview as a 16-year-old.
Only Rice intercepted more balls than Caicedo in the preseason
The Ecuadorian could also make this statement about himself. After all, the six-pointer can be found almost everywhere on the field and has tremendous skills in winning the ball. Only Arsenal newcomer Declan Rice intercepted more balls (63 to 56), and only Fulham’s Joao Palhinha tackled more than the CFC newcomer (144 to 100). Because of his tackling prowess, they also called him “the octopus” at his ex-club Independiente del Valle because he “had the legs to win the ball wherever it appeared on the pitch.”
But to limit Caicedo only to his abilities as a ball-conqueror would be wrong. Rather, he also possesses great qualities in the buildup of play. In the preseason, he initiated a total of 185 attacks that resulted in a finish – in 118 of these moves, he was “merely” responsible for setting up the play. Again second best in the entire league, Manchester City’s Rodri played 132 passes in the build-up and then left the attack to his teammates.
But Caicedo is not only convincing in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality. His passing accuracy was 88.9 percent, and under pressure the 34-time international still got 86 percent of his passes to his teammates – behind Rodri and his new teammate Enzo Fernandez, the third-best figure for a Premier League midfielder. In short, Caicedo offers a package like few others in a position that is becoming increasingly important in modern soccer – and was correspondingly expensive in the summer.
These soccer skills opened up his path to a club in the first place. That’s because one morning, Ivan Guerra, a local soccer coach, spotted the Santo Domingo-born son of a rickshaw driver and a mother who earned a little money as a laundress, shooting at the wall. “There was something special about the way he hit the ball with both feet,” Guerra recalls. A key event in the life of “El Nino Moi” – the midfielder’s nickname in his hometown because he is the youngest of ten siblings.
Guerra paid Caicedo bus ticket and food
Because not only did he join the community project where Guerra trained youngsters for a few hours a week, but he even received extra encouragement from his “discoverer. “Every morning he came to my house and woke me up so we could train. I didn’t have money to take the bus to training, but he took care of that and paid for my food,” Caicedo explained.
After a game against Club Deportivo Espoli, he joined the opposition and ultimately moved from there to Independiente del Valle as a 13-year-old after a trial organized by his brothers. As a youngster, Caicedo already stood out from his team and made his first league debut at the age of 17 in October 2019. Then, just over a year later, he also made his first appearance for the senior side in a 1-0 loss in Argentina.
Humble start in Europe
According to media reports, several European clubs wanted to sign him from this point on at the latest: Among others, Manchester United, Newcastle or even Milan are said to have expressed interest. However, he did not fulfill his dream with a move to the Red Devils, Brighton got the nod in February 2021.
His development initially stagnated on the English south coast: in the second half of the season, Caicedo did not appear in any league game, and when this scenario threatened to repeat itself in the 2021/22 season, the Seagulls loaned the Ecuadorian to Antwerp to K. Beerschot VA. “It wasn’t a fantastic experience, but for him as a player it was very important for his development,” said Brighton’s technical director David Weir.
After just six months – a full season had originally been agreed – the English first division club brought him back after twelve league appearances in Belgium. Nevertheless, Caicedo subsequently had to wait a good three months for his Premier League debut. On Matchday 32, however, he started against Arsenal and from then on was an integral part of the first eleven.
His performances aroused desires, so that the Gunners already offered around 80 million euros for him in January 2023. Although the player asked for the release with sticky words, the “seagulls” rejected the offer. His performances did not suffer from this sideshow. “When you have players like Moises, you can always sell them – he’s 21 and playing fantastically,” Brighton coach Roberto de Zerbi explained. For this reason, the change was only postponed: It was off to London for the player six months later, albeit to Chelsea.
His start to the season at Stamford Bridge, like that of the entire team, was unsatisfactory, and he conceded a penalty on his debut in the away game at West Ham. But if Caicedo can come close to matching his role model’s performance after settling in, he could be a key player on Chelsea’s way back to the top flight – the very competition his former coach believes he was made for.