Kendry Páez

[James 5,160]

Kendry Páez
Date of birth: 4 May 2007
Place of birth: Guayaquil, Ecuador
Position: Midfielder

On 5 June 2023, it was announced that Paez would join Premier League club Chelsea after his 18th birthday, in the summer of 2025.

[James 5,160]

 

[Vesper 27,867]

On 23/10/2023 at 12:44, James said:

 

Utter madness that he was born only 4 months or so before the September 14, 2007 Northern Rock bank run and eventual collapse ( the 2nd huge whole firm implosion in the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis/collapse after New Century Financial, the largest U.S. subprime lender, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 2)

Paez was not even born yet when New Century imploded. 🤪

 

2007 crisis and initial responses

On 14 September 2007, the bank sought and received a liquidity support facility from the Bank of England, to replace funds it was unable to raise from the money market. Reporting of this complex scenario led to panic among individual depositors, who feared that their savings might not be available should Northern Rock go into receivership. The result was a bank run – the UK's first in 150 years – where depositors lined up outside the bank to withdraw all of their savings as quickly as possible, particularly since many other people were doing the same.

As the UK government provided the liquidity support facility, they also exerted pressure on the bank to create a longer-term recovery plan. Over the next few months, there were numerous changes to the board of directors and executive team.

On 22 February 2008, the bank was taken into state ownership as a result of two unsuccessful bids to take over the bank, neither being able to fully commit to repayment of taxpayers' money within three years. The bank is managed at "arm's length" by the government through UK Financial Investments.

People queuing outside a branch in Golders Green, London, on 14 September 2007, to withdraw their savings due to fallout from the subprime crisis.

[Vesper 27,867]

(Video): Chelsea wonderkid starts new league season with a stunning 45 minutes

https://Chelsea.news/2024/03/video-Chelsea-wonderkid-starts-new-league-season-with-a-stunning-45-minutes/

Chelsea talent Kendry Paez won’t be able to join us until next summer, but that won’t stop us enjoying his highlights in the meantime.

He’s just started a new season in Ecuador with Independiente del Valle, and last night he got his first goal of the fledgling season. As you can see from the highlights below, it was a sensational showing – and this was just in 45 minutes.

He’s going to play for Ecuador again in this upcoming international break, and we can’t wait to see that either.

You can see it all in the clip embedded here:

 

[bluesman2610 1,301]

He's filled out some more looks like he got taller and put on some more muscle

[KEVINAA 70]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendry_Páez

Early Career

Born in Guayaquil, Páez began his career with local side Barcelona SC's youth department Academia Alfaro Moreno at the age of five.

Barcelona SC was offered the chance to register Páez at the age of eight, but the club did not sign him as it was "too hard for a president to pay for a player at this age".

He later had a short stint at Emelec before moving to Patria, where he started to feature more regularly as a forward.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kendry-paez/profil/spieler/1052439

https://Chelsea.news/2024/04/video-chelseas-kendry-paez-scores-absolute-banger-and-also-gets-assist/

 

Edited April 25 by KEVINAA

[Magic Lamps 11,557]

2 years of waiting only to get perma wrecked by a Cucurella tackle to then spent the rest of his career being reinjured by the Foo Fighters physio 

[Strike 7,108]

 

[bluesman2610 1,301]

12 hours ago, Strike said:

 

Wow!

[Vesper 27,867]

Chelsea-bound sensation Kendry Paez: ‘The bigger the challenge, the better he gets’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5508944/2024/06/07/kendry-paez-ecuador-Chelsea-copa-america/

When you manage Independiente del Valle, you grow pretty accustomed to displays of youthful verve.

The club’s academy, nestled among the rolling hills on the outskirts of Quito, is not just the best in Ecuador. It is the envy of the entirety of South America, a player development Mecca that has filled Independiente’s coffers and breathed fresh life into the Ecuador national team. Keeping an eye out for the next big thing is just part of the job description.

Martin Anselmi knew the score. As Independiente’s assistant coach in 2019 and 2020, he had witnessed the emergence of Moises Caicedo and Piero Hincapie, two of the standout graduates of what the club calls its High Performance Centre. When he returned to the manage the first team in May 2022, he expected a whole new generation of teenagers to be knocking at the door.

Still, he wasn’t ready for this. He wasn’t ready for Kendry Paez.

A couple of months into the job, Anselmi sat down to watch Independiente’s under-18s. They were playing their first game in the Copa Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World Cup), a tournament the club organises every year. It was a decent match, shaded by the hosts, but it would not have stuck in the memory were it not for one second-half substitution.

The board went up. On came Paez, a tricksy little attacking midfielder. Anselmi had heard whispers about him but had never seen him in action. Paez was 15, three years younger than most of the other players on the pitch, but you would never have known it from his swagger.

“The very first time he got the ball, he flicked the ball over the heads of two players and played a 40-metre pass to the opposite wing,” recalls Anselmi. “I was stunned.”

It was the start of a fruitful relationship. Quite a funny one, too: after the tournament ended — Paez scored twice in the final as Independiente beat Atletico Nacional of Colombia — the teenager became a full-time nuisance to Anselmi, constantly accosting him at the training ground and asking when he was going to be called up to the first team.

Sometimes, when Anselmi passed him in the corridor, Paez would simply point his index finger upwards, indicating that it was time for a promotion. Over time, he grew even more confident. “I’ll be your No 10,” he would tell Anselmi, to howls of amusement from anyone within earshot. “And captain.”

Arrogant? Certainly. Deluded? The evidence would suggest not. Less than two years after first catching Anselmi’s eye, Paez is Independiente’s star player. He is a regular in the Ecuador team, a national idol in the making, and will be one of the main attractions at this summer’s Copa America. He has already agreed to join Chelsea — where he will be reunited with Caicedo — after he turns 18.

That’s not until next May. Goodness knows what he and his fast-forward button have planned between now and then.

The hope — for him and for anyone who likes their football sprinkled with impish magic — is that he can maintain the upward trajectory. There are a few small red lights on the dashboard, questions about whether Paez is ready for the level of fame and scrutiny that are coming his way; what is not up for debate is the magnitude of his talent.

“Technically superlative,” Anselmi calls him, and that is no outlier view. He is a sensation in his homeland, a schoolboy superstar. The only people who don’t expect Paez to become the best footballer Ecuador has ever produced are those who are convinced that he already is.

“He’s on another level,” former Ecuador striker Carlos Tenorio said last year. “These players are not born every day.”

Those who know Paez well are similarly enthused. “Without doubt, Kendry has something special,” says Carlos Cajas, one of his former youth coaches. Cristian Pellerano, the former Independiente captain and one-time mentor to the youngster, is even more emphatic.

“Kendry,” says Pellerano, “can achieve whatever he wants to achieve in football.”

---

Paez grew up in Isla Trinitaria, one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second largest city. Money was always tight: Paez often went to school hungry and was always aware that his parents were up against it.

Football provided a welcome distraction — and not just to young Kendry. His dad, Ray, played, as did his uncles. But it was his mother, Jessica, who was his first inspiration. “I used to watch her play in my neighbourhood,” Paez told ESPN last year. “It was amazing to see how good she was. My parents were both spectacular players. I was also given the gift.”

Aged five, Paez started training at a local soccer school. Later, he was briefly on the books at top-division club Emelec and turned out for an amateur team in Guayaquil called Hooligans FC.

At 10, Paez joined the academy at Patria, one of Ecuador’s most historic teams. There, his wiry frame and wand of a left foot reminded his team-mates of someone. “Di Maria,” they called Paez, after Argentina winger Angel. The nickname stuck, following him to Independiente del Valle when he moved there two years later.

It was not a straightforward transition. Paez had already been scouted by LDU Quito, who believed they had reached an agreement with the player’s parents and agent. “On the first Monday of the season, he was supposed to come and train with us,” recalls Cajas, who worked at LDU at the time. “But when the day came, he didn’t show up.”

Instead, Paez had gone to Independiente’s training complex. The man behind the coup was Luis Roggiero, the club’s former sporting director, who had also been on Paez’s tail for some time.

“Our scout told us that he had found a player with a special talent, but that the club would have to make a significant effort financially to be able to sign him,” Roggiero tells The Athletic. “It was going to cost much more than the club was used to paying for a 12-year-old kid. So we had to make sure that he did indeed have all the potential that our scout had detected.”

Roggiero spoke with Roberto Olabe, a renowned Spanish coach who was acting as a consultant for Independiente. The club has a long-standing collaboration agreement with the Aspire Academy in Qatar; Olabe, who is now sporting director at Real Sociedad, helped to shape the youth methodology across the network.

“I asked Roberto to evaluate Kendry,” recalls Roggiero. “He came back to me a few days later and said that the kid was very, very good. He said that Kendry saw things two passes before anyone else did, and also had the ability to execute on his ideas. His message was simple: we just had to get him.”

With Olabe’s seal of approval, Roggiero went to the club’s board, who found enough money to get the deal done.

There was, from the get-go, a buzz about Paez. Roberto Arroyo, the club’s current sporting director, was youth coordinator at the time and remembers the excitement he felt watching Paez’s first training session.

“His control of the ball was excellent,” Arroyo tells The Athletic. “He had good vision. He could beat his man. We see hundreds of players every year but you do notice when a kid is different to the rest.”

Nor was it just a question of technique. In the months that followed, it was Paez’s intelligence on the pitch that really came to the fore. He was a central playmaker at heart, but looked just as comfortable in central midfield or even on the wing. Wherever he played, he seemed to have an innate feel for the evolving rhythms of a match.

“We really like players who understand football,” Arroyo says. “When a kid can read the game better than the others, you only have to work on the details. There was always this consensus about Kendry. We all agreed that he had a future at the club.”

---

Paez had been at Independiente for a couple of years when he crossed paths with an old acquaintance. Cajas, the youth coach who had previously tried to sign him for LDU, had switched clubs himself. As fate would have it, he was Paez’s new manager. And, at the outset at least, he wasn’t bowled over by what he saw.

“My first impression was that Kendry had talent and potential but wasn’t yet able to develop it,” Cajas tells The Athletic. “My initial perception, which was confirmed when I began to work with him on a day-to-day basis, was that he didn’t have the right attitude. He saw himself as a very talented kid, and he did stand out on a technical level, but he didn’t have a good approach to training.”

Cajas got on Paez’s case. He told him he had to train with the same commitment he showed in matches. He urged him to contain his frustration with his team-mates when they made mistakes. He also told him to tidy his room.

“We ended up having a real emotional connection,” says Cajas. “After we talked about his messiness, he was always the one with the cleanest room. He was willing to learn. He just needed a little bit of order and discipline.”

The same was true on the pitch. Paez would switch off out of possession. Even when he gave the ball away, he rarely chased back or sought to make amends. “He would just stand there, waiting for his team-mates to win it back and return it to him,” laughs Cajas. “That was something we worked on a lot.”

This was at under-16 level. Paez, in fairness, was still only 14, and while Cajas was keen to fine-tune certain parts of his game, he was also in awe of him. Paez played as the right-sided central midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation but his exuberance transcended tactics. With the ball at his feet, he was a free-wheeling force of nature.

“Kendry had many strengths — ball control, first touch, vision — but what stood out to me was just how much joy he played with,” says Cajas. “It was beyond systems, beyond positioning. It was all a game to him. It was play.”

Case in point: Paez loved to pick the ball up on the right side and set off on mazy, diagonal dribbles, twisting defenders inside and out en route to the penalty box.

“Often he would beat two, three, even four players before shooting or setting up a team-mate,” Cajas recalls. “It was his trademark run and he used to do it constantly. I even gave it a name: La Magnifica.”

---

After the Copa Mitad del Mundo, Independiente travelled to Salzburg, Austria, to take part in in another international youth tournament: the Next Generation Trophy, an under-16 competition put on by Red Bull.

There, they beat RB Leipzig, New York Red Bulls and Inter Milan, and while they lost in the final to Yeelen Olympique of Mali, Paez headed home with a trophy for player of the tournament.

His displays put a number of top European clubs on alert; Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund were among those sniffing around in the latter stages of 2022. They also changed the dynamic at Independiente, convincing many fans that Paez needed to be bumped up to the first team at the earliest opportunity.

Anselmi heeded those calls at the start of 2023, including the 15-year-old in his squad for pre-season.

“We were not certain that he was ready to compete in the first division,” admits Anselmi. “It was a case of taking care of him, progressing little by little, so he could adjust to the rhythm of senior football.”

Paez had a brief run-out in a friendly against Guayaquil City but his first real chance came in Independiente’s first league game of the season, against Mushuc Runa. Starting as the left-sided attacking midfielder in Anselmi’s 3-4-2-1 system, Paez capped a sparky display with his first senior goal, coolly lobbying the goalkeeper from an acute angle with his weaker foot.

It was no flash in the pan, either. Two games later, he started against Barcelona, the biggest team in Ecuador. “We decided to see what he was made of,” says Anselmi. “And he was one of the best players on the pitch. Immediately after his first pre-season, he was a fixture in the team.”

Cristian Pellerano, Independiente’s captain at that time, remembers the impact Paez made on him.

“My first impression was of a player whose individual technique was very, very advanced,” Pellerano tells The Athletic. “He controlled the ball in this natural way, however it came to him. It wasn’t normal.

“That first goal, for example: it would have been a tough chance for any other player, but he resolved it with ease. Those little details in his game made me think that he was going to be a transcendent player.”

Within a few weeks, pretty much everyone in Ecuador shared that opinion. Paez shone at the South American Under-17 Championship (two goals and six assists as Ecuador finished second to Brazil) and then at the Under-20 World Cup (one goal and three assists in four games).

At which point we have to dust off the accelerator pedal: Paez was called up to the senior Ecuador squad and agreed to sign for Chelsea on the same day in June, made his international debut in September and became the youngest scorer in South American World Cup qualifying history the following month, aged 16 and 161 days.

“There was no challenge he did not overcome in that year,” says Anselmi. “That’s not normal for a kid of his age. The bigger the challenge, the better he got.”

By the end of 2023, the rave reviews were coming in thick and fast. “He has everything it takes to be better than Lionel Messi,” purred Tenorio, the former Ecuador forward. “He’s a superstar,” said Andres Chicaiza, who faced Paez during his time at LDU. “We have to enjoy him because a kid like that only comes along once every 50 years.”

Anselmi, who now manages Cruz Azul in Mexico, is no less enthusiastic. “He always surprised me with his technique and his fluency,” he says. “He knows how to find space, knows where he can hurt the opposition.

“But for me, his biggest asset is his personality. He’s kind of cheeky, irresponsible in a good way.”

---

Paez’s agent, Manuel Sierra, probably did not realise quite how prophetic his words would come to seem.

“It’s very difficult at 16,” Sierra told Spanish newspaper AS in January. “Imagine everything that’s coming his way, all the temptations and requests.”

The temptations part was pretty neatly covered in late March, when photos showing Paez on a night out in New York circulated online. It emerged that the midfielder — 16 at the time, remember — had gone to a club with Ecuador team-mates on the eve of their friendly against Italy. Some of the players, including Paez, were also pictured in a strip club.

The Ecuadorian federation issued a statement in which they described the events as “contrary to the values and principles that we defend and promote,” and, although Paez’s more experienced colleagues copped the bulk of the criticism in the local press, the photos did ring a few alarm bells. Was Ecuador’s boy wonder allowing himself to be led astray?

At the very least, it is clear that Paez is no wallflower. He has, thus far, leaned into his new-found fame rather than away from it. “His personality always attracts attention,” says Jonathan Loachamin, who covers Independiente for local radio station Radio Super K. “He is boisterous and likes to be at the centre of the madness.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, but some fear it may ultimately cost him.

“I would love him to be a global star, but I think it’s possible that he doesn’t reach that level,” says Cajas. “That’s partly down to the idiosyncrasies of Ecuadorian football. Certain habits and lifestyles are prevalent among footballers in our country. The background, the entourages… football gives players riches that would be unimaginable in their previous lives.

“At Independiente, Kendry is working inside a structure that is very well developed and organised. But it still cannot match the standards expected of players at the top European clubs, in terms of behaviour and engagement.

“He needs someone to help him make the right decisions, and mental support so he is able to stay on track through everything he is experiencing. He needs to do a lot of extra work — in training, on his life habits, on the intangible things.”

It can, of course, be easy to forget that we are talking about a child here. A dose of empathy is required.

“It’s not as simple as saying that the boy is immature,” says Arroyo, Independiente’s sporting director. “He is already a public figure, especially in our country. We might have to nudge him sometimes, tell him why he shouldn’t do certain things. But you have to consider his age.”

---

The tricky thing for Paez is that he’s still a year away from really finding out how far he can go. He can only move to Chelsea after he turns 18 next May. In the interim, he will just have to focus on… well, what, exactly?

Already, the Ecuadorian ecosystem looks too small for him. KFC are among Independiente’s shirt sponsors; Paez is such an outsized presence in the public consciousness that those initials might as well stand for Kendry Football Club.

This summer’s Copa America is a welcome challenge. Not only have Ecuador never won the tournament; they haven’t reached the semi-finals since 1993. After a favourable draw — La Tri are in a group with Mexico, Venezuela and Jamaica — Paez and the rest of a promising new generation stand a decent chance of updating that record in the USA.

Thereafter, the priority will be winning his first trophy with Independiente — and preparing himself for the Premier League.

“That’s his most important objective, arriving at Chelsea in good shape,” says Arroyo. “If he doesn’t arrive at his best, he’ll just be another squad player, and that’s not what anyone wants.”

Anselmi reiterates that view. “There is a long road ahead but he has to start getting ready for Europe already,” he says. “Before moving, you have to be prepared — physically, intellectually, financially, in terms of the language.”

Paez has been taking English lessons for some time. He has a nutritionist and does private work with a video analyst. He still attends school classes three days a week at Independiente’s training centre. “I don’t think I’m a big deal,” he told ESPN last year. “I’m always humble. I have things to work on. I know the time is going to pass quickly.”

That interview, admittedly, was given last June. Paez might have expected the milestones to have arrived a little more gradually thereafter, to be spaced out over two years, say. Instead, they all rushed to the front of the timetable. It is to Paez’s credit that he has managed to clamber over them all so nimbly.

What happens next is contingent on his maintaining that momentum — no easy task given that he must already have ticked off half of the items on his footballing bucket list.

“He has been burning through stages but he must be wary of becoming complacent,” says Anselmi. “That is always dangerous. I’m not talking about the level of the Ecuadorian league. I’m talking about human motivation, what drives us. If, at 17 years old, you’re already a starter for your club team, you already play for your national team, you’re already a star… how do you find the next challenge?”

Part of the responsibility falls on Independiente, but a lot of the motivation will have to come from within. Paez must know that he could easily coast through the next year without the dial on the hype machine lowering much; the question is whether that he allows that knowledge to trip him up.

“It’s going to turn on his desire, his intensity, his way of approaching the challenge,” says Pellerano. “It’s going to depend purely and exclusively on him.

“He has what it takes to be a big star. I hope that he can make the leap.”

[ZAPHOD2319 4,194]

I am really looking forward to Copa America. 

[NikkiCFC 7,816]

2 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

I am really looking forward to Copa America. 

I like how all Americas are together now. 

You are close to Atlanta if I remember correctly. Can catch one USA game and Argentina game. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,194]

6 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

I like how all Americas are together now. 

You are close to Atlanta if I remember correctly. Can catch one USA game and Argentina game. 

The only time the US is included in Copa is when we are a hosting nation for the tournament. Having the games in the US makes more money for the South American federation than when they do it on their own. 
 

I am hoping to get to some games at Mercedes Benz in Atlanta. It will really depend on the ticket prices. Having a child in college and trying to get him to graduate debt free is seriously effecting my fun money. $1k for four seats is probably out of my budget. In comparison four tickets to see Chelsea vs Club America at Mercedes Benz is $150.

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,194]

 

[OneMoSalah 8,689]

Still a lot of hype for this kid - some of it rightfully so and then some of it as usual OTT.

Does anyone else think it could be smart if he spent maybe a season at least or at a push 2 in France just to get himself more physically ready? Would it make too much sense?

I mean I don’t think he is going to be physically ready to play in the Prem from the get go. It’s a big jump in terms of intensity and physicality from South America to Europe. Not even talking about the difference in quality.

I am hoping that going to Strasbourg is a part of the plan for him. Similarly to how it was for Angelo, even if he didn’t particularly excel, physically it would have been more challenging for him and a good step for his development in that way as opposed to arriving straight in England.

Edited June 12 by OneMoSalah

[YorkshireBlue 2,982]

7 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

Still a lot of hype for this kid - some of it rightfully so and then some of it as usual OTT.

Does anyone else think it could be smart if he spent maybe a season at least or at a push 2 in France just to get himself more physically ready? Would it make too much sense?

I mean I don’t think he is going to be physically ready to play in the Prem from the get go. It’s a big jump in terms of intensity and physicality from South America to Europe. Not even talking about the difference in quality.

I am hoping that going to Strasbourg is a part of the plan for him. Similarly to how it was for Angelo, even if he didn’t particularly excel, physically it would have been more challenging for him and a good step for his development in that way as opposed to arriving straight in England.

How did real handle endrick? 

[OneMoSalah 8,689]

5 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

How did real handle endrick? 

Are you saying La Liga is as physical as the Prem? It is not. 

Also Endrick’s physique is different compared to Paez. Completely. Just look at images of two of them. 

Endrick will be able to handle himself very well in Europe, Paez looks very lightweight still hence why perhaps a spell in France may help him adapt better when he does eventually get here. 

 

Edited June 12 by OneMoSalah

[YorkshireBlue 2,982]

5 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Are you saying La Liga is as physical as the Prem? It is not. 

Also Endrick’s physique is different compared to Paez. Completely. Just look at images of two of them. 

Endrick will be able to handle himself very well in Europe, Paez looks very lightweight still hence why perhaps a spell in France may help him adapt better when he does eventually get here. 

 

No not saying that, I was just asking how real handled endrick, he's also only young, I don't follow other teams so I had no idea if they are loaning him keeping him etc.