If you don’t know who Kendry Páez is by now, it’s likely that will change sooner rather than later as the Chelsea youngster continues to be backed as the next big thing.
For those that don’t know, Páez is a 16-year-old midfielder currently making waves in his native Ecuador with Independiente.
He’s been putting in a series of impressive performances for them as well as already making his debut for the Ecuadorian national team, bagging an assist on his debut vs Uruguay and then a goal in a 2-1 win over Bolivia a month later.
He’s set to join Chelsea in 2025, with the Blues moving for him earlier this year to wrap up a deal as quickly as possible and get him ahead of the competition.
Since then, there has been something of a hype developing around the youngster, with media in Europe and South America continuing to laud him as the next big thing.
That was certainly the case last month when we covered comments from journalist Eduardo Jijón when he covered the player and urged caution, despite admitting it was probably too late for it anyway.
That’s a message fellow journalist Süleyman Öztürk has failed to heed, praising the Chelsea youngster today and likening him to Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham.
“He is next level. I’ve really rarely seen that,” he said, in comments relayed by Voetbal Zone.
“Kendry Páez, and he has been signed by Chelsea. And that is the greatest talent in South America. I went to take a look at them to see who Chelsea actually signed.
“I just didn’t know what I saw. You have Bellingham, you have Zaire-Emery, but that Páez… He is next level. I really rarely have that. I once had it with Mbappé, during his Monaco days.
“And I have that with Páez too. That’s really not normal. You’ll just have to remember that name. These are boys who are 16, but they could also have been 26.
“You had that at Bellingham too. He was already a starter for England at the age of 17, and we thought that was normal at the time. But that is not entirely normal for a seventeen-year-old boy to be the boss in midfield. And that also applies to Páez, for example.”
