Chelsea have a verbal agreement in place to sign Ecuadorian wonderkid Kendry Paez from Independiente del Valle.
The 15-year-old midfielder could join the Blues in a deal worth more than £17.5million if all performance-related add-ons are met and the agreement is legally formalised.
Paez will not be able to join Chelsea until he turns 18 in the summer of 2025 and the required paperwork still needs to be finalised.
But Chelsea are believed to have beaten Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund to the signing of Paez, having outbid their rivals for one of the biggest talents in South America.
Paez came to the attention of Europe’s elite clubs after being named the outstanding player at the 2022 Next Generation Trophy tournament in Austria.
He was then promoted to the first-team set-up at Independiente, the club from whom Brighton signed Moises Caicedo in 2021, becoming their youngest player and goalscorer on his debut in the Ecuadorian first division in February.
Paez plays for Ecuador’s Under-17s and has been earmarked to move up to their U20 team in the near future.
Chelsea hope to have a multi-club network set up by the time he joins, which would allow Paez to play in Europe before his move to Stamford Bridge.
