Kendry Paez is a professional footballer who will be joining Chelsea in 2025 for a transfer fee of £17 million.
The Blues have emphasised building for the future in recent years, with wonderkids such as Estevao Willian also signing the dotted line.
Like Estevao, Paez was too young to move to London this summer, so he will have to wait until the 2025/26 season to make his Chelsea debut.
That is not an issue, though, as the youngster is developing well in Ecuador, progressing from the under-17 team to the senior international side in the space of a year.
Indeed, he played alongside Moises Caicedo at the 2024 Copa America and became the second-youngest scorer in the competition’s history after his penalty against Jamaica.
The signing of Paez is one that Blues supporters should be really excited about, so the Chelsea Chronicle tells you everything you need to know about him below.
Profile
Kendry Paez age
Ray Kendry Paez Andrade was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador on May 4, 2007. He joined local team Barcelona de Guayaquil’s academy in 2012 before leaving in 2015.
Kendry Paez height
Paez is five feet, nine inches tall (1.75 metres), slightly below average for a footballer. He is the same height as Mykhailo Mudryk and only Pedro Neto and Marc Cucurella are shorter in the Blues’ first team.
Kendry Paez position
Paez is similar to Chelsea’s best player, Cole Palmer, in that he can play as either a central attacking midfielder or on the right wing. The 17-year-old is also left-footed and likes to cut inside onto his stronger foot when playing out wide.
Kendry Paez shirt number
Paez currently wears the number 16 shirt for his club, Independiente del Valle, having worn the number 55 in his earlier days with the first team. The Ecuadorian wears the iconic number 10 shirt for his national team.
Career
Kendry Paez stats
Paez’s stats are extremely impressive for a player of his age. The youngster has provided six goals and three assists in 18 starts in the Ecuador Serie A this season.
He has also registered five goal contributions in 13 games for the senior national team, developing into one of their most important players.
Kendry Paez transfer value
Paez has a transfer value of £10m, according to Transfermarkt, which suggests that Chelsea overpaid for him by spending £17m. However, that is simply not the case as the playmaker’s value will rise exponentially when he adapts to the Premier League.
Kendry Paez EA Sports FC 24 rating
Paez was not in FIFA 23 but he is in this year’s game, EA Sports FC 24. The Independiente player is a central attacking midfielder with a current rating of 71 and a potential rating of 87. His best attributes include agility (82), sprint speed (81) and short pass (74).
Paez will surely receive an upgrade to his rating in next season’s game, perhaps seeing him up to around 74 with the potential to reach 90.
Kendry Paez Football Manager 2024
Paez is one of the best youngsters in the game, Football Manager 2024. According to FM Scout, he is the same level of wonderkid as Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho and Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola.
Social Media
Kendry Paez Instagram
You can find Paez on Instagram under the handle @kendrypaez.10. He has over 700,000 followers, including Palmer, Caicedo and Wesley Fofana, and his bio reads: ‘Kendry PA’.
Kendry Paez Twitter
Paez has over 23,000 followers on his Twitter/X account: @PaezKendry10.
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