Kendry Paez has signed with Chelsea on a permanent deal. This makes the first summer acquisition of the London club a fact. The midfielder is taken over from Independiente del Valle and is said to have cost twenty million euros. He does not come to England until he is eighteen.
Chelsea continues where it left off: first million-dollar purchase
In the past two transfer windows, Chelsea spent more than six hundred million euros in transfer fees. That strategy did not have the desired effect. The Blues also fired Graham Potter after Thomas Tuchel and his replacement Frank Lampard was also unable to save the furniture. Chelsea finished twelfth in the Premier League and will therefore not play European football next season.
The disappointing sporting results do not prevent the club management from investing a lot of money again this summer. Paez is known as a great talent in Ecuador. The midfielder is only sixteen years old and already made his debut in the first team of Independiente. According to Sky Sports, an amount of twenty million euros is involved in the transfer.
Chelsea gives Paez another two years to mature in his home country. He will only come to London after his eighteenth birthday. The Premier League club describes the player on the club website as: “One of the brightest and most creative young talents around, thanks to his combination of skillful dribbling along with vision and technique.”
Plot twist: not Chelsea, but PSG gets very expensive Sporting player
The transfer to Chelsea seemed almost complete, but is not happening: it is Paris Saint-Germain that is taking Manuel Ugarte. The 22-year-old midfielder from Sporting moves to Paris for sixty million euros.
This is reported by L’Equipe. According to several Portuguese media, Chelsea seemed to win the battle for Ugarte. What exactly happened is not entirely clear. It is clear that PSG is the club that will bring in Ugarte for sixty million. This is the transfer fee stated in the player’s contract.
Ugarte is the first summer reinforcement for PSG, should it all continue now. The midfielder still had a contract in Lisbon until the summer of 2026 and was in the interest of several European clubs.
