Better than Lamine Yamal, Chelsea FC's Kendry Páez and a world record

The South American qualifiers are underway in CONMEBOL, where this Thursday, October 12, matchday 3 took place within the framework of a path that continues to be more than exciting for the millions of fans and followers of the South American sections, who now have the motivation to have the current world champion, Lionel Messi's Argentina team, crowned in Qatar 2022, with a brilliant participation that once again brought the top FIFA trophy to this part of the world.

Some notable matches of the day were the draw between Colombia and Uruguay by 2 to 2, the victory of Argentina with Lionel Messi against Paraguay by 1 to 0 in the city of Buenos Aires, and the surprising draw of the Venezuelan team, against Neymar and Vinicius in the city of Cuiabá, a more than historic result for a country, seeking to go to the first FIFA World Cup in its history.

We also have to place the focus of this great and wonderful day of soccer in the Bolivian city of La Paz, where the Ecuadorian team defeated Bolivia, by a score of 2 to 1, who is last in the standings. In addition to this great result for Ecuador, there is a record that a Chelsea FC player, broke on the cold Bolivian night, and it is Kendry Páez, who also entered the history books of world football.

His goal against the Bolivian national team, which at that time marked the 1-0 partial for the Ecuadorian team, made him the youngest scorer in the entire history of the CONMEBOL qualifiers for a FIFA World Cup, ranking only behind the Gambian player Ebrima Ebou Sillah, who, in 1996 at 16 years and 50 days, has the podium. Kendry Páez's goal comes at just 16 years and 161 days old, something spectacular and surpasses Lamine Yamal, the Spanish and FC Barcelona jewel who scored with that country's national team in the Euro 2024 qualifiers in the rout of Spain against Georgia by 7 to 1 on September 8 at 16 years, and 57 days old, different competitions and Yamal has not yet achieved this record.

Chelsea's new jewel

As part of Chelsea FC's sporting project of signing young talents from all over the world, Kendry Páez appears as one of the outstanding men for such a mission. The London team paid 22 million euros for the talented player from Independiente del Valle of Ecuador, surpassing offers from teams like Real Madrid that stood at 16 million for him. The footballer will join the Premier League club's project in the 2025-2026 season.