Caicedo: Chelsea were one of the best teams I watched as a kid

To mark Moises Caicedo's 25th birthday, Chelsea have re-released an interview the midfielder gave shortly after signing for the club, in which he explained how his love for the Blues began long ago.

When Moises Caicedo was unveiled as a Chelsea player, the club's content team recreated a photo of him sitting on a car bumper with his mother Carmen, taken in Ecuador several years earlier.

In the original photo, Caicedo was in his late teens, already a young professional footballer in his home country, and was wearing Chelsea's 2020/21 home shirt.

The caption of the official announcement post read "It was always only Chelsea", hinting that Chelsea were not the only club interested in signing the Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder. But what is the story behind that Blues shirt in the 2020 photo?

"I told my old agent, I asked him if he could get me that shirt," he said. "I wanted Kante's shirt, but it was almost impossible to get. But he said: 'I'll buy you one.'"

"One day, he came to Ecuador and said: 'Look, I brought you a gift,' and it was that shirt. It was great for me, and I started wearing it. It was like a motivation for me, because Chelsea was one of the best teams I watched when I was a kid."

However, Caicedo's fascination with the all-action Blues midfielders predates Kante...

"I used to watch videos of (Claude) Makelele playing here," he added. "When I started playing in midfield, I started watching Chelsea videos. I saw some videos of Makelele, and some of Kante. They were a motivation for me to play football, because they are legends here."

Caicedo was only six when Makelele left Stamford Bridge at the end of the 2007/08 season, so he was clearly watching archive footage of Chelsea's glory years in the mid-2000s, when they won back-to-back Premier League titles. It shows how seriously he took his development, and he has dreamed of playing at the highest level ever since.

As a child, he played football on the streets of Santo Domingo, Ecuador, and his older brothers and their friends always told him he had the talent to make a name for himself.

Even when he felt he was still just learning the game, they would give him advice like: "If you want to be one of the best players in the world, you have to work hard, you have to fight, you have to train every day."

After hearing this for several years, he came to realize he had a chance.

"To be honest, they saw something in me, that I could be a top player, but I felt like I couldn't, because it was too difficult to play with them," he said. "They were really good, but my dedication and hard work made the difference. When I was a kid, my dad always told me you have to work hard to be one of the best players."

"Playing with my brothers' friends was good, but also difficult. They were older and stronger than me. They had the ball, and I would get frustrated when I couldn't win it back because they were so strong."

"But it was good for me, because I learned from them, and they were like my motivation, my inspiration. When I was a kid, they were always by my side."

Caicedo was surrounded by family from a young age. He had nine siblings, some of them close to his own age, so he never lacked teammates to play with. He also received support from local coach Ivan Guerra, who helped him prepare for competitive matches.

Eventually, one of his brothers took him for a trial at Independiente del Valle, one of Ecuador's top football clubs. It was a chance to compete with the best young talents in the country, and he successfully joined the club.

"Independiente del Valle is a big club," he said of the club from Sangolquí. "If you go there, you will find the best players in Ecuador. Their scouts are in every city in Ecuador, looking for the best players in the country."

"It's great, because the club has schools, rooms to sleep and live in, you have everything. You have good food, good facilities and training pitches. It's the best place to start. I learned a lot from them."

Independiente del Valle's academy is about a two-hour drive from Caicedo's hometown, so it was his first taste of independence, although he remained very close to his family.

On the pitch, he excelled at a club known for developing top young talent, and helped his age group win the U20 Copa Libertadores.

"We received a warm welcome in Ecuador," Caicedo recalled of the victory. "There was a 'caravana', like a really crazy party. Then they gave us a few days off to celebrate with our families."

The following winter, Caicedo was signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, having made just over 30 appearances for Independiente del Valle's first team. By then he was already an Ecuador international with huge potential, but he was only 19 and was heading to Europe during a global pandemic.

He found himself stuck in a hotel in Brighton, gazing at the stormy Channel in the British winter, more than 6,000 miles from his close-knit family. These are the unseen challenges young footballers around the world face when they move to Europe in search of opportunity.

"Those days were difficult," Moises admitted. "Really difficult, because I came here alone, without family. I didn't speak English, the time zone was different, the food was different... the weather was so different too! It was really hard for me."

"When I came, the COVID pandemic was going on, and I had to stay in the hotel for 10 days before I could go out. I didn't see my teammates. I cried every day in that hotel. I remember calling my mom and dad, telling them I wanted to go back to Ecuador, because everything was so different. I didn't want to stay here."

"They said: 'Son, you have to be strong. This is your dream. You prayed for this. So stay strong and keep praying, because God is everything in our lives.'"

"So I started doing that. Every day I prayed, and I started feeling better and better."