Interview completed. Picture time. Now, this is Arsenal at Chelsea, remember. First vs second in the Premier League before a ball is kicked this weekend. This is serious stuff, so we’re looking for some hard-looking snapshots to accompany the article, if you like.
Except that Moises Caicedo can’t stop smiling.
Here’s an idea. Tell him who our photographer supports. Maybe this will create noise. Arsenal fans, I don’t know. They believe they will win. Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Title in May.
No luck. The smile is wider than ever.
What if we promised to send these pictures to Declan Rice to show him how bad you are?
even worse. He is laughing now.
Moises Caicedo is enjoying his life at Stamford Bridge – and can’t stop smiling
Chelsea’s 24-year-old Caicedo is one of the friendliest guys in football, soft-spoken and positively polite.
The in-form Blues midfielder sat down for an interview with Daily Mail Sport’s Kieran Gill
But then again, that’s Kaido for you. He is one of the friendliest people in football, soft-spoken and positively polite. As Chelsea’s medical team will attest, given that they haven’t treated him for anything worse than a cold since he signed two years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a bad bone in his body.
Unless you have what he wants, that is. Then, he is locked inside. got the ball? That will send you into a panic. Gave it to someone else? He will pursue it as if it is the last one left on the planet. No need to ‘cut off your feet’ like Norman Hunter. Caicedo will crunch but win it cleanly.
Daily Mail Sport is safe. Mercifully, we are not in possession, and have already made it clear that we believe he is the best of the best at that particular job. We tell him that many other people think the same thing – that he is an extraordinary ball-winner. Certainly around Chelsea, they do not believe there is a better defensive midfielder than the smiling 24-year-old killer from Ecuador.
However, Caicedo respectfully disagrees. When asked if he was the best player at his position, he simply said, ‘No.’ Then who is better? ‘So many. I don’t want to tell the world that I am the best because there is no truth in that. In my mind, I’m the best version of myself, if you know what I mean? It is a different thing when you tell the world that you are the best in the world.
‘There are a lot of good players in my position. I’m doing my best. But I need to show more because I think I can do more. With the goals, with the assists, I can feel it.
He’s patting his heart as he says this and adds: ‘I know I play in a position where I help the centre-backs, but I can do a lot more.’
The tables are turned as Kaido then asks us a question. ‘Did you watch against Tottenham?’ We actually did that. You won the ball when Jed Spence took a fancy dribbler, then troubled Xavi Simmons with a poor back pass, then tackled Mickey Van de Ven to set up Joao Pedro for the only goal of the game. ‘I believed I could get that ball back, then I did, then I made the assist. I can do that every single game. I believe in myself and I am definitely going to do it.
We ask Caicedo on Rice because one, we love midfield battles in English football and two, we want a proper rivalry since Roy Keane vs Patrick Vieira.
The midfielder has been an integral part of Chelsea’s strong start to the Premier League campaign
Caicedo believes he can add more goals and assists to his game, and it’s showing on the pitch
Your traditional midfielder used to be an all-purpose player, but football has evolved since then. Now, they have specific roles, and Caicedo is the No. 6 while Rice is the No. 8. The good news for us neutrals is that they are likely to be in each other’s arena on Sunday.
Caicedo tells us he heard what Rice said after Arsenal’s Champions League win over Bayern Munich. How they voted him into their PFA Team of the Year last season. How good he thinks he is.
As Caicedo explains, the feeling is mutual: ‘Declan, everyone knows how good he is. It will be a great war, me and him. It’s very nice, very special and like he said, we play in different situations.
‘People compare him and me but I am very happy that he is doing really well. I love watching him play because he’s so good. I want to play against the best defensive and attacking midfielders in the world and he is one of them. I am waiting. It’s good that people compare us, but we are not fighting. He wants to do well. I am going to fight. I am ready. Everyone is ready. I’m looking forward to it.’
Caicedo initially struggled at Chelsea and yes, he saw the messages.
Hope you have kept the receipt. Never worth £115 million. British record flop. There were thousands of jokes on social media, particularly from Arsenal and Liverpool fans, after their clubs failed to sign him when he eventually left Brighton.
Religious, his favorite Bible passage is Joshua 1:9, which reads: ‘Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid; Do not despair, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ He stuck to those words, telling his critics: ‘I would be lying if I told you it wasn’t hard. It was difficult because I wanted to tell them that now is the time but I preferred to do that rather than talk.
Caicedo believes it was luck rather than Sunday’s opponents that led him to sign for Chelsea. ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ he says of how close he came to joining Arsenal before Chelsea. ‘I almost did it but now I’m here and very happy. Time was good.
His clash with Declan Rice will be the main talking point when Chelsea face Arsenal on Sunday
Caicedo was initially branded a flop by some fans after £115m move – but not anymore
He came close to a move to Arsenal and also rejected a £111 million bid from Liverpool to join Chelsea.
‘I waited until Chelsea came for me. People laughed. He said that I chose the wrong place, but sometimes you need time to adjust to a big team. I needed it.
‘I want to give everything to this club because they never doubted me. I chose Chelsea because they have ambitions. I want to win trophies – more trophies with this club.
Caicedo won the Conference League and then the Club World Cup. Can you win the Premier League and Champions League here? ‘Sure. It’s time. We are in a good direction, we want to keep it going and we will get there.
Caicedo also rejected a £111 million bid from Liverpool to join Chelsea, whose co-sporting director is Paul Winstanley, previously Brighton’s head of recruitment, having originally helped bring him to England from Independiente del Valle in Ecuador. ‘Never had a doubt, I was always blue,’ Row says.
Scroll back to Caicedo’s first upload on Instagram and you’ll find a photo of her with her mother, Carmen, and her father, Mauricio, at an airport in Ecuador in July 2017. The caption was: ‘Parents, one day you will be proud of me, I promise.’
Caicedo remembers it well. ‘This was my first flight,’ he tells us. ‘We had to play a tournament with the Independents in the United States. It was very special to me that my parents were there to say goodbye, because I had never left my country. I wanted to remember that moment.
‘That text came from my heart, that’s why I put it on Instagram. I want to be the same boy I was when I was growing up because my parents always told me, “First you are a human being and then a footballer”. You never forget where you come from.’
While in England we had jumpers for the goalposts, they used piles of stones in Santo Domingo. He grew up with the nickname ‘El Nino Moi’ (Little Boy Moi) as the youngest of seven brothers and two sisters in a deprived environment and wanted to become a footballer to take care of all those he loved. Now a father to Zoe Noelia, who turned one last week, Caicedo feels a higher purpose. He says, ‘You know what it’s like to be a father, you do everything for your children.’ ‘Now, I can feel it. My parents are coming to that airport, I will do the same for my daughter.
There have been times when Caicedo could leave a game, yet he is always available
Caicedo showcased his talent at Brighton but has progressed his game since moving on
The Ecuadorian player is not lacking in confidence and neither is Chelsea’s confidence ahead of Sunday’s game
Claude Makelele says his position should be renamed the ‘Caicedo role’. This is high praise, and there has been talk of a new deal as reward for his performances at Chelsea.
Obviously, Caicedo can’t go too deep into that topic. His contract runs until 2031 – 2032 if we count the one-year option – and it’s natural that the world’s biggest clubs are sometimes linked with mega-money moves. What he can say is: ‘I would like to stay here for a long time. I want to continue playing like this but get even better. I want more trophies with this club.
There have been times when Caicedo could leave a game and still be available forever. Either he never has problems, or he’s the Terminator. He tells us that knee problems have been troubling him for some time now but not to the point where he wants to die: ‘I feel pain sometimes. I’m playing with the pain but I’m not gonna stop until I break. I never give up. I am used to playing like this.
Caicedo is not lacking in confidence ahead of Sunday’s game, and neither are Chelsea.
They defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final. They beat Barcelona in the Champions League this week. Also beat him. Arsenal are really starting to believe they will win this Premier League game, so we ask Caicedo if they could issue a reality check at Stamford Bridge.
‘Why not?’ Goes north. ‘They’re doing really well, but we haven’t encountered them yet.’
He is naturally smiling while saying this.
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