The Premier League season may have just ended, but the race is already on to see which team can crack Manchester City’s positively dominant run at England’s footballing zenith.

Manager Pep Guardiola has led the Citizens to a record four straight titles. They ultimately outlasted a pair of excellent Arsenal and Liverpool teams, making the Premier League look increasingly like a foregone conclusion when the new campaign starts each August. 

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If we’re looking solely at the 2024-25 season to come, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal probably has the best shot at dethroning Man City. But glancing slightly further afield, Chelsea has quietly assembled a collection of young talents that arguably have the highest ceiling of any Premier League team’s five-year plan, so to speak. 

I know, a big surprise I’m flying the blue flag once again in this column, but at a certain point, what Chelsea has done in the transfer market is undeniable. 

Cole Palmer just won the Premier League’s Young Player of the Season award for 2023-24 on the back of his absurd 22-goal and 11-assist debut season in London. Moisés Caicedo finally appears to have found his confidence as Chelsea’s lockdown defensive midfielder of the season, scoring his first goal for the club with a belter from the halfway line in the final match of the season. 

I can also point to Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke’s quietly good numbers. Plus, players just keep coming down the pipeline, following the signing of 17-year-old Brazilian winger Estêvão Willian from Palmeiras, whose Brazilian nickname is literally “Messinho” — little Messi. And keep in mind, for Brazilians to give one of their own an Argentinian namesake, he must be really good. 

But amid all this hype, there’s one player the general soccer-watching public probably doesn’t know yet who I believe has the ceiling to win not just a future Young Player of the Season award but secure Premier League Player of the Season and score league-clinching goals à la City’s Phil Foden. 

Kendry Páez hails from Guayaquil, Ecuador — not historically known as a South American soccer hotspot — but found himself in the academy system of Independiente del Valle. This club has only won one Ecuadorian Serie A title in its history but has recently developed a number of young Ecuadorian players, including Páez’s future teammate Caicedo. 

Chelsea have already purchased the right to employ Páez when he turns 18 and becomes eligible to move to England, at which point experts expect him to immediately contribute to Chelsea’s first-team squad.

Fans will have to wait a little while longer to see him in royal blue, considering he just turned 17 this month and therefore will spend another full season in Ecuador. If Páez manages to start on the first day of the 2025-26 season as a still fresh-faced 18-year-old, don’t be surprised.

Despite his youth, Páez already has an abundance of high-profile appearances at both club and international levels. For Independiente del Valle, the winger-slash-attacking midfielder has scored 10 goals in 45 appearances, including a goal and an assist against Estêvão and Endrick’s Palmeiras in the Copa Libertadores tournament — South America’s equivalent of the Champions League. 

Naturally, he advanced rapidly through Ecuador’s youth national teams, playing for both the U-17 squad in the South American championship and the FIFA U-20 World Cup in the summer of 2023. He was the youngest goalscorer in the history of the latter tournament at just 16 years and 22 days old. It was an easy goal for any aspiring professional — a one-versus-one with a completely exposed goalkeeper — but when the camera pans to Páez’s delighted face, his smile still adorned with braces, his youth stands out even among his still-developing peers. 

The next step? Becoming Ecuador’s youngest-ever player for the senior national team. In fact, Páez nearly broke Diego Maradona’s South American record for the youngest player to ever play for a senior national team, missing the cut by just 11 days. You, dear reader, can probably keep writing the script from there. He scored against Bolivia — a cool, perfectly placed left-footed strike — in the South American World Cup qualifying and, of course, became the most youthful player to ever score for La Tri. 

Páez’s resume is already mind-blowing. He’s set the expectations for his future sky-high, and while it may be hard for American or English fans to regularly watch Ecuadorian soccer, he will almost certainly find himself on the plane to the United States this summer to play with his national team in the Copa America tournament. 

American Chelsea supporters could be in for a real treat come June. Ecuador drew Mexico in the group stage, setting up a June 30 match between Páez’s side and the U.S.’ sworn rivals. Just imagine it: Páez, cutting in sharply from the right wing, smashing the ball with his left foot into the top corner, putting El Tri firmly in second place in Group B. 

Sounds like a beautiful sight to me. 

Jack Hallinan is a rising senior writing about the top wunderkinds in men’s and women’s soccer in his column, “Rising Ballers,” which runs every other Wednesday. He is also the Talkin’ Troy Podcast Editor at the Daily Trojan.