It wasn't Antonio Valencia who tipped us off about Caicedo. Valencia made comments once United's interest became known in South America, and Ecuador in particular regarding Caicedo. And he was then asked about the player and all he said was something along the lines of, he'd like to see a fellow Ecuadorian representing United and hoped the move came to fruition. That then turned into a headline that Valencia has recommended Caicedo to United.
We couldn't sign him because it was said that their was multiple agents involved in the deal. And Matt Judge who was the head of transfer negotiations at the time didn't proceed with the deal. But if your head of South American scouting is sold on the player and that is reciprocated by the head of global scouting, then you should pull out the stops and back your scouts.
Brighton did end up signing him and it was said that due to Brighton having had previous dealings with the club and agents in question, they managed to sign the player. And it's not a surprise that Brighton managed to sign the player because they cast their net far and wide and South America is a particular target for them. So a club who targets South American players, is always going to have a advantage due to the experience they will garner in the region. And South America in particular is a continent that is historically a hot-bed for some of the best talent in the world.
I was listening to a podcast where the discussion was centred around Real Madrid and their recruitment of young South American players. And it was said that Real Madrid have a advantage in that region because their head of scouting grew up in South America and over the years has built up relationships with agents, players and the family of those players in South America
And that scout is someone that goes by the name of Juni Calafat. And he's worked his way up at Real Madrid from the youth development side since 2013, and is currently their head of recruitment.
It was reported in April 2022, that John Murtough had replaced the out-going heads of scouting with a Argentine head scout by the name of Jose Mayorga. There isn't alot of information about Mayorga, but what we do know is that he's got a long history of being a scout in South America. And it'll be interesting to see what Mayorga will conjure up now that he's in a position of authority at the top of the scouting pyramid.