(Football news) Brighton paid £4.5 million to acquire Moises Caicedo from Independiente del Valle in Ecuador in 2021; the club now values the 21-year-old midfielder at almost £100 million.

 Brighton turned down two offers from Arsenal for the player in January and a £70 million approach from Chelsea last week. Last week, the Seagulls turned down a £70 million deal from Chelsea for a player they believe is worth around £100 million.  

Brighton will try to earn over £100 million for Caicedo, who they acquired from Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle for £4.5 million in 2021, placing him in the same league as Arsenal’s record-signing Declan Rice.

The 21-year-old is rumoured to have expressed interest in joining Chelsea if a deal can be reached between the two clubs, with personal terms not believed to be an issue. 

Chelsea is currently debating whether to re-enter the market with a better offer or shift their focus to other prospects. Righton is determined to keep the player and does not want to trade him. Roberto de Zerbi, the manager of Brighton, has made it obvious that he wants Caicedo to remain.

“The Enzo Fernandez situation is interesting here. If you’re Brighton, you look at what Chelsea did with Enzo and say, ‘Hang on, you paid a fortune for him and he hadn’t had an established track record in European football’.

“Yes, he was a very good, exceptional player and played very well in the Champions League for Benfica but it was a pretty small sample size. So they’ll probably say, ‘If you were prepared to pay that, you should pay it for Caicedo’.”

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