Liverpool beaten to transfer as Chelsea agree Ecuador centre-back deal

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A day after reliable reports of Liverpool’s interest in Ecuadorian centre-back Deinner Ordonez, Chelsea have agreed a pre-contract deal to sign the teenage talent. The Mail‘s Lewis Steele reported on Thursday that Liverpool were scouting Independiente Del Valle youngster Ordonez.

But while Liverpool may have hoped to secure an early deal for Ordonez – who cannot move to the UK until January 2028 when he is 18 – those hopes have now been dashed. Chelsea agree deal for Deinner Ordonez It has now been widely reported that Ordonez will instead join Chelsea, with transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano writing on X that the agreement was reached on Friday.

Who Liverpool could target next: 8 centre-backs linked Clearly any deal for Ordonez would have been supplementary rather than part of Liverpool’s immediate first-team plans, with the Premier League champions still expected to sign at least one new centre-back. Those include Ordonez’s countryman and namesake, Club Brugge’s Joel Ordonez, along with Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck, Bayern Munich‘s Dayot Upamecano, Wolfsburg’s Konstantinos Koulierakis and Sporting CP duo Ousmane Diomande and Zeno Debast.