Felipe Caicedo: Player Profile

Hey, what’s more popular to fans than the young, full-of-promise player? Oh, right. At any rate, Ecuadorian supporters hope Felipe Caicedo can become the Next Best Thing.

Felipe Caicedo’s inclusion in coach Luis Suarez’s selection for the March 1 friendly against the Netherlands has received a lot of attention in Ecuador. Caicedo is a promising striker who won’t turn 18 until a few months after the World Cup ends. He’s not the most creatively-named Caicedo ecuaplayer—that would be Darwin Caicedo, natch—but he could be the future goal-scorer of the national team.

Caicedo grooved onto the South American scene at last year’s U-17 World Cup qualifiers. He scored several goals and helped Ecuador finish third out of ten teams. Big and strong for his age, Caicedo was compared by some to Adriano. Heady praise for the then-16-year-old.

Some European clubs took notice of Caicedo, and he eventually joined FC Basel of Switzerland at the end of last summer. He’s not been playing with FC Basel’s first team, but considering his age and the quality of the FC Basel first team, there’s no shame in that.

Caicedo’s first appearance for La Tri came last year in a friendly against Italy played in the USA. He came into the match as a sub and made his presence felt. That’s generally what I hope Caicedo can do in the upcoming Netherlands friendly: come off of the bench, maybe start the second half, and continue to show some of the potential he’s been flashing for the past several months.

His real impact may not be seen until 2010 qualifying starts, but kudos to Coach Suarez for including the young Caicedo on the squad for next week.