Caicedo was expected to travel to Liverpool on Friday after a fee understood to be worth £111m was agreed between the Reds and Brighton; Chelsea have been pursuing midfielder all summer and were prepared to pay £100m; The Seagulls signed Caicedo for £4.5m in 2021
Friday 11 August 2023 21:22, UK
Moises Caicedo has seemingly rejected the chance to join Liverpool and wants to move to Chelsea, despite the Reds agreeing a British-record £111m fee with Brighton.
Liverpool's offer was accepted by Brighton after a midnight deadline for bids for the midfielder was set on Thursday. It is understood Chelsea were prepared to offer £100m for the player, and Bayern Munich were prepared to pay £90m.
However, although Caicedo was expected to travel to Liverpool for a medical on Friday, he had a change of heart and told the Reds he didn't want to join. He remains in London and has made it clear he only wants to leave Brighton for Chelsea, who have been pursuing him all summer.
Chelsea are yet to offer a new improved bid, and it remains to be seen whether they will.
"I have already forgotten about Moises," Brighton boss Roberto de Zerbi said. "I'm really proud of the players we have in the squad. Bigger clubs can buy our players but they can't buy our soul or spirit."
Liverpool formally submitted their proposal late on Thursday night after Caicedo seemingly indicated his willingness to move to Anfield. Liverpool were informed just after midnight that they were indeed the highest bidders.
"The fee with the club is agreed," confirmed Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. "We will see what that means. We aren't a club with endless resources and we didn't expect a couple of things to happen this summer. Then it happened."
Brighton signed Caicedo for £4.5m from Independiente del Valle in 2021.
Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher:
"If he wants to go to Chelsea, and he's given them his word and he's spoken already to the manager, doesn't want to break that promise, then you could say 'fair enough'.
"Liverpool have come in at a late stage as they didn't want to pay a certain price for Romeo Lavia. The price for Caicedo is big, but Liverpool are probably more desperate than Chelsea.
"I'm desperate for him to come to Liverpool as the need for him there is probably greater. It's going to be a big blow.
"Caicedo should always have been Liverpool's first option, and if you couldn't get him then fair enough, you move to Lavia as your second option.
"It feels like it's almost the wrong way around and they may have to now go back to Southampton and pay the £50m they want for the player."
Former Liverpool captain and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp on the Essential Football Podcast:
"I'm obviously hugely biased in this one - but this is astonishing for me!
"Normally Liverpool would always, always win this one hands down. I just thought it was inevitable. I woke up as a Liverpool fan, very happy with that one. But then to hear the news that he's turned Liverpool down… I'll believe it when I see him in a Chelsea shirt.
"I thought he would look great in that red kit. I thought he would be the perfect signing for Liverpool.
"I get the attraction of Chelsea. It's a huge club. They've won so many things over the years. But I think in terms of the history of the clubs, I'm amazed, especially with Caicedo joining up with Alexis Mac Allister, I thought it would be a perfect move.
"It certainly makes it interesting for Southampton because they'll be going, 'OK, you want Romeo Lavia, you're going to have to pay top dollar for him now. And they go cap in hand, on the phone to them saying, 'You were always our first choice and that's been proven that he wasn't'. But that's football sometimes and I'm sure that they'll have to go back in, in that respect."
Sky Sports News reporter Vinny O'Connor on Liverpool's pursuit of Moises Caicedo:
"I don't think they were overly optimistic, even this morning. There was a concern that Chelsea weren't giving up.
"We understand Bayern Munich bid around £90m, Chelsea were looking to spend £100m, but none of that matched Liverpool's bid of £111m.
"It was then expected that Caicedo would travel to Merseyside for a medical and to talk about personal terms.
"However, he had a change of heart and told Liverpool that he didn't want to join, and told Brighton that he was only looking to join Chelsea.
"Chelsea are still to come back with an improved offer and it's not clear whether Brighton will entertain any further offers.
"Caicedo remains in London, while Liverpool are in limbo."
Sky Sports' Peter Smith:
"Brighton had been insistent all summer that they wanted Moises Caicedo to stay - but the offer from Liverpool was too good to turn down for a player they paid just £4.5m for in 2021. That's some profit. And another example of great transfer business from the south coast club, following big gains they've made from players such as Alexis Mac Allister and Marc Cucurella.
"The fact the Seagulls are still expected to go on and have a big season, playing entertaining football under Roberto De Zerbi, is testament to their successful business model and how well-run they are.
"At 21, Caicedo is a player with years at the top of world football ahead of him. He ranked second for tackles and interceptions last season in the Premier League, showing he is already a leading defensive midfielder in the competition."
In the wake of his country's World Cup exit last year, when other players were jetting off to high-end holiday resorts, Moises Caicedo was back in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, playing in a local tournament on the same dusty pitch he used as a boy.
In footage which went viral in the country, Caicedo, a rising star in the Premier League who had just become Ecuador's youngest scorer at a World Cup, can be seen finding the net again, only this time as a ringer for Caicedos FC, a team made up of extended family members.
His goal, slotted in at the near post in ramshackle surroundings, helped Caicedos FC win the tournament and was celebrated with a leap, a fist pump, and a gesture of recognition to the few hundred spectators sitting or leaning on fences around the pitch.
"This is Moises," Miguel Angel Ramirez, Caicedo's former coach at his boyhood club Independiente del Valle, tells Sky Sports with a smile. "Going back to his village, to his family, his friends, playing football, helping everyone there. He doesn't forget his people..."
