Interview complete. Picture time. Now, this is Arsenal at Chelsea, remember. First versus second in the Premier League before a ball has been kicked this weekend. It is serious stuff, so we are after some stern-looking snaps to go with the write-up, if you please.
Except, Moises Caicedo cannot stop smiling.
Here’s an idea. Tell him who our photographer supports. Perhaps that’ll produce a snarl. Arsenal fan, don’tcha know. Reckons they will win. Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Title in May.
No luck. The smile is only wider than it was.
What if we promise to send these pictures to Declan Rice to show how mean you are?
Even worse. He’s laughing now.
Moises Caicedo is enjoying the form of his life at Stamford Bridge – and cannot stop smiling
Chelsea’s Caicedo, 24, is one of football’s friendlier souls, softly spoken and positively polite
The in-form Blues midfielder sat down for an interview with Daily Mail Sport’s Kieran Gill
But then, that’s Caicedo for you. He is one of football’s friendlier souls, softly spoken and positively polite. As Chelsea’s medical team would attest, given they’ve hardly treated him for anything worse than a cold since he signed two years ago, you will struggle to find a bad bone in his body.
Unless you have what he wants, that is. Then, he’s locked in. Got the ball? He will press you into a panic. Passed it to someone else? He will chase it like it’s the last one left on the planet. No need to ‘bite yer legs’ like Norman Hunter. Caicedo will crunch but win it cleanly.
Daily Mail Sport is safe. We are not in possession, mercifully, and have already made clear we reckon he’s the best of the best at that particular task. We tell him plenty others think the same – that he’s a ball-winner extraordinaire. Certainly around Chelsea, they do not believe there is a better defensive midfielder than this 24-year-old smiling assassin from Ecuador.
Caicedo, though, respectfully disagrees. ‘No,’ he says simply when asked if he is the best player in his position. Who’s better, then? ‘So many. I don’t want to say to the world that I’m the best because there’s no truth to that. In my mind, I’m the best version of myself, if you know what I mean? It’s different when you say you are the best in the world to the world.
‘There are so many good players in my position. I’m doing my best. But I need to show more because I feel like I can do more. With goals, with assists, I can feel it.’
He’s tapping his gut as he says this and continues: ‘I know I play in a position where I help the centre backs, but I can do more.’
The tables are turned as Caicedo then asks us a question instead. ‘You saw against Tottenham?’ We did indeed. You won the ball when Djed Spence fancied himself a dribbler, then hounded Xavi Simons into a poor back pass, then tackled Micky van de Ven to set up Joao Pedro for the game’s only goal. ‘I believed I could get that ball back, then I did, then I made an assist. I can do that in every single game. I believe in myself and, for sure, I’m going to do it.’
We ask Caicedo on Rice because one, we love a midfield battle in English football and two, we have been craving a proper rivalry ever since Roy Keane versus Patrick Vieira.
The midfielder has been integral to Chelsea’s strong start to the Premier League campaign
Caicedo believes he can add more goals and assists to his game, and it’s showing on the pitch
Your traditional midfielder used to be an all-purpose player, but football has evolved since then. Now, they have specific roles, and Caicedo is a No 6 while Rice is more of a No 8. The good news for us neutrals is that means they are likelier to be in each others’ territories on Sunday.
Caicedo tells us he heard what Rice said after Arsenal’s Champions League win over Bayern Munich. How he voted for him last season in his PFA Team of the Year. How good he thinks he is.
The feeling is mutual as Caicedo explains: ‘Declan, everybody knows how good he is. It will be a great battle, me and him. It’s very nice, very special and like he said, we play in different positions.
‘People compare him and myself but I’m so happy he’s doing really well. I enjoy watching him play because he’s so good. I want to play against the best defensive and attacking midfielders in the world and he’s one of them. I’m waiting. It’s nice that people compare us, but we are not fighting. He wants to do well. I’m going to fight. I’m ready. Everybody is ready. I’m looking forward to it.’
Caicedo initially struggled at Chelsea and, yes, he saw the messages.
Hope you kept the receipt. Never worth £115million. British record flop. The jibes arrived in their thousands on social media, particularly from Arsenal and Liverpool fans after their clubs were unsuccessful in signing him when he finally left Brighton.
Religious, his favoured Bible passage is Josue 1:9, reading: ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ He stayed true to those words as he explains on his critics: ‘If I told you it wasn’t hard then I would be lying. It was hard because I wanted to tell them that it’s about time but I preferred to do it rather than talk.’
Caicedo believes it was fate he signed for Chelsea rather than Sunday’s opponents. ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ he says on how close he came to joining Arsenal before Chelsea. ‘I almost did it but now I’m here and I’m so happy. The timing was good.
His battle with Declan Rice will be a key talking point when Chelsea face Arsenal on Sunday
Caicedo was initially labelled a flop by some fans after his £115m move – but not any more
He came close to moving to Arsenal and also snubbed Liverpool’s £111m bid to join Chelsea
‘I waited until Chelsea came for me. People laughed. They said I chose the wrong place, but sometimes you need time to adapt to a big team. I needed that.
‘I want to give everything to this club because they didn’t doubt me. I chose Chelsea because they have ambitions. I want to win trophies – more trophies with this club.’
Caicedo won the Conference League then the Club World Cup. Can you win Premier Leagues and Champions Leagues here? ‘For sure. It’s time. We are in a good direction, we want to continue like this, and we are going to get there.’
Caicedo also snubbed Liverpool’s £111m bid to join Chelsea, whose co-sporting director is Paul Winstanley, previously Brighton’s head of recruitment who originally helped bring him to England from Independiente del Valle in Ecuador. ‘Never in doubt, I was always a Blue,’ goes the line.
Scroll back to Caicedo’s first-ever upload on Instagram and you will find a snap of him in July 2017 with his mother, Carmen and his father, Mauricio, at an airport in Ecuador. The caption was: ‘Parents, one day you will be proud of me, I promise.’
Caicedo remembers it well. ‘It was my first time flying,’ he tells us. ‘We had to play in the United States with Independiente in a tournament. It was so special to me that my parents were there, to say goodbye, because I had never left my country. I wanted to remember that moment.
‘That text, it left from my heart, that’s why I put that on Instagram. I want to be the same guy as when I was as a kid because my parents always told me, “First you are a human and then a footballer”. You never forget where you came from.’
While we had jumpers for goalposts in England, he used piles of stones in Santo Domingo. He grew up with the nickname ‘El Nino Moi’ (Little Boy Moi) as the youngest of seven brothers and two sisters in destitute surroundings and wanted to become a footballer to take care of all those he loved. Now a father himself to Zoe Noelia, who turned one last week, Caicedo senses a higher purpose. ‘You know how it is being a dad, you do everything for your children,’ he says. ‘Now, I can feel it. My parents coming to that airport, I would do the same for my daughter.’
There have been times when Caicedo could have skipped a game, yet he is forever available
Caicedo showcased his talents at Brighton but has taken strides in his game since moving on
The Ecuadorian is not lacking in confidence going into Sunday’s game and nor are Chelsea
Claude Makelele says his position should be renamed ‘the Caicedo role’. That is high praise, and there has been talk of a new deal as a reward for his performances at Chelsea.
Understandably, Caicedo cannot delve too deep into that topic. He is contracted until 2031 as it is – 2032 if we count the one-year option – and it is only natural that the world’s biggest clubs are occasionally linked with a mega-money move. What he can say is: ‘I would like to be here for a long time. I want to keep playing like this but get even better. I want more trophies with this club.’
There have been times when Caicedo could have skipped a game and yet he is forever available. Either he never picks up problems, or he is the Terminator. He tells us a knee issue has been bugging him of late but not enough to ever say die: ‘I feel pain sometimes. I’ve been playing with pain but I’m not going to stop until I break. I never give up. I get used to playing like this.’
Caicedo is not lacking in confidence going into Sunday’s game and nor are Chelsea.
They beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final. They beat Barcelona in the Champions League this week. Thrashed them, even. Arsenal are really beginning to believe they will win this Premier League, so we ask Caicedo whether they can issue a reality check at Stamford Bridge.
‘Why not?’ goes the answer. ‘They are doing really well, but we haven’t faced them yet.’
Naturally, he is smiling as he says so.
