Belgium have one foot in the Ecuador
Plus: an update from SCOUTED HQ and on England's Spanish-spec talent
This is The Shortlist, your free weekly dispatch of short-form stories from the editorial team at SCOUTED: Tom Curren, Jake Entwistle and Llew Davies.
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The Technical Area
Dispatches from SCOUTED HQ, by Tom Curren
Hello! It’s been a while since I broke down the behind-the-scenes action at the magazine, so thought I’d take the small international lull as an opportunity to do so.
Our summer subscription drive ran until the end of August. We began June at around 670 paid subscribers, and are currently sitting at more than 880 - some way from our lofty goal of 1000, but still a very significant (and crucial) increase.
I’ve been a bit reticent to publicise our financial position in recent times, because it reveals our...naïvety, I suppose. And that is of course reflective of who we are: writers, scouts and analysts with real expertise in crafting engaging long-form stories, but no experience in or knowledge of how to successfully sell it. I had hoped for a long time that simply being good would be enough to convince readers to support us in another numbers to reach that magic point of sustainability, but alas, t’was not.
So we’ve had to learn, and change, and adapt to a world that frankly no longer flocks to read long-form stories en-masse just because they’re there. I remain optimistic: the total number of people we need to attract to keep this going remains quite small.
We’re experimenting with some paid ad spend from our limited budget, which has been delivering pretty good results so far. Perhaps some of you might be reading this newsletter having found us via one such ad: if so, welcome! Please tell you friends.
Otherwise, I just wanted to remind anyone reading that we have different tiers of memberships available to those with more resources to send our way. I am contacted every week by readers who would like to subscribe but simply can’t afford it. Our prices are already too low: as low as we can possibly keep them, and certainly much lower than the value we provide to our professional readership, as they often remind me. But when those in more privileged financial positions sign up at higher tiers, we can offer free and complimentary subscriptions to students and those on lower wages, and keep SCOUTED as accessible to as many people as possible.
So please, if you’re able, upgrade your membership with us so we can keep the lights on, pay our team fairly, and give out more complimentary subscriptions to those who need them. Thanks so much.
I’ll be back with more updates soon!
An update on Kiano Dyer, England’s Spanish-spec midfielder
Llew Davies
All summer long, I had my beady eye out for one name in particular: Kiano Dyer. It didn’t crop up right until the very end when I had lost all hope of spotting it. When it eventually did, it came in the form of signing a new contract at Chelsea and sealing a loan move to Volendam.
The first bit was important for Chelsea: accustomed to losing home-grown talent, they managed to convince the 18-year-old that his development was best served under their ownership. The next bit was interesting for Dyer: the loan to Volendam is his first proper step into senior football, a timely follow up to his first-team debut in Kazakhstan last December.
If you’ve been a SCOUTED reader for long enough, you should recognise Dyer as England’s ‘Spanish-spec’ midfielder. He was the subject of SCOUT NOTES in November 2024, where I wrote:
The deepest of England’s midfield three, Dyer created that triangle with the centre-backs to help build play from the back. He’s of a smaller stature with a slight frame but makes up for it with a razor-sharp mobility. He flashes across five yards, cuts through pressure, and lasers into space. That flash-cut-laser style was characteristic of his passing too – he was great at spotting and executing little 10-yarders that fed team-mates inside Belgium’s block. They’re the sort of passes someone like Martín Zubimendi does.
Llew Davies
In the summer just gone, he featured in our Team of the Tournament for the UEFA U-19 EURO. I sort of crowbarred him in due to the lack of outstanding alternatives, but he did perform to a high level and he did showcase his eye-catching talents.
Time will tell whether the loan to Volendam is a good one. It would have been perfect were Wim Jonk still in charge, but, nowadays, their football has shifted to being more pragmatic. They average just 39.8% possession four matches into the season, although two of those were against Ajax and AZ Alkmaar. That said, the Eredivisie – with its emphasis on the technical and tactical, rather than the physical – is among the most suitable top-flight leagues he could have moved to.
This is an exciting step for an extraordinary English talent, and I’m really interested to see how he handles it.
Belgium have one foot in the Ecuador
Jake Entwistle
I have tried to watch as many Ecuador games as possible since stumbling across Joel Ordóñez as part of the European Nights Watchlist feature last season.
Now in his fifth year in Belgium - we’ll get back to that later - Ordóñez is one of many players developed by the famous Independiente del Valle academy, a club that has produced the likes of Moisés Caicedo, Kendry Páez, Willian Pacho and Piero Hincapié. This week, all five players featured in the final two games of the notorious CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying campaign.
Ecuador just lost two of their 18 matches, away to Brazil and Argentina, conceding just five goals in total. La Tri finished with a 1-0 win against reigning champions of the world, Argentina, and a run of five consecutive clean sheets. It was ahead of their last run of five consecutive clean sheets that we last checked in.
I watched the majority of the first half (it was very late) and noticed two things. The first: it is so obvious why Arsenal have signed Piero Hincapié. He was able to reprise the role of Flyer, steaming past teammates on the overlap and the underlap, but he was also comfortable picking up half-space pockets should he not receive a pass for his initial run. In defence, he was intense and aggressive - but those traits define the entire Ecuador team.
The second thing that caught my eye was the player ahead of Hincapié. Nilson Angulo’s opening 30 minutes was straight out of a Joga Bonito advert. It was a display defined by uninhibited individual expression and he made it his personal mission to embarrass the opposition. Mission accomplished.
I instantly made him one of my Sofascore Starred Boys and will be heavily invested in the 22-year-old’s season for RSC Anderlecht. Wait. That’s another senior Ecuador international under the age of 23 playing in Belgium. Hold on. Pacho’s first European club was Royal Antwerp. Even Moisés Caicedo spent half a season on loan at Beerschot. These Pro League clubs are smart.
Bence Bocsák
So smart, in fact, Pro League clubs generated a record-breaking total of €381m through league exports during the 2025 summer window. This represented a 21.3% increase on the previous record set last year. Now this Ecuador super team might help them break it for a third year in a row.
Reports of Chelsea, Inter and Aston Villa scouts all watching Ordóñez during the international break have surfaced this week. Another strong showing for Club Brugge under those European Night lights before an eye-catching 2026 World Cup campaign could make him a €40m player. Meanwhile, a breakout Pro League campaign followed by more individual brilliance at the World Cup from Angulo could help Belgium clubs smash through the €400m player sale barrier.
Looking ahead to next summer, Sebastián Beccacece has transformed Ecuador into a formidable opponent that no national will enjoy playing against, a young squad that could make national history. Ordóñez was two years old and Angulo was four the last (and only) time Ecuador made it to the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup in 2006.
Back then, Antonio Valencia and the late Christian ‘Chucho’ Benítez were the youngest players in that squad and two of just four aged 23 or under; Beccacece’s squad for the most recent international break included 13. 10 of those were handed a squad number and four of those currently play in Belgium.
Do not be surprised if Ecuador make the final eight next summer. Belgian clubs certainly won’t be.
If you want more on Ecuador, give Jack Lang’s latest piece a read if you can. You’ll learn a lot more about the Beccacece in particular.
That’s all, folks. See you next Friday.
For everything on the next generation, stay tuned to SCOUTED.
